SADIe: Semantic annotation for accessibility

Abstract

Visually impaired users are hindered in their efforts to access the largest repository of electronic information in the world - the World Wide Web (Web). The web is visually-centric with regard to presentation and information order / layout, this can (and does) hinder users who need presentation-agnostic access to information. Transcoding can help to make information more accessible via a restructuring of pages. We describe an approach based on annotation of web pages, encoding semantic information that can then be used by tools in order to manipulate and present web pages in a form that provides easier access to content. Annotations are made directly to style sheet information, allowing the annotation of large numbers of similar pages with little effort. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.