[Blindtlk] Google funds new research to help blind web surfers, PhysOrg.com, March 30, 2010

[David Andrews]

>From: "Nightingale, Noel" <Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov>
>To: "'NFBWATLK at NFBNET.ORG'" <NFBWATLK at NFBNET.ORG>
>Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 16:44:16 -0500
>Thread-Topic: Google funds new research to help blind web surfers,
>         PhysOrg.com, March 30, 2010
>Thread-Index: AcrRur8iwYBkUwBJSBWs3drjMjfMqwAKbEmw
>Subject: [nfbwatlk] Google funds new research to help blind web surfers,
>  PhysOrg.com, March 30, 2010
>
>
>
>Link:
>http://www.physorg.com/news189181904.html
>
>Text:
>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<http://www.physorg.com/tags/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<http://www.physorg.com/tags/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<http://www.physorg.com/tags/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<http://www.physorg.com/tags/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<http://www.physorg.com/partners/university-of-manchester/> 
>: web<http://www.manchester.ac.uk/>)