Towards More Efficient Screen Reader Web Access with Automatic Summary Generation and Text Tagging

Abstract

Readers with 20/20 vision can easily read text and quickly perceive information to get an overview of the information within a text. This is more challenging for readers who rely on screen readers. This study investigated factors affecting successful screen reading in order to shed light on what contributes towards the improvement of screen reading access. Text extraction, summarization, and representation techniques were explored. The goal of this work leads to the development of a new summarization technique, referred to as On Demand Summary Generation and Text Tagging (ODSG&TT). This technique makes use of a summarization algorithm and a text tagging algorithm developed by Algorithmia, which enables on the fly and on-demand summarization of text and keyword generation. The focus of the screen reader is transferred to the keywords using a button control. The intention is to provide summaries with minimum user navigation effort to simplify the screen reading process.

Strategies for Addressing the Special Needs of People with Visual Impairments During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The preventive strategies for avoiding COVID-19 infection may be difficult for people with visual impairments to access and implement. Many websites do not support or do not work properly with screen readers (Sarwar & Eika, 2020), thus barring people who are blind from some web-based information. The lower literacy rates of people with visual impairments, compared to the general population (Zheng et al, 2011), can make it more difficult for this group to access and interpret information related to COVID-19.…”

STS on Accessible and Inclusive Digital Publishing

“…The focus of the screen reader is transferred to the keywords using a button control. The intention is to provide summaries with minimum user navigation effort to simplify the screen reading process [ 6 ].…”