Plan Recognition to Aid the Visually Impaired

Less than half of the individuals of working age with visual impairments are employed and a significant barrier to employment is effective computer access. Screen reader applications offer some help but have limited context sensitivity and are of limited use in applications with dynamic “interfaces” like web pages. Sophisticated screen readers provide aid through application-specific scripts but their full potential is reduced by limited awareness of the scripts and the difficulty in programming and modifying scripts. Technologies such as plan recognition and automated script generation and optimization that provide a more adaptive interface for the user will significantly improve computer accessibility to the visually impaired. In this paper, we discuss the addition of probabilistic plan recognition capabilities and supporting framework to a leading screen reader in order to improve accessibility of computers to the visually impaired at work and at home.