Conceptualization of a technical solution for web navigation of visually impaired people

Abstract

International audienceDespite the autonomy gain provided by the Web for blind people, its access for this population still remains difficult. Today, web accessibility is practically restricted to the normative accessibility guaranteed by the application of design standards. Effective accessibility, which ensures that the users can reach their goal, is therefore forgotten at the expense of the interface usability. Thus, we proposed the conceptualization of a technical solution which attains effective accessibility by solving the information filtering problem encountered by blind people. The conceptualization of this solution, supported by previous experimental results, seems promising to make web interfaces easier and faster to use by blind people

Web accessibility: Filtering redundant and irrelevant information improves website usability for blind users

“…Indeed, they desire the same web interfaces as others to be able to participate in social life (Nevile, 2005). Considering these different points, we conceptualized a tool that could be developed in order to turn the interface into an accessible alternative (Giraud et al, 2015). This tool, based on the principle validated in Experiment 3, would filter redundant and irrelevant information, without the designers' intervention on websites, and should be compatible with any website.…”