Enhancing web accessibility by implementing context aware proxy

Abstract

Purpose - Millions of visually impaired people (VIP) in the world still face difficulties browsing the Web and accessing information. This paper aims to present a proxy service that takes advantage of the concept of context-aware to help contextualizing web pages for visually impaired users. Design/methodology/approach - The VIP-aware proxy combines five components to utilize the user preferences, adapts the requested web page and reorganizes its content to best match the preferences set by the user. This new scenario will assist VIP in browsing the Web more effectively. Findings - A preliminary evaluation of the system resulted in general user satisfaction. Practical implications - The VIP-aware proxy will provide users with a clean, accessible web page, save them time when screen readers examine content related to their preferences and save them money when unnecessary content is not downloaded. Originality/value - The VIP-aware proxy presented in this paper is the first of its kind targeting VIP.