Touch Screen Accessibility via Auditory Feedback and Visual Highlighting
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Touch screen systems present barriers to individuals with disabilities, such as impaired vision, language unfamiliarity, or illiteracy, as they cannot effectively interact with featureless and language-dependent virtual buttons.
Innovation Solution
A method that involves engaging a touch screen with a contact point to generate audible announcements and highlighting elements, allowing users to activate virtual buttons through dragging or key actuation, enabling accessible interaction without altering the existing touch screen hardware or operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a touch screen system uses a featureless display surface with virtual buttons, then the interface can be flexibly tailored and simplified, but accessibility for individuals with impaired vision or language becomes poor
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides audible feedback when a user contacts a virtual button, announcing the button's function or label. This auditory feedback loop enables individuals with impaired vision or language to understand and interact with the touch screen effectively, resolving the accessibility issue while preserving the flexible virtual interface design
Solution Approach 2:
An intermediary audio output mechanism is introduced between the visual display and the user. The audio system translates visual button information into auditory signals, serving as a mediator that bridges the gap between the featureless display surface and users with impaired vision or language capabilities
2Ease of operation
If audible announcements are generated for each virtual button element, then accessibility for individuals with impaired vision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The audio output device serves multiple functions: it provides audible announcements for accessibility, confirms button activation, and can convey navigation instructions. This multi-functionality justifies the added complexity by delivering multiple user feedback channels through a single audio subsystem
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically generates and delivers audible announcements based on the touch screen's own operational state. When a user contacts a virtual button, the system self-announces the button's function without requiring external input or configuration, making the accessibility feature autonomous and reducing operational complexity for users
Data Source
AI summary
A method is defined for providing an individual increased accessibility to a touch screen displaying first and second elements. The individual initially engages the touch screen with a contact point at a first location. The contact point is dragged across the touch screen into engagement with the first element and the first element is highlighted in response thereto. Thereafter, the individual may drag the contact point across the touch screen from the first element into engagement with the second element whereby the second element is highlighted on the touch screen and the highlight is removed from the first element. Audible announcements may accompany the contacting of the first or second elements with the contact point.