Accessible Screenshots for Blind and Visually Impaired People

Abstract

Training material to learn new applications mostly include screenshots to describe the structure of the application or to represent required interaction steps. Blind people have no access to such graphics which are needed to learn handling the application. However, screen reader users need adapted information to learn effective interaction strategies in GUI environments. We propose a concept to make screenshots accessible for blind screen reader users by mapping ui elements and states to HTML elements. Based on a pilot study with two blind people we find requirements that ended up in a tool that automates the generation of interactive, accessible screenshots.