Important Note
The following application may not be bug-free because it is an
emerging technology prototype or proof of concept currently under
development in IBM research and development labs.
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What is Virtual Worlds User Interface for the Blind?
Virtual Worlds User Interface for the Blind is a prototype "accessible rich Internet application" (ARIA) that gives blind users the ability to participate in many virtual world activities. It provides basic navigation, communication, and perception functions using GUI (graphical user interface) elements that are familiar to blind computer users. As a way of enriching the virtual environment with descriptive semantic information, sighted users contribute annotations of virtual objects and places using a scripted gadget equipped by their avatar. These annotations are then made available to the blind users through the special user interface.
Although this interface for the blind is a GUI and can be used by sighted people, the virtual world space is not rendered pictorially. Instead, all information flowing to the user is text-based in order to allow compliance with ordinary screen-reading technology. Recorded verbal descriptions are also played for the user.
Currently, the application interfaces only with the Second Life platform; however, as a long-term goal, it might be possible to make this user interface portable to more than one virtual world implementation. If successful, that portability would enable blind users to learn only one client application that is specifically tailored for their needs rather than learning a separate new application for each virtual world.
How does it work?
The user interface is a Web application, a thin client running locally in the Firefox browser that communicates with Second Life through an agent on our server. The application is implemented partly with the JavaScript programming language, and it uses Dojo Toolkit widgets to provide a virtual world user interface that is entirely keyboard-navigable and screen reader-friendly. Nothing is permanently installed on the user's computer.
A key aspect of the project is a special annotation device equipped by the avatars of sighted users. This device allows the sighted users to select virtual world objects and locations to describe for the blind. A Web browser page is then triggered, and the sighted user is allowed to enter accessible attributes, such as a custom name and short and long descriptions of the item or location.
It is also possible (and encouraged) for the user to record and upload a verbal description to the database. This data is later made available to the blind users through the user interface as they navigate into annotated areas.
| About the technology authors |
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Bill Carter is a software developer and researcher working on the Advanced Technology team of the IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center. He studies emerging human-to-computer interface technologies and tries to identify ways to make them available for people with disabilities.
Guido Corona is an accessibility consultant and is currently a member of the HA&AC Business Development team. His past areas of research included the design of automated response systems for non-visual interfaces as well as the semantic multiplexing of textual information through the alteration of text-to-speech parameters.
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