A Arditi¹, V L Hanson¹, P G Fairweather¹, F Brown², S Crayne¹, G Daggett¹, S Detweiler², R S Schwerdtfeger², B Tibbitts¹, S Trewin¹
¹IBM Corporation, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, United States; ²IBM Corporation, Accessibility Center, Austin, TX, United States
Access to the World Wide Web poses special visual problems for those with ocular changes that typically accompany aging, and those with low vision. Additionally, operating system, browser, and web protocol technologies change rapidly, making it difficult for specialized adaptive client (e.g. home computer) software to keep up. Finally, most web authors do not follow design principles that help visually-impaired users. We are experimenting with a server-based web-intermediary technology to provide enhanced visual access to users with mild and moderate vision problems. Users access all web content via a HTTP server that stores the user's preference settings, and translates web page content into a format that is more visually accessible to them. The translation implements image and font magnification and enhancement, and other typographic and color changes. The system works and is being field-tested in local senior centers. Difficulties encountered in this first phase of the project include developing a simple user interface for users to choose custom settings and to navigate enlarged page content, and privacy issues. This technology is relatively easy to maintain in the face of changing web protocols and browser technology, and is relatively immune from web authoring that fails to take into account visually-impaired users. A new direction for this project is to address the needs of blind users via speech, and of those with motor disabilities via keyboard and mouse adaptations.
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