Providing accessibility compliance within advanced componentry

• US 20050246653A1
• Filed: 04/30/2004
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gibson, Becky J., Wanderski, Michael C., Zheng, Zhiling J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,657,844 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/773
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

Accessibility compliance is provided within advanced componentry, such as a browser in which an on-demand editor can be launched. A toolkit of functionality that is executable on a server is preferably provided, from which selections can be made to configure an instance of a client editor or similar client-side viewer. Techniques are disclosed that enable flexible specification of the controls to be added to the viewer instance, as well as specification of details for configuring the controls.

Claims

1. A method of dynamically configuring an accessible editor, comprising steps of:

providing a plurality of selectable editing functions;

specifying, for a particular instance of the accessible editor, selected ones of the provided editing functions that are to be available; and

upon activating the editor instance, making the specified selected ones available.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the available selected ones are available, to a user of the editor instance, using only keyboard input.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the available selected ones is selectable from the editor instance using a predetermined sequence of one or more keys.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the predetermined key sequence for each of the available selected ones is specified in a mapping between the specified selected ones and the predetermined key sequences.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the predetermined key sequence for each of the available selected ones is dependent upon a locale in which the editor instance is activated.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein the predetermined key sequence for each of the available selected ones is dependent upon a user agent from which the editor instance is activated.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein one or more of the selected ones operates to enable activating a detached toolbar.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the selected ones operates to enable applying an action to a document portion selected in the editor instance.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the selected ones also include at least one editing function that applies to a document portion selected in the editor instance.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein one or more of the selected ones operates to enable activating a detached color-selection mechanism in which a selection can be made from among a plurality of colors, such that the plurality of colors is unaffected by color contrast changes made to a device on which the editor instance is activated.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

one or more of the selected ones operates to enable activating a detached color-selection mechanism in which a selection can be made from among a plurality of colors;

the plurality of colors is provided as a single image; and

the selection is facilitated by providing mapping regions, each of which has a boundary that generally corresponds to a boundary of a different one of the colors.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the regions are invisible.

13. The method according to claim 7, wherein the detached toolbar is automatically launched, responsive to detecting a predetermined key sequence that is defined as causing the automatic launch.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein focus for user input switches to the detached toolbar when the toolbar is launched, without altering a current selection status of content rendered in the editor instance.

15. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of programmatically modifying a document rendered in the editor instance to enforce predetermined accessibility issues.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the programmatically modifying step further comprises the step of programmatically altering image references in the document to include a textual description of a source of the referenced image.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the programmatically modifying step further comprises the step of programmatically changing input areas of forms in the document to textual labels that include, as values, text from the input areas.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the programmatically modifying step further comprises the step of applying a style sheet that specifies the programmatic modifications.

19. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of providing a service wherein one or more of the providing, specifying, and making steps are carried out by a third party.

20. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of providing a service wherein one or more of the providing, specifying, and making steps are carried out for compensation.

21. A method of dynamically configuring an accessible content viewer, comprising steps of:

providing a plurality of selectable functions;

specifying, for a particular instance of the accessible content viewer, selected ones of the provided functions that are to be available; and

upon activating the content viewer instance, making the specified selected ones available such that each of the available selected ones is selectable from the content viewer instance using a predetermined sequence of one or more keys.

22. A system for dynamically configuring an accessible content viewer, comprising:

a plurality of selectable functions;

a specification, for a particular instance of the accessible content viewer, of selected ones of the provided functions that are to be available;

means for making the specified selected ones available, upon activation of the content viewer instance; and

means for determining, when user input is received, which of the available selected ones should be activated by consulting a mapping that associates each of the specified selected ones with a predetermined sequence of one or more keys usable for providing user input.

23. A computer program product for dynamically configuring an accessible content viewer, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code means for providing a plurality of selectable functions;

computer-readable program code means for specifying, for a particular instance of the accessible content viewer, selected ones of the provided functions that are to be available; and

computer-readable program code means for making the specified selected ones available, upon activation of the content viewer instance, such that each of the available selected ones is selectable from the content viewer instance using a predetermined sequence of one or more keys.

24. A method of providing color-sensitive information on a display, comprising steps of:

rendering a color-selection image comprising a plurality of colors, wherein a plurality of mapping regions is associated with the image, each of the mapping regions having a boundary that generally corresponds to a boundary of a different one of the colors; and

interpreting a selection within the boundary of a particular one of the mapping regions as a selection of the color to which to boundary of the particular one generally corresponds.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the regions are invisible.

26. The method according to claim 24, wherein the selection within the boundary is made using keyboard input.

27. The method according to claim 24, wherein the selection within the boundary is made using input from a pointing device.