Login (DCU Staff Only)
Login (DCU Staff Only)

DORAS | DCU Research Repository

Explore open access research and scholarly works from DCU

Advanced Search

An alternative audio web browsing solution: viewing web documents through a tree structural approach

Walshe, Esmond (2006) An alternative audio web browsing solution: viewing web documents through a tree structural approach. PhD thesis, Dublin City University.

Abstract
This thesis examines methods to aid in the non-visual browsing of web based documcnts, primarily using synthetic speech output. The serial nature of speech ensures that it is a difficult medium in which to browse documents. Much of the structure implied in the visual appearance of the content is not available through specch. Only a narrow region in the content is perceivable at any given time, and it can bc difficult to navigate to the important segments of the document. This is in contrast to visual interaction, where cues such as changcs in font or colour establish contextual changes in the content and guide the user accordingly. A number of browsing/navigation strategies are presented to offset these problems. These are implemented through WebTree. This is a highly customisable web browser which rcnders documents through a dynamically expandable tree structural view. This mirrors the arrangement of mark-up elements in the source file. Contextual information about each element is provided as appropriate. By expanding and collapsing individual tree elements, thc user decides how much of the content is rendered at any given time. The user can also dctermine whether a certain element is automatically expanded in the rendcring when cncountercd, or whether it appcars in the rendering at all, effectively allowing for the easy gencration of alternative document views. To speed up navigation the user can move through the document based on the element of their choice. Specialiscd element search functions are also available. Additional navigational functionality is provided to deal with the specific requirements of <table> or <form> elements. The thesis reviews different methods previously employed to offset problems with auditory interfaces and compares these with WebTree. Initial user tests and evaluations of WebTrec are prescnted, which show that the approaches taken provide a viable solution, particularly for thc browsing of large or complex wcb-bascd documcnts, by blind users.
Metadata
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Date of Award:2006
Refereed:No
Supervisor(s):McMullin, Barry
Uncontrolled Keywords:non-visual web browsing; document navigation; webtree; auditory interfaces; contextual information; elements
Subjects:Computer Science > Interactive computer systems
Engineering > Electronic engineering
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Engineering and Computing > School of Electronic Engineering
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. View License
ID Code:16963
Deposited On:10 May 2012 09:38 by Fran Callaghan . Last Modified 19 Jul 2018 14:55
Documents

Full text available as:

[thumbnail of esmond_walshe_SC.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
17MB
Downloads

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Archive Staff Only: edit this record