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Re: Google funds new research to help blind web surfers, PhysOrg.com, March 30, 2010

for

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Apr 5, 2010 5:33AM

Interesting. I wonder if this is an expansion of the Speegle
project/www.speegle.co.uk. I just tried the old web site and it is not
active anymore. This was a Google looking TTS page/UI that let you use a few
voices to read your search results. It was a first attempt at this type of
tool so was a nifty proof of concept.

It also wasn't a screen reader in that it wouldn't read dialogs or menus,
just search results. So it was more of a TTS approach as opposed to full
access.

Access to more advanced web pages that include AJAX, ARIA or pages with the
SVG would help those who can't update their screen readers or existing TTS
tools if this project is successful and free or inexpensive.

OK, I found an article on Speegle from 2005:
http://www.adesblog.com/2005/05/18/speegle-talking-search-engine/

It was a talking search engine so didn't read the pages. Maybe this project
will expand on this tool.

Cheers, Karen





-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Geof Collis
Sent: April-04-10 8:10 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Google funds new research to help blind web surfers,
PhysOrg.com, March 30, 2010

Hi All

Is this going to be possible without a site being
WCAG compliant? Is it a pipe dream?

cheers

Geof




At 07:54 PM 4/4/2010, you wrote:
>Google funds new research to help blind web surfers
>
>March 30, 2010
>
>(PhysOrg.com) -- New research by University of Manchester scientists that
>could help blind people find their way around the World Wide Web has been
>given a boost with a £50,000 grant from Google.
>
>Drs Andy Brown, Caroline Jay and Simon Harper who are based at the
>University's School of Computer Science, have already developed a prototype
>screen reader that has been successfully tested on blind web surfers in an
>independent evaluation.
>
>The team used specialist eye tracking techniques to find out how sighted
>people interact with complex Web pages so they could translate the pages
>into audio.
>
>Now they are working with Google to make their technology, which is not yet
>suitable for general use, freely available to people with visual
>impairments.
>
>They aim to provide a way of modifying Web pages so blind people can easily
>access them without having to wait for commercial screen reading technology
>- which reads web pages aloud - to catch up with the latest research
>developments.
>
>Dr Jay said: "The growth of Web 2.0 technologies is fundamentally changing
>the way that people interact with the Web.
>
>"A short time ago, navigating the Web was simply a matter of clicking
links,
>moving from one static page to another.
>
>"Now it's possible to spend a considerable amount of time interacting with
a
>single page through its "dynamic micro content" that updates independently,
>without changing the URL."
>
>She added: "Unfortunately, blind people are excluded from many of these
>exciting developments and our research aims to change all that.
>
>"They can have real problems accessing web applications - such as
calendars,
>tickers and suggestion lists - found on travel, entertainment and social
>networking sites.
>
>"This is because the screen reading technology which converts the visual
>page to audio doesn't say when a web page changes, making much of Web 2.0
is
>inaccessible to people with visual impairments."
>
>More information: The detailed technical reports describing background,
>implementation and all the underlying research for the SASWAT project are
>available in the team's open-access data repository: http://hcw-
>prints.cs.man.ac.uk/view/subjects/saswat.html
>
>Provided by University of Manchester news: web www.manchester.ac.uk)
>
>
>www.physorg.com/news189181904.html
>
>
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