Disabled Technologies Pave the Way for Next Gen Mobile Internet
Scientists at The University of Manchester have a launched a new project which seeks to combine website accessibility with mobile phone technologies. The aim of the three-year project is to develop a host of new software with the potential to make the mobile web as simple to use as the internet.
Currently, websites generally have to be re-designed to work on mobile phones. This is due to the fact that many conventional websites can't be displayed on small screens. Consequently, both the content and the choice of websites available on the mobile web are limited.
The RIAM project will draw on the experiences of blind and visually impaired users and the technologies they use to surf the internet, such as screenreaders, in a bid to simplify the content of conventional websites so that they can be accessed via the mobile web.
A core part of the project will be the development of a validation engine which will screen websites to ensure they are accessible and mobile web compatible. The validation engine will work in tandem with a transcoding programme which will de-clutter web pages and reorder them into a web mobile friendly format. Once transcoded the aim is to let the user determine how the pages are displayed on their mobile phone.