Providing alternate access for physically impaired users to items normally displayed in drop down menus on user-interactive display interfaces

摘要

Alternate access for physically impaired users to items normally displayed in drop down menus is provided by furnishing to users conventional means for displaying a sequential set of drop down menus, each having a plurality of selectable items together with conventional selection means scrolled along each of said menus. However, if the user feels unable to use or frustrated in using such scrolling menu techniques, he has the option to choose to display, as an alternative to this set of sequential menus, a hierarchical arrangement of selectable items corresponding to items in said set of menus. In the case where the menus in the sequential set of drop down menus sequentially vary from each other in scope, then the alternative hierarchical arrangement of selectable items may be a tree of items with sequential levels of varying scope respectively corresponding to the varying scope of said set of menus. The selectable items in the tree may be icons and particularly icons varied in size so as to be optimized to diminish the effects of the individual user's impairment. For the same effect, the icons in the tree may also be varied in distance from each other so as to be optimized to diminish the effects of the individual user's impairment.