Accessibility, Speech Technology, and Human Interventions

摘要

Accessibility implies information access to the broadest set of potential users. Accessibility of content for visual disabilities has been a primary focus of standards committees and legislative bodies that have mandated increased availability of information technologies. Less attention overall has been ascribed to audio and video information proliferating on the web, and their inherent inaccessibility for deaf and hard of hearing users. In part, this may be due to the fact that audio and video information on the web is a relatively newer phenomenon, increasing rapidly because of the increased availability of broadband access. In addition, the problem of inaccessible audio is less easily resolved than inaccessible web pages for blind users. Web developers can be trained in accessible design for blind and low vision users. If these principles of accessible web or software design are applied at inception, then the information can be accessible for blind/low vision users at no additional cost.