Semantic bookmarking for non-visual web access

ABSTRACT

Bookmarks are shortcuts that enable quick access of the desired Web content. They have become a standard feature in any browser and recent studies have shown that they can be very useful for non-visual Web access as well. Current bookmarking techniques in assistive Web browsers are rigidly tied to the structure of Web pages. Consequently they are susceptible to even slight changes in the structure of Web pages. In this paper we propose <i>semantic bookmarking</i> for non-visual Web access. With the help of an ontology that represents concepts in a domain, content in Web pages can be semantically associated with bookmarks. As long as these associations can be identified, semantic bookmarks are resilient in the face of structural changes to the Web page. The use of ontologies allows semantic bookmarks to span multiple Web sites covered by a common domain. This contributes to the ease of information retrieval and bookmark maintenance. In this paper we describe highly automated techniques for creating and retrieving semantic bookmarks. These techniques have been incorporated into an assistive Web browser. Preliminary experimental evidence suggests the effectiveness of semantic bookmarks for non-visual Web access.

REFERENCES

• 1: Chieko Asakawa , Takashi Itoh, User interface of a Home Page Reader, Proceedings of the third international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, p.149-156, April 15-17, 1998, Marina del Rey, California, United States [doi>10.1145/274497.274526]
• 2: D. Bolnick and G. Freed. New developments in web-based accessible multimedia. In Proceedings of Tech. and Persons with Disabilities Conf., 1998.
• 3: H. Davulcu, S. Vadrevu, S. Nagarajan, and I. Ramakrishnan. Ontominer: Bootstrapping and populating ontologies from domain-specific web sites. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 18(5), 2003.
• 4: Hasan Davulcu , Guizhen Yang , Michael Kifer , I. V. Ramakrishnan, Computational aspects of resilient data extraction from semistructured sources (extended abstract), Proceedings of the nineteenth ACM SIGMOD-SIGACT-SIGART symposium on Principles of database systems, p.136-144, May 15-18, 2000, Dallas, Texas, United States [doi>10.1145/335168.335216]
• 5: D. Dillin. Concept of a structural html page browser to support access to www for people with disabilities. Technical Report, Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation, 1997.
• 6: C. Earl and J. Leventhal. A survey of windows screen reader users: Recent improvements in accessibility. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 93(3), 1999.
• 7: Tsuyoshi Ebina , Seiji Igi , Teruhisa Miyake, Fast web by using updated content extraction and a bookmark facility, Proceedings of the fourth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, p.64-71, November 13-15, 2000, Arlington, Virginia, United States [doi>10.1145/354324.354343]
• 8: Robert Filepp , James Challenger , Daniela Rosu, Improving the accessibility of aurally rendered HTML tables, Proceedings of the fifth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, July 08-10, 2002, Edinburgh, Scotland [doi>10.1145/638249.638254]
• 9: D. Geoffray. The internet through the eyes of windows-eyes. In Proceedings of Tech. and Persons with Disabilities Conf., 1999.
• 10: J. Gunderson and R. Mendelson. Usability of world wide web browsers by persons with visual impairments. In Proceedings of the RESNA Annual Conf., 1997.
• 11: D. Hadjadj and D. Burger. Braillesurf: An html browser for visually handicapped people. In Proceedings of Tech. and Persons with Disabilities Conf., 1999.
• 12: P. Hendrix and M. Birkmire. Adapting web browsers for accessibility. In Proceedings of Tech. and Persons with Disabilities Conf.,1998.
• 13: Anita W. Huang , Neel Sundaresan, A semantic transcoding system to adapt Web services for users with disabilities, Proceedings of the fourth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, p.156-163, November 13-15, 2000, Arlington, Virginia, United States [doi>10.1145/354324.354363]
• 14: P. Jones. Speech-enabled web access: an instructional case study. In Proceedings of Tech. and Persons with Disabilities Conf., 1998.
• 15: L. Kraus.Teaching mathematics to students with physical disabilities using the world wide web. In Proceedings of Tech. and Persons with Disabilities Conf.,1998.
