Following is a list of resources that contain guidelines for an accessible user interface. Each has been included because some or all of the information it contains is relevant to the user interface for digital talking books. Please send any comments, suggestions for additional items, etc to jdix@loc.gov
Summary: Describes problems met by people with various disabilities in using standard consumer products and proposes designs that increase usability. Areas germane to the DTB UI: "Maximize the number of people who will not miss important display info if they can't see" (section 0-5) and "maximize the number of people who can determine the status/setting of the controls if they can't see them" (section I-4).
Summary: Experiments exploring blind person's access to computer and telecommunications systems. Slick and entertaining overview of access problems and solutions for many categories of disabilities. Includes specific research results involving blind participants. Areas germane to the DTB UI: "General Design Principles" and "Usability Problems & Solutions"
Summary: Proposes a specification for presenting a document in an "auditory display" to persons who are "functional blind". Uses cues that may be available to speech synthesizer hardware such as pitch, rate, pause, and volume variations. This could serve as a way to specify control feedback for the DTB UI. Areas germane to the DTB UI: Page 1 overview.
Summary: Explores hierarchical auditory menu trees. User performance and preferences are empirically determined. Author recommends 4 choices per menu. Areas germane to the DTB UI: Abstract and conclusion.
Summary: Provides guidelines to designers of consumer electronics to facilitate the design of products that are accessible to a wider range of individuals, including individuals with disabilities. Areas germane to the DTB UI: Section 7 Design Evaluation Checklist, subsection 3.0 Auditory Displays; Section 10 Design Guidelines, subsection 3.0 Auditory Displays.
Summary: The author believes "speech interfaces for the mainstream computer user will be the next big revolution once the Internet excitement has blown over". He presents his ideas on audio user interfaces. Areas germane to the DTB UI: Section 4, Concrete Implementation Of An Audio Desktop.
Summary: This page contains draft guidelines for the development of accessible user agents and reviews of current user agents evaluated against the draft guidelines. This work is being coordinated by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the W3C.