Enabling scaleable, efficient, non-visual web browsing services

Over the last few decades, the discipline of Web Accessibility has been focused on building more efficient and more effective speech generators for Web Browsers. The visual browser interface is central to the current paradigm. However, in many cases, visual interaction is not required or desired, e.g. it is not relevant for blind people. More generally, when the input and output points are WAV files, SMS messages or natural queries, it becomes very clear that going through the visual user interface is overkill. In this paper we introduce a solution to this problem - a scalable, efficient, non-visual web browser that works with a Web whose central assumption is that visual interaction