Making Wikipedia editing easier for the blind

ABSTRACT

A key feature of Web 2.0 is the possibility of sharing, creating and editing on-line content. This approach is increasingly used in learning environments to favor interaction and cooperation among students. These functions should be accessible as well as easy to use for all participants. Unfortunately accessibility and usability issues still exist for Web 2.0-based applications. For instance, Wikipedia presents many difficulties for the blind. In this paper we discuss a possible solution for simplifying the Wikipedia editing page when interacting via screen reader. Building an editing interface that conforms to W3C ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) recommendations would overcome accessibility and usability problems that prevent blind users from actively contributing to Wikipedia.

REFERENCES

• 1: Patrizia Andronico , Marina Buzzi , Carlos Castillo , Barbara Leporini, Improving search engine interfaces for blind users: a case study, Universal Access in the Information Society, v.5 n.1, p.23-40, July 2006 [doi>10.1007/s10209-006-0022-3]
• 2: Marina Buzzi , Barbara Leporini, Is Wikipedia usable for the blind?, Proceedings of the 2008 international cross-disciplinary conference on Web accessibility (W4A), April 21-22, 2008, Beijing, China [doi>10.1145/1368044.1368049]
• 3: Mozilla Developer Center. AJAX. http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/AJAX
• 4: Mozilla Developer Center -- ARIA. http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Accessible_DHTML
• 5: Microsoft. Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/readiness/developers-new.aspx#w3c
• 6: Peter Thiessen , Charles Chen, Ajax live regions: ReefChat using the fire vox screen reader as a case example, Proceedings of the 2007 international cross-disciplinary conference on Web accessibility (W4A), p.136-137, May 07-08, 2007, Banff, Canada [doi>10.1145/1243441.1243448]
• 7: Illinois Center for Information Technology Accessibility http://test.cita.uiuc.edu/aria/
• 8: Wikipedia. Wiki, http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki.
• 9: W3C. WAI-ARIA Overview, http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria.php.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Graphical user interfaces (GUI)

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

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors

Keywords:
Wikipedia, accessibility, blind, usability