Catering for disabled surfers – A case study in web site navigation for disabled students

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Curran, Kevin | Crawford, Ivan | O'Hara, Lisa

Affiliations: School of Computing and Intelligent Systems, University of Ulster, Magee Campus, Londonderry, BT48 7JL, UK. E-mail: kj.curran@ulster.ac.uk

Abstract: Speech recognition can give people with severe disabilities more control over their personal environments. For people with physical disabilities affecting the use of their hands, productivity is far more personal. Speech recognition can enable some people to perform daily living tasks without assistance. For others, such as the growing number of professionals afflicted with repetitive stress syndrome (RSI), speech recognition represents a means of getting or keeping employment. Thus speech recognition as a navigation aid is a key in solving the dilemma of a subset of disabled surfers. This paper reviews the technologies currently available for speech interaction with computers and suggests how the future of web navigation may benefit from these technologies. The paper also discusses the results obtained from evaluation of a prototype website catering to users with a disability. The results of the evaluation by local health board officials indicated a positive response to the Voice Navigable website and aided recommendations for future work.

DOI: 10.3233/TAD-2004-16105

Journal: Technology and Disability, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 41-47, 2004