Auditory Presentation of Graphical User Interfaces

Abstract

This paper describes work to provide mappings between X-based graphical interfaces and auditory interfaces. In our system, dubbed Mercator, this mapping is transparent to applications. The primary motivation for this work is to provide accessibility to graphical applications for users who are blind or visually impaired. In this paper, I describe the design of an auditory interface which simulates many of the features of graphical interfaces. Some of these features have been evaluated in a small user study. I will present lessons learned from this study as well as discuss areas for further work.