• 16: Donald J. Leu , Deborah Diadiun Leu, Teaching with the Internet; Lessons from the Classroom, Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Incorporated, 1997
• 17: A. Maedche and S. Staab.Learning ontologies for the semantic web. In Workshop on the Semantic Web (SemWeb), 2001.
• 18: G. Miller, R. Beckwith, C. Fellbaum, D. Gross, and K. Miller. WordNet: an on-line lexical database. International Journal of Lexicography, 3(4), 1990.
• 19: Sarah Morley, Digital talking books on a PC: a usability evaluation of the prototype DAISY playback software, Proceedings of the third international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, p.157-164, April 15-17, 1998, Marina del Rey, California, United States [doi>10.1145/274497.274527]
• 20: S. Mukherjee, G. Yang, and I. Ramakrishnan. Automatic annotation of content-rich html documents: Structural and semantic analysis. In Intl. Semantic Web Conf. (ISWC), 2003.
• 21: Toshiya Oogane , Chieko Asakawa, An interactive method for accessing tables in HTML, Proceedings of the third international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, p.126-128, April 15-17, 1998, Marina del Rey, California, United States [doi>10.1145/274497.274521]
• 22: Enrico Pontelli , Tran Cao Son, Planning, reasoning, and agents for non-visual navigation of tables and frames, Proceedings of the fifth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, July 08-10, 2002, Edinburgh, Scotland [doi>10.1145/638249.638264]
• 23: E. Pontelli , D. Gillan , W. Xiong , E. Saad , G. Gupta , A. I. Karshmer, Navigation of HTML tables, frames, and XML fragments, Proceedings of the fifth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, July 08-10, 2002, Edinburgh, Scotland [doi>10.1145/638249.638256]
• 24: E. Pontelli , W. Xiong , G. Gupta , A. I. Karshmer, A domain specific language framework for non-visual browsing of complex HTML structures, Proceedings of the fourth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, p.180-187, November 13-15, 2000, Arlington, Virginia, United States [doi>10.1145/354324.354373]
• 25: I. V. Ramakrishnan , Amanda Stent , Guizhen Yang, Hearsay: enabling audio browsing on hypertext content, Proceedings of the 13th international conference on World Wide Web, May 17-20, 2004, New York, NY, USA [doi>10.1145/988672.988684]
• 26: T. V. Raman, Audio system for technical readings, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1994
• 27: Chris Schmandt, Audio hallway: a virtual acoustic environment for browsing, Proceedings of the 11th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.163-170, November 01-04, 1998, San Francisco, California, United States [doi>10.1145/288392.288597]
• 28: Hironobu Takagi , Chieko Asakawa, Transcoding proxy for nonvisual web access, Proceedings of the fourth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, p.164-171, November 13-15, 2000, Arlington, Virginia, United States [doi>10.1145/354324.354371]
• 29: Hironobu Takagi , Chieko Asakawa , Kentarou Fukuda , Junji Maeda, Site-wide annotation: reconstructing existing pages to be accessible, Proceedings of the fifth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, July 08-10, 2002, Edinburgh, Scotland [doi>10.1145/638249.638265]
• 30: Gerhard Weber, Programming for usability in nonvisual user interfaces, Proceedings of the third international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, p.46-48, April 15-17, 1998, Marina del Rey, California, United States [doi>10.1145/274497.274507]
• 31: Mary Zajicek , Chris Powell , Chris Reeves, A Web navigation tool for the blind, Proceedings of the third international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, p.204-206, April 15-17, 1998, Marina del Rey, California, United States [doi>10.1145/274497.274534]
• 32: M. Zajicek, C. Powell, and C. Reeves. Web search and orientation with brookestalk. In Proceedings of Tech. and Persons with Disabilities Conf.,1999.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.2 Social Issues

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.4 Hypertext/Hypermedia
          Subjects: Navigation

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.7 DOCUMENT AND TEXT PROCESSING
      I.7.5 Document Capture
          Subjects: Document analysis

General Terms:
Algorithms, Human Factors

Keywords:
assistive browsing, bookmarks, semantic partitioning