China has improved its official Olympic website to serve the blind and deaf, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) announced on Wednesday.

Both the BOCOG website, www.olympic.cn, and the China Disabled Person's Federation (CDPF) website, www.cdpf.org.cn, were updated to enable the blind, those with low vision and the deaf to get information.

Hou Xinyi, deputy director of BOCOG's technology department, said "disabled readers can now download an easy web browsing system to surf the Internet after the improvement."

"Through this free service in both Chinese and English, the blind can get information on these two websites through a speech broadcast system. People with low vision can read the stories on these websites with the automatic enlargement system.

"The websites also feature the automatic sign language software to help people with hearing disability to get information."

The improvements were jointly launched by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the CDPF and aimed to provide timely information on the Olympics and Paralympics to the disabled.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2008)