Web accessibility assistant

• US 20030234822A1
• Filed: 06/11/2002
• Published: 12/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Spisak, Michael J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,188,318 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/827
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0235 using chord techniques G06F3/0234 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry

Abstract

A utility computer program to make the web accessible to users who cannot use a mouse filters a web page and adds code to trigger all URLs in the page with a 2-character key code, display the code on the screen, add and display key codes to images that are links, and cause all URLs to call the program when exercised, so that the next web page accessed is also filtered.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture in computer readable form comprising means for performing a method for operating, in a computer system having a keyboard and a display screen, a program that accepts mouse clicks by substituting keyboard entries for mouse clicks, said method comprising the steps of:

associating a keystroke combination with at least one URL; and

responding to said keystroke combination by substituting therefor a corresponding mouse click, whereby said program responds to said mouse click.

2. An article of manufacture according to claim 1, further including the steps of:

processing a data stream containing at least one URL;

transcoding URLs in said data stream to associate a keystroke combination with each of said URLs; and

displaying a screen display based on said data stream and including said keystroke combinations together with representations of said URLs.

3. An article of manufacture according to claim 2, further including the steps of responding to a computer program in said computer system as a proxy server and processing requests from said computer program for data from data processing systems external to said computer system, whereby said data stream containing at least one URL is received from at least one data processing system external to said computer system.

4. An article of manufacture according to claim 3, in which said external data processing systems are connected to the World Wide Web, whereby data from a browser on said computer system and data from the World Wide Web are processed by instructions in said article of manufacture.

5. An article of manufacture according to claim 2, in which said article of manufacture is in the form of a plug-in program associated with a web browser program in which:

said step of transcoding URLs is performed on a web page fetched by said browser; and

further including the steps of storing representations of said keystroke combinations with said URLs, whereby said keystroke combination are displayed together with representations of said URLs.

6. An article of manufacture according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

displaying a screen having space for typing a web address in response to a command from a user;

fetching the web page indicated by the web address and transcoding URLs contained within the web page to associate keystroke combinations therewith; and

displaying keystroke combinations on the screen, whereby the user may call up web pages by keystroke combinations throughout a web session.

7. A method for operating, in a computer system having a keyboard and a display screen, a program that accepts mouse clicks by substituting keyboard entries for mouse clicks, comprising the steps of:

associating a keystroke combination with at least one URL; and

responding to said keystroke combination by substituting therefor a corresponding mouse click, whereby said program responds to said mouse click.

8. A method according to claim 7, further including the steps of:

processing a data stream containing at least one URL;

transcoding URLs in said data stream to associate a keystroke combination with each of said URLs; and

displaying a screen display based on said data stream and including said keystroke combinations together with representations of said URLs.

9. A method according to claim 8, further including the steps of:

responding to a computer program in said computer system as a proxy server and processing requests from said computer program for data from data processing systems external to said computer system.

10. A method according to claim 9, in which said external data processing systems are connected to the World Wide Web, whereby data from a browser on said computer system and data from the World Wide Web are processed by instructions in said article of manufacture.

11. A method according to claim 8, further including the steps of:

automatically transcoding URLs in a web page fetched by said browser to associate a keystroke combination with each of said URLs; and

storing representations of said keystroke combinations with said URLs, whereby said keystroke combination are displayed together with representations of said URLs.

12. A computer system having a keyboard, a display screen interface circuitry for communicating with other data processing systems that employ URLs for identification and a program that accepts mouse clicks by substituting keyboard entries for mouse clicks, the program being adapted for carrying out a method comprising the steps of:

associating a keystroke combination with at least one URL; and

responding to said keystroke combination by substituting therefor a corresponding mouse click, whereby said program responds to said mouse click.

13. A computer system for carrying out a method according to claim 12, further including the steps of:

processing a data stream containing at least one URL;

transcoding URLs in said data stream to associate a keystroke combination with each of said URLs; and

displaying a screen display based on said data stream and including said keystroke combinations together with representations of said URLs.

14. A computer system for carrying out a method according to claim 13, further including the steps of:

responding to a computer program in said computer system as a proxy server and processing requests from said computer program for data from data processing systems external to said computer system.

15. A computer system for carrying out a method according to claim 14, in which said external data processing systems are connected to the World Wide Web, whereby data from a browser on said computer system and data from the World Wide Web are processed by instructions in said article of manufacture.

16. A computer system for carrying out a method according to claim 13, further including the steps of:

automatically transcoding URLs in a web page fetched by said browser to associate a keystroke combination with each of said URLs; and

storing representations of said keystroke combinations with said URLs, whereby said keystroke combination are displayed together with representations of said URLs.