AB – Web : Active audio browser for visually impaired and blind users

The Internet now permits easy access to textual and pictorial material from an exponentially growing number of sources. The widespread use of graphical user interfaces, however, increasingly bars visually handicapped people from using such material. In this context, our project aims at providing sight handicapped people with alternative access modalities to pictorial documents. More precisely, our goal is to develop an augmented Internet browser to facilitate blind users access to the World Wide Web. The main distinguishing characteristics of this browser are : (1) generation of a virtual sound space into which the screen information is mapped; (2) transcription into sounds not only of text, but also of images; (3) active user interaction, both for the macro-analysis and micro-analysis of screen objects of interest; (4) use of a touch-sensitive screen to facilitate user interaction. Several prototypes have been implemented, and are being evaluated by blind users.