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Bridging Web Accessibility Divide with the HearSay Browser. Slides by Yevgen Borodin (slides adapted for Psych 384, 3/3/09) Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University. A Vision for a Universally Accessible Web.
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Bridging Web Accessibility Divide with the HearSay Browser Slides by Yevgen Borodin (slides adapted for Psych 384, 3/3/09) Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University A Vision for a Universally Accessible Web
The web is designed for those who can filter out irrelevant information Search Top Stories Menu News Headlines
Non-Visual Web Browsing • Jaws, Windows Eyes, Hal • Serial audio interface • Shortcut-driven navigation in HTML DOM-tree • Navigation between links, headers, lines, etc. • Inaccessible images, links, multimedia, etc.
How blind people browse the web • Landmarks • Searches • List of links • Headings • Structure • Speed of speech • Static sites [Bigham, et. al., ASSETS’07]
What is HearSay? • Started: • Motivated by work in AI • Information extraction from web pages • Process modeling • Added an audio interface • Now : • Working with HKSB and HKNC • Collaborate with IBM, UW • Several faculty members, Ph.D., MS., undergrad
HearSay 3 • Free!!! • Multi-platform • Focused on Web browsing • Flexible multimodalinterface • Supports text-to-speech engines • Supports voice recognition engines
Improving navigation would make web browsing more efficient. • Segment pages • Identify patterns • Add 2D navigation • Summarize content • All this helps, but... Search Top Stories News Headlines
Project Goals • Filter out irrelevant information • Discover relevant information • Provide quick access to relevant content • Evaluate the usability of HearSay • Compare HearSay to other screen readers • Distribute a stable version of the program for free
Scenarios • Relevancy in Ad-hoc Web Browsing • Relevancy when Web content changes • Relevancy in Online Transactions (e.g. shopping, paying bills) • But what is relevant?
Manual Annotations of Content (the user could tell us what is relevant) Search Button Beginning of Main Content
Needed for Manual Labeling: • Provide an interface for creating annotations • Store annotations in a database • Query the database when the page loads • Apply the metadata to the page • Provide an interface for reviewing the annotations
Collaborative authoring of accessibility metadata • [Takagi et al, 2008] • Social network connecting end-users and volunteers • [http://socialaccessibility.alphaworks.ibm.com/] • Accessibility Commons (AC) DB to store metadata • [Kawanaka, Borodin et al, 2008] • Web-based infrastructure for sharing metadata
Benefits of Social Accessibility • Shortens the time for accessibility renovations • Supported: headings, ALT tags, and titles • Workshop at UW – formed a consortium • Defined the Accessibility Commons DB schema • Identified the object addressing methods: XPath, MD5, URI
Labeling content • Non-visual web transactions are difficult • Consider all problems with non-visual browsing • Need to locate relevant concepts (buttons and links) • Relevant concepts are similar across websites • Some variations, e.g. “add to cart”, “add to bag” • Different labels, e.g. “Search”, “Go”, “Find” • Evolution of relevance and form over time
Or instead of annotating elements, the whole process could be automated. Ex: AT&T Log-in Page
Macro Recording Interface • Create a recording (non-)visually • Save recording with a description • Voice interface to replay the macro-recording • Page (in)dependence • Customizing what is read • Specifying variables
Dynamic Web Content • Dynamic content: • Our actions often cause change • We pay attention to changes of content • New information is often in the changes • Affects relevancy of information • Types of updates: • Page refresh, redirect, JavaScript and AJAX updates • Source of updates: • User-invoked and Timer-based
Dynamic Content Paradigm • Treat any content changes as “updates”: • AJAX, JavaScript, refresh, redirect • Navigation by following links • Using back and forward buttons • Analyze and diff the updated Web content • Provide interface for reviewing the changes
User-Centric Goals • Discover and present relevant information first • Minimize access-time to relevant information • Keep users focused on tasks and information • Facilitate multi-tasking and refocusing • Enable automation of repetitive tasks • Keep the context of user actions • Minimize system distractions
HearSay for the Sighted • Browsing on handhelds • Browsing over the phone • Browsing on-the-go • Other services
Mobile Browsing Problems • Data Transfer Cost is High • Connection is Slow • Small Screens • Lots of Scrolling
External Collaborators • Accessibility Group at IBM Japan • Accessibility Group at Google • HKSB and HKNC • Arizona State University • Conferences: ASSETS, W4A, CSUN
Conclusion • Web Accessibility is an important problem • Glimpse of Interesting Approaches • Much remains to be done: • E.g. Integration, Robustness (Specification and Verification) • Sonification • Other modalities – touch, pen, .. • Extensive end user studies to probe mental models to drive technology development (feedback) • Other Disabilities – cognitive, motor impairment, etc.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Suggestions? www.cs.sunysb.edu/~hearsay mailto:borodin@cs.sunysb.edu www.cs.sunysb.edu/~borodin