Metaphors for nonvisual computing
Elizabeth D. Mynatt, W. Keith Edwards · 1995
Introduction Many of the systems in this book exemplify negotiating a technological barrier in order to provide access to a computer or other device. The necessity of providing access of any kind to existing devices has often outweighed the desire to design systems specifically for a small, although important group of users. For example, computer access has been almost completely driven by the goal of overcoming more and more technological barriers. Currently, a significant problem in computer access is providing access to Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) for computer users who are blind.[BBV90][Bux86] The technical problem is capturing the information that is being sent to a bit-mapped display. The design problem is creating a nonvisual interface which provides the same power as a GUI. Modern computing environments generally employ GUIs to provide an intuitive abstraction to operating system concepts and actions. This discussion focuses on the design of a nonvisual computing