Representing text attributes haptically on a webpage for the visually impaired

Web accessibility in terms of providing comprehensive information on a webpage is an issue for the visually impaired users. This could be due to the websites developed are usually with sighted users in mind and the unavailability of an assistive technology to fully support the information presented. The loss in semantic information on the webpage creates frustration among these special groups of users during web browsing. This paper addresses the problem by examining how non-visual text elements such as font attributes and text hierarchy could be presented to the visually impaired users. A webpage that enables the font attributes to be interacted haptically using a Braille line 20 cell was developed. An evaluation study was conducted with a group of visually-impaired Internet users to assess the effectiveness of the webpage. The results showed that most of the users are able to visualize the text structure of the page. The haptically-enabled font attributes improve the readability of the webpage and enable the users to understand better the content presented.