Auditory Presentation of Graphical User Interfaces                                                           

Elizabeth D. Mynatt
Graphics, V isualization & Usability Center                                                     
College of Computing                                                                            
Georgia Institute of Technology                                                                 
beth@cc.gatech.edu                                                                                                                                                          


Abstract                                                                                                     
The majority of work in auditory user interfaces has focused on adding auditory cues            
to a visual interface. This paper presents work in designing interactive auditory-only         
interfaces wher e the design of the interface is driven by a challenging task --                
providing access to graphical user interfaces for people who are blind. This task              
requires that the auditory-only interface must be able to provide the same                     
functionality supported by a graphical user interface. A prototype system called     
Mercator is described as well as some of the design strategies for Mercators auditory       
interfaces. The results from a small user study are also presented with a concluding          
discussion on futur e research efforts.                                                         




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