Improving web form accessibility using semantic XForms for people with cognitive impairments

Abstract

The Internet as the widest medium for business and communication can be effectively adapted to the requirements of differently-abled people. Large portion of Internet advances owes the human-computer interaction and data exchange via web forms. The current complex Internet applications are not easy to use for people with cognitive impairments and they usually use the Internet as a publication platform. To change this state, the web forms, as the basic block of Internet applications, should be made accessible for people with varying levels of cognitive abilities, especially for severely challenged users in this category. New technologies such as the Semantic Web and XForms can be combined to make the Web applications more accessible for these people. In this short paper, the possible application of XForms in combination with the Semantic Web technology is explored and a solution model for providing accessibility for people with cognitive impairments is presented. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.