Addressing Performance and Security in a Screen Reading Web Application That Enables Accessibility Anywhere

Abstract

The web provides nearly ubiquitous access to information, but access for blind web users requires the use of expensive, specialized software programs called screen readers unlikely to be installed on most computers. WebAnywhere is a self-voicing, web-browsing web application that makes the web accessible for blind web users from most devices with web access. WebAnywhere requires no special permissions or additional software to be installed on the host machine, enabling it provide a self-voicing interface on almost any web-enabled device. WebAnywhere’s interface is written in Javascript, speech is retrieved from a remote server, and sounds are played using either Flash or existing embedded sound players. This paper describes the performance and security implications of the system’s unique design and how it has been engineered to provide usable access anywhere. Specifically, we present prefetching andcaching strategies developed to make the system responsive even on low-bandwidth connections and security considerations that replicate existing browser security policies.

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