Visually impaired technologies leading mobile web
Rapid advances in mobile technologies have made life more interesting for the visually impaired, giving them access to information quickly and easily on their mobile phones. A new project at the UK's Manchester University aims to take some of this new technology, and adapt it to give those without visual impairments easy access to information. Special programs in mobile phones crunch information very successfully for the visually impaired, so that information from a website can be read easily by screenreaders, giving the user easy access to information. The RIAM (Reciprocal Interoperability between Accessible and Mobile Webs) project aims to link mobile technologies with web accessibility, to make web browsing software as simple to use as the Internet at home. Currently, websites need to be 're-versioned' for the small screens found on mobile phones. Many website cannot be seen on small screens, limiting both the content available and choice of websites. The project will use the experiences of the visually impaired, who use very effective screenreaders to simplify content, so that websites can be accessed via a mobile phone. This will generate a new generation of mobile web browsers that will effectively crunch the information for the very small screen. Dr Simon Harper from Manchester University's School of Computer Science said: 'Mobile web users are handicapped not by physiology but technology. Not only is the screen on the majority of phones very small, limiting the user's vision, but the information displayed is difficult to navigate and read. 'Add to this the fact that the content displayed is determined by a service provider and not the user and you have a web which is not very accessible or user friendly. Our aim is to change this by enabling web accessibility and mobile technologies to interoperate.' The scheme, funded by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, will be develop a 'validation engine' to ensure websites are accessible and mobile web compatible, and a 'transcoding' program to de-clutter web pages and make them easy to read. The user can then determine how the pages are displayed on their mobile phone. 'Screenreaders used by blind or visually impaired web users are very good at stripping web pages down into text only formats,' said Dr Harper, 'but what we want to achieve are content rich formats which are just as accessible.'
Countries
United Kingdom