Fast Icon and Character Recognition for Universal Access to WIMP Interfaces for the Blind and Partially Sighted
S.J. Harness, Ken Pugh, Nasser Sherkat, R.J. Whitrow · Studies in health technology and informatics · 1993
As the usage of WIMP interfaces increases, the accessibility of software to the blind and partially sighted diminishes. Research and development is underway (TIDE project VISA*) to provide universal access to these interfaces. Systems are monitored in real-time and icon and character recognition interpret the output into suitable audio or braille form. This paper describes Fast Optical Icon and Character Recognition. The fundamental requirements are analyzed. The way in which environmental and contextual information such as layout and “surrounding history” can be used to achieve the required accuracy and speed of recognition is reported.