Screen reader with customizable web page output

• US 8,862,985 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2012
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Freedom Scientific Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Freedom Scientific Incorporated
• Inventors: Gallo, Robert, Gordon, Glen
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): TSUI, WILSON W
• Application Number:
  US13/491,799
• Publication Number:
  US 20130332815A1
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• Field of Search: 715/234, 715/238, 715/727, 715/728, 715/729, 715/738, 715/865
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04805 Virtual magnifying lens, i.e. window or frame movable on top of displayed information to enlarge it for better reading or selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/003 using tactile presentation of the information, e.g. Braille displays
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/005 Details of specially-adapted software to access information, e.g. to browse through hyperlinked information
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/006 using audible presentation of the information
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/008 using visual presentation of the information for the partially sighted

Abstract

A screen reader application for visually impaired users suppresses unwanted content that is output by Braille or text-to-speech. The invention accesses, but does not modify, the document object model of the web page and enumerates web page elements for the end user to either hide or skip to. The end user selections are saved as rules which may be applied according to various levels of scope include web page specific, site specific or web-wide. A screen magnification application for visually impaired users automatically sets the visual focus and magnification level on a web page element according to end-user selection.

Claims

1. A method of modifying the presentation of web pages following a document object model, the method comprising the steps of:

loading a first web page into a screen reader application;

establishing an end-user navigable virtual cursor, the virtual cursor outputting content from the first web page to a non-visual medium selected from the group consisting of text-to-speech and Braille;

receiving an end-user command responsive to the virtual cursor positioned at one or more web page elements having an identifiable property, the identifiable property selected from the group consisting of countable items, named items and identified items;

identifying one or more nodes within a document object model corresponding to the one or more web page elements, wherein the document object model is interpreted under the document object model of the screen reader application and thereby is independent of a browser software deployed by the end user;

presenting a dialog box responsive to an end-user command, the dialog box comprising a plurality of options for the identified one or more document object model nodes, the options being selected from the group consisting of hiding the one or more web page elements and initiating reading at the one or more web page elements;

enumerating the one or more web page elements to the end user in the dialog box;

receiving an end-user selection of the enumerated one or more web page elements subject to customization;

enumerating a plurality of customization types for the end user-selected web page element;

receiving an end-user customization type selection from the enumerated plurality of customization types;

saving the end-user selections of the enumerated web page element and the enumerated customization type as a rule to a non-transitory storage medium, wherein the rule is an XPath expression; and

automatically applying the XPath expression to the document object model of the screen reader application responsive to loading a second web page matching an application scope to modify a non-visual presentation of the second web page through the screen reader application.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of setting the application scope of the rule wherein the application scope comprises at least three layers of granularity including page-specific, site-specific and all-sites application of the rule.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein a page-specific first rule overrides a site-specific second rule and an all-sites third rule is overridden by either the page-specific first rule or the site-specific second rule.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more web page elements enumerated in the dialog box are ordered from the most nested to least nested nodes in a tree structure of the document object model.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the screen reader application excludes web page elements hidden by the applied rule from a tab order.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the screen reader application broadcasts an audible cue responsive to loading the second web page having an applied rule.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the rule is initially designated temporary and only applied within a first browser tab or window wherein the end user may evaluate how the temporary rule modifies the output of the first web page versus a second browser tab or window presenting an unaffected version of the first web page before making the rule permanent.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

presenting a custom XPath expression text input control to the end user;

receiving an XPath expression string from the control;

responsive to an exception in the XPath expression, communicating the exception to the end user;

responsive to a valid XPath expression, prompting the end user to save the XPath expression as a custom rule;

saving the custom rule; and

applying the custom rule to subsequent web pages.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of counting the number of matching web page elements returned by the XPath expression and communicating an integer count result to the end user prior to saving the XPath expression as the custom rule.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to being executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

loading a first web page following a document object model into a screen reader application;

establishing an end-user navigable virtual cursor, the virtual cursor outputting content from the first web page to a non-visual medium selected from the group consisting of text-to-speech and Braille;

receiving an end-user command responsive to the virtual cursor positioned at one or more web page elements having an identifiable property, the identifiable property selected from the group consisting of countable items, named items and identified items;

identifying one or more nodes within the document object model corresponding to the one or more web page elements, wherein the document object model is interpreted under the document object model of the screen reader application and thereby is independent of a browser software deployed by the end user;

presenting a dialog box responsive to an end-user command, the dialog box comprising a plurality of options for the identified one or more document object model nodes, the options being selected from the group consisting of hiding the one or more web page elements and initiating reading at the one or more web page elements;

enumerating the one or more web page elements to the end user in the dialog box;

receiving an end-user selection of the enumerated one or more web page elements subject to customization;

enumerating a plurality of customization types for the end user-selected web page element;

receiving an end-user customization type selection from the enumerated customization types;

saving the end-user selections of the enumerated web page element and the enumerated customization type as a rule to a non-transitory storage medium, wherein the rule is an XPath expression; and

automatically applying the XPath expression to the document object model of the screen reader application responsive to loading a second web page matching an application scope to modify the presentation of the second web page through the screen reader application.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 further comprising instructions for performing the additional step of setting the application scope of the rule wherein the application scope comprises at least three layers of granularity including page-specific, site-specific and all-sites application of the rule.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein a page-specific first rule overrides a site-specific second rule and an all-sites third rule is overridden by either the page-specific first rule or the site-specific second rule.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the one or more web page elements enumerated in the dialog box are ordered from the most nested to least nested nodes in a tree structure of the document object model.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the screen reader application excludes web page elements hidden by the applied rule from a tab order.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the screen reader application broadcasts an audible cue responsive to loading the second web page having an applied rule.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the rule is initially designated temporary and only applied within a first browser tab or window wherein the end user may evaluate how the temporary rule modifies the output of the first web page versus a second browser tab or window presenting an unaffected version of the first web page before making the rule permanent.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 further comprising instructions for performing the additional steps of:

presenting a custom XPath expression text input control to the end user;

receiving an XPath expression string from the control;

responsive to an exception in the XPath expression, communicating the exception to the end user;

responsive to a valid XPath expression, prompting the end user to save the XPath expression as a custom rule;

saving the custom rule; and

applying the custom rule to subsequent web pages.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions for performing the additional step of counting the number of matching web page elements returned by the XPath expression and communicating an integer count result to the end user prior to saving the XPath expression as the custom rule.

19. A method of modifying the presentation of web pages following a document object model, the method comprising the steps of:

loading a first web page into a screen magnification application;

receiving an end-user command responsive to a cursor positioned at one or more web page elements having an identifiable property, the identifiable property selected from the group consisting of countable items, named items and identified items, the web page elements corresponding to one or more nodes within a document object model, wherein the document object model is interpreted under the document object model of the screen reader application and thereby is independent of a browser software deployed by the end user;

enumerating the one or more web page elements to the end user in the dialog box;

receiving an end-user selection of the enumerated one or more web page elements subject to customization;

enumerating a plurality of customization types for the end user-selected web page element;

receiving an end-user customization type selection from the enumerated plurality of customization types;

saving the end-user selections of the enumerated web page element and the enumerated customization type as a rule to a non-transitory storage medium, wherein the rule is an XPath expression; and

automatically applying the XPath expression to the document object model of the screen reader application responsive to loading a second web page matching an application scope to automatically move a visual focus of the screen magnification application to the selected one or more web page elements.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of setting the application scope of the rule wherein the application scope comprises at least three layers of granularity including page-specific, site-specific and all-sites application of the rule.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of associating an end-user selected zoom-level with the selected web page element.