A foundation for tool based mobility support for visually impaired web users

ABSTRACT

Users make journeys through the Web. Web travel encompasses the tasks of orientation and navigation, the environment and the purpose of the journey. The ease of travel, its mobility, varies from page to page and site to site. For visually impaired users, in particular, mobility is reduced; the objects that support travel are inaccessible or missing altogether. Web development tools need to include support to increase mobility. We present a framework for finding and classifying travel objects within Web pages. The evaluation carried out has shown that this framework supports a systematic and consistent method for assessing travel upon the Web. We propose that such a framework can provide the foundation for a semi-automated tool for the support of travel upon the Web.

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INDEX TERMS

General Terms:
Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
mobility, mobility support tool, travel, travel objects, visual impairment