InSupport: Proxy Interface for Enabling Efficient Non-Visual Interaction With Web Data Records

Authors

Javedul Ferdous, Old Dominion University
Hae-Na Lee, Old Dominion University
Sampath Jayarathna, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
Vikas Ashok, Old Dominion UniversityFollow

Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

2022

DOI

10.1145/3490099.3511126

Publication Title

IUI '22: 27th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces

Pages

49-62

Conference Name

27th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, March 22-25, 2022, Helsinki, Finland

Abstract

Interaction with web data records typically involves accessing auxiliary webpage segments such as filters, sort options, search form, and multi-page links. As these segments are usually scattered all across the screen, it is arduous and tedious for blind users who rely on screen readers to access the segments, given that content navigation with screen readers is predominantly one-dimensional, despite the available support for skipping content via either special keyboard shortcuts or selective navigation. The extant techniques to overcome inefficient web screen reader interaction have mostly focused on general web content navigation, and as such they provide little to no support for data record-specific interaction activities such as filtering and sorting – activities that are equally important for enabling quick and easy access to the desired data records. To fill this void, we present InSupport, a browser extension that: (i) employs custom-built machine learning models to automatically extract auxiliary segments on any webpage containing data records, and (ii) provides an instantly accessible proxy one-stop interface for easily navigating the extracted segments using basic screen reader shortcuts. An evaluation study with 14 blind participants showed significant improvement in usability with InSupport, driven by increased reduction in interaction time and the number of key presses, compared to state-of-the-art solutions.

Comments

© 2022 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.

Original Publication Citation

Ferdous, J., Lee, H.-N., Jayarathna, S., & Ashok, V. (2022). InSupport: Proxy interface for enabling efficient non-visual interaction with web data records. In IUI '22: 27th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (pp. 49-62). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3490099.3511126

Repository Citation

Ferdous, J., Lee, H.-N., Jayarathna, S., & Ashok, V. (2022). InSupport: Proxy interface for enabling efficient non-visual interaction with web data records. In IUI '22: 27th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (pp. 49-62). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3490099.3511126

ORCID

0000-0002-9065-0968 (Ferdous), 0000-0002-4772-1265 (Vikas)