Blind and Visually Impaired Community
↑
5
↓
Combining AI and web accessibility (self.Blind)
submitted by WinterIsExaggerated
Hi!
I'm a sighted machine learning researcher that recently have caught an eye on the field of web accessibility.
Websites are primarily designed to be interacted with visually which is hard to do if you have a visual impairment. Here I think there's big potential for AI to help and look at the web page visually and then give correct and helpful information to the visually impaired user, in contrast to how many developers do it today.
Things I think I know how to implement:
\* Visual analysis of web elements. What kind of icon is this? Is this a photograph or digital image? Is there text in this element that the screen reader can't detect?
\* Assigning labels to input fields / forms
\* Assigning heading levels to text elements.
Are there any other problems that you think could be solved with AI?
If anyone wants to check it out I also recently made a proof of concept browser extension that takes any information dense web page and transforms it to its essentials, which I guess could be helpful for screen reader users. The algorithm is slow but it's a proof of concept.
Chrome: $1
Firefox:
$1
Any feedback is appreciated!
I'm a sighted machine learning researcher that recently have caught an eye on the field of web accessibility.
Websites are primarily designed to be interacted with visually which is hard to do if you have a visual impairment. Here I think there's big potential for AI to help and look at the web page visually and then give correct and helpful information to the visually impaired user, in contrast to how many developers do it today.
Things I think I know how to implement:
\* Visual analysis of web elements. What kind of icon is this? Is this a photograph or digital image? Is there text in this element that the screen reader can't detect?
\* Assigning labels to input fields / forms
\* Assigning heading levels to text elements.
Are there any other problems that you think could be solved with AI?
If anyone wants to check it out I also recently made a proof of concept browser extension that takes any information dense web page and transforms it to its essentials, which I guess could be helpful for screen reader users. The algorithm is slow but it's a proof of concept.
Chrome: $1
Firefox:
$1
Any feedback is appreciated!
vedfer 2 points 4y ago
This is an excellent idea. Assigning text headings is key. Pages can have so much text these days that navigation becomes essential. A screen reader can use headers, lists, buttons, links, and other elements to aid navigation.
WinterIsExaggerated [OP] 1 points 4y ago
I'm glad you like the idea! What do you think the best way to approach this is? Should I create a browser extension, NVDA add on, or some other program lying in the background?
hopesthoughts 1 points 4y ago
I think an add-on for NVDA would be best. For those who don't use NVDA though, it would also be good to have a browser extension. There's a service that I've been wanting to use for years called Feedbin. https://feedbin.com. However it's impossible to open any of the links to any of the articles in a feed using a screen reader. Each time I try, and I have several times, it redirects me to a feedbin URL that produces an error. I've talked to the Feedbin developer about this but he never seemed to be able to reproduce the problem. If the AI could somehow change the layout of the interface so it's just links to the articles in the feed and nothing else once I open a feed, that would be epic!
WinterIsExaggerated [OP] 1 points 4y ago
Cool, thanks for the reply! Doing something similar to what you're talking about is definitely doable with AI.
hopesthoughts 1 points 4y ago
Well it would sure be nice if I could actually use Feedbin lol.
This nonprofit website is run by volunteers.
Please contribute if you can. Thank you!
Our mission is to provide everyone with access to large-
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
©2023 HumbleCat Inc • HumbleCat is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Michigan, USA.