Using Virtualization and noVNC to Support Assistive Technology in Cloud Computing

In this paper, we focus on how the virtualization technology can support the usage of Assistive Technology (AT) in cloud computing. AT provides software tools to people with disabilities. Unfortunately, these pieces of software are not easy to configure when a disabled user needs to occasionally use a shared computer, e.g., in an internet point, in a library, in a campus, and so on. The proposed solution allows users to access remote Virtual Machines (VMs) through an HTML5 web interface. These virtual environments meet the user´s personal demand: they support both traditional desktop applications and customized AT tools. In this way, people with disabilities can use any networked computer with a web browser to manage their personal working environments. Nevertheless, achieving such a goal in a cloud computing environment is not trivial at all, because existing remote desktop client viewer applications have not been designed to support the interaction with AT software running on VMs. To achieve such an objective, we propose an open source cloud-based system including no VNC as HTML5 remote desktop proxy/client web application, Virtual Network Computing (VNC) as open source technology to access a remote VM, Oracle Virtual Box as hypervisor, and CLEVER as Virtual Infrastructure Manager (VIM) middleware.