Using Virtualization and Guacamole/VNC to Provide Adaptive User Interfaces to Disabled People in Cloud Computing

Assistive Technology (AT) provides essential computer accessibility for people with disabilities. In this paper, we examine how Cloud computing can provide adaptive user interfaces to people with disabilities in order to enable them accessing AT tools in form of Software as a Service (SaaS). The proposed solution consists in creating adaptive user interfaces deploying AT tools in Virtual Machines (VMs) which users can manage through the Internet. By using an HTML5-based web interface, computer users with disabilities are able to interact with personalized virtual desktops from any networked computer by means of a web browser without having to setup additional software on the physical machine. Nevertheless, using AT software in web-accessed VMs is not so easy as well as in physical Desktops, because several issues have to be overcome. In order to address such issues, we discuss an architecture integrating Guacamole, i.e., an HTML5 remote desktop gateway, Virtual Network Computing (VNC), i.e., a technology to control a remote Desktop, Virtual Box, i.e., a virtual machine monitor (or hyper visor), and CLEVER a Virtual Infrastructure Manager (VIM) middleware.