ACTF Accessibility Internet Browser for Multimedia (aiBrowser)

• Overview
• aiBrowser Releases
• Getting started
• Building aiBrowser
• System Requirements

Overview

The use of multimedia content has increased dramatically over the last few years, but people with limited or no vision have not been able to fully enjoy the benefits of these advances. This new multimedia browsing accessibility tool provides people with visual impairments a level of control more comparable to a sighted person using a mouse. For example, while enjoying a streaming video, visually impaired people can now select the play button by simply pressing a predefined shortcut key instead of searching in the content for buttons that control the video.

Users can also adjust the volume of an individual source in order to identify and listen to different sound sources without losing track of the screen-reading software because of the sound of a video. If a content creator wants to provide a voice narrative for a video, he can write a text script as a piece of metadata; the tool adds the audio descriptions by using text-to-speech engines. Future plans for extending this technology include enabling flexible audio speed control and contributing this work to an open-source development project. Such contribution will accelerate development and adoption of tools that make Web-based multimedia content accessible to the visually impaired.

aiBrowser Releases

There are two types of downloads, installer (exe file) and zip file. To use aiBrowser with JAWS screen reader, download an installer version of aiBrowser.

All downloads are provided under the terms and conditions of the Eclipse Foundation Software User Agreement.

Zip File

Installer

Getting started

ACTF aiBrowser is an Eclipse RCP application. So, you can easily launch aiBrowser by executing the 'aiBrowser.exe'.

• Installer version: Download and execute an installer. Then, follow the instructions from the installation wizard. After the installation, you can start aiBrowser from 'All Programs' menu > 'ACTF Accessibility Internet Browser' > 'aiBrowser'. Online help is available from Help menu.
• Zip file version: Download and unpack a zip file, and execute aiBrowser.exe in the aiBrowser folder. Online help is available from Help menu.

System Requirements

• Operating Systems
  
  • Windows® XP SP2 (recommended) or above
• Hardware
  • 50MB disk space for installation
  • 100MB disk space (150MB recommended)
  • 512MB memory (1GB+ recommended)
• Software
  • Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or above
  • Internet Explorer 6.0 or above
  • To use Flash Content: Adobe® Flash Player, Version 8 or above