Author: Umakant Mishra
Abstract:
Physically or mentally challenged people cannot use a
computer in the same way a normal people can. For example, persons with
disability in hands cannot use a standard keyboard or mouse efficiently.
Persons having visual disability cannot benefit from a standard display screen.
People having locomotor challenge, visual disability or hearing problem etc.
cannot interact with a computer like a normal person. So it is necessary to
design the computers, interfacing devices and software interfaces with special
features, which can be used by the people with physical challenges.
There are many input/output devices like mouse, keyboard,
pointers, and touch screens etc. to improve the human computer interaction. But
it is a challenge for the inventors and manufacturers to build such devices for
people with physical challenges. One of the major difficulties for the
inventors is to visualize the difficulties of a visually impaired person and
invent such special devices that would assist them as desired. Similarly it is
challenging for the manufacturers to build these special equipments, as there
are not enough customers for these products for a commercial viability.
This article analyses different types of visual
disabilities, different assistive technologies for different types of visual
disabilities, guidelines for developing user interfaces for the visually
impaired, software products available for assisting the visually impaired, and
Inventions made on such adaptive technologies. The objective is to analyze and
explore various assistive technologies for the visually impaired users, and
throw some light on the possibility of future improvements of such devices
and/or interfaces.
Keywords: TRIZ, Innovation, Inventive Problem
Solving, Invention, Software Patents, GUI, Software inventions, Graphical User
Interface, GUI design, GUI elements, assistive technologies, adaptive
interfaces, speech recognition, VRS, Visual disabilities, Karaoke, speech
synthesis, Braille,
Mishra, Umakant,
Evolution of User Interfaces for the Visually Impaired (May 1, 2014). Available
at SSRN:http://ssrn.com/abstract=2431689
