World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
Published May 27, 2012 | Version 12136
Journal article Open

Audio User Interface for Visually Impaired Computer Users: in a Two Dimensional Audio Environment

Authors/Creators

Description

In this paper we discuss a set of guidelines which could be adapted when designing an audio user interface for the visually impaired. It is based on an audio environment that is focused on audio positioning. Unlike current applications which only interpret Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the visually impaired, this particular audio environment bypasses GUI to provide a direct auditory output. It presents the capability of two dimensional (2D) navigation on audio interfaces. This paper highlights the significance of a 2D audio environment with spatial information in the context of the visually impaired. A thorough usability study has been conducted to prove the applicability of proposed design guidelines for these auditory interfaces. While proving these guidelines, previously unearthed design aspects have been revealed in this study.

Files

12136.pdf

Files (227.3 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:8f0693a1a1190b95a92f330974005229
227.3 kB Preview Download

Additional details

References

  • R. S. Schwerdtfeger. (1991) Making the gui talk. IBM. [Online]. Available: ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/sns/sr-os2/sr2doc/guitalk.txt
  • (1997) Braille formats: Principles of print to braille transcription. The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc. [Online]. Available: http: //www.brl.org/formats/rule08.html
  • C. Goble, S. Harper, and R. Stevens, "The travails of visually impaired web travellers," in Proceedings of the eleventh ACM on Hypertext and hypermedia. ACM, 2000, pp. 1-10.
  • S. Mereu and R. Kazman, "Audio enhanced 3d interfaces for visually impaired users," in Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: common ground. ACM, 1996, pp. 72-78.
  • J. F. A. McKiel, "Method and system for enabling blind or visually impaired computer users to graphically select displayed elements," United States of America Patent Pat. 6,046,722, April, 2000.
  • J. P. Fritz, T. P. Way, and K. E. Barner, "Haptic representation of scientific data for visually impaired or blind persons," 1996.
  • W. Chisholm, G. Vanderheiden, and J. I. (1999, May) Web content accessibility guidelines 1.0. W3C.