WPad BVI - a multilingual universal knowledge exchange tool with support for visually impaired users

Abstract

Nowadays, users need to work simultaneously with many files and folders on their computer and various resources on the Internet, including several software pieces. It means that they have many windows open simultaneously, and they must continuously switch between different opened applications such as web browsers, text editors, or audio-visual programs. These problems are also crucial to blind or visually impaired users, for whom this issue is even more difficult. Due to the nature of their work, i.e., they do not use the mouse and cannot see the video and graphic content, they have to remember, at each moment, which programs they have open and which they no longer use. In this paper, we propose an approach that consists of universal software, where, on the one hand, the user can collect and view data; on the other hand, he can produce ready-made output packages in simple web pages. This solution consists of two main parts: an offline softwareWPad and the online - Personal Knowledge Information System (PIKS). We propose a simplified and more automated version of an earlier developed WPad software system called WPad for BVI, which visually impaired persons and other beginners can use. The solution was tested by two BVI users (one BVI student and one BVI teacher) and several non-disabled teachers and students from Poland and Slovakia. Feedback from users was collected that will be used to improve the system further.