Jeffrey P. Bighamjbigham@cs.washington.edu

University of WashingtonSeattle, Washington, USAwebinsight.cs.washington.edu

A Screen Reader On-the-Go

Promises and Challenges

Advancement in Technical Challenges ARIA, AxsJAX, others

Access to Applications Anywhere Email, documents, social connections…

No screen reader on most computers Another program to support Awareness Cost

Introduction

Accessing the Web On-the-Go Many devices - Serve different needs

Devices you have to carry Expensive Need to carry with you

Installation & Executables Not installed on most computers Need permission to install them

Operating System Built-Ins Narrator on Windows VoiceOver on OS X

Introduction

Hearsay

Fire Vox

WebAnywhere Summary

Self-voicing, web-browsing web application Runs on any web-enabled computer or device

Designed for Minimal requirements Runs on locked-down public terminals No software to install

Assist web developers in creating content1

Accessible Across the World

[1] Mankoff et al., “Is your web page accessible?: a comparative study of methods for assessing web page accessibility for the blind. CHI 2005.

WebAnywhere

Screenshot

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WebAnywhere Architecture

-or-WebAnywhere

Script

EmbeddedPlayer

WebPage Web

Sound Players

Flash Player

TransformedWeb Page

Client-Side

WebProxy

Text to Speech

Server-Side

WebAnywhere

Client interface in Javascript

Speech MP3s retrieved from server

Played with Flash or Embedded Players

(15 in Seattle, WA)

WebAnywhere

Released

Available Free From May 2008

Peaked at ~5000 / week Steady at ~1000 / week

Overwhelming Response Blogs News and other media Email

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WebAnywhere Release

Comments

“BRAVO!! Finally visually impaired individuals are able to bust through the biggest barrier placed before us so far, thanks to Web Anywhere.” -- Minnesota

“This is great news…not everyone can afford JAWS, etc.” - Kentucky

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WebAnywhere Release

Scarier Comments

“i am blind and have been for 23 years i have no sight at all i do have jaws on my pc but it gives me alot of problems at times and is costly to upgrade.”

“we were thinking of purchasing JAWS, but were thinking of using WebAnywhere as an alternative” (paraphased)

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WebAnywhere Release

Requests

Current screen reader features This often varied from user to user

Very few have mentioned latency People located all over

LANGUAGUES Released on the web everyone can access it Immediate access to a global audience

WebAnywhere Release

WebAnywhere by Country

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WebAnywhere Goes Global

Global Effort

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Developer in Norway helping to code.

Person in Brazil developing Portuguese language.

Person in China developing Chinese language.

WebAnywhere Goes Global

WebAnywhere is Open Source

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webanywhere.googlecode.com

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WebAnywhere Goes Global

Future Work

Many, many improvements possible… New languages, more shortcuts, better TTS,

security, ARIA, downloadable TTS, improved robustness, integrate with existing screen readers, better prefetching, aggressive caching, user studies, ‘plugin’ support, visual highlighting, explicit support for web developers, …

Future Implications

Platform for Assistive Technology What you want, where you want it

Advantages of Web Application Rapid iterations of design Rapid dissemination of new designs Rapid expansion across the world

Broader Themes

Future Implications

On any computer near you…

Released in May 2008 http://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/

Contribute to the open source project! http://webanywhere.googlecode.com/

Come to the DEMO

Conclusion

Conclusion

WebAnywhere an Important Option Now Blind web users on-the-go People unable to afford another screen reader An easy way to experience screen readers

WebAnywhere platform for assistive tech.

Works everywhere

Harbinger of global market to come

Conclusion

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The End

webanywhere.cs.washington.eduwebanywhere.googlecode.com

Our supporters:National Science Foundation Grant IIS-0415273A Boeing ProfessorshipMicrosoft Imagine Cup

Thanks to:Anna A. Cavender, Sangyun Hahn, T.V. Raman, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Lindsay Yazzolino, and our user study participants and consultants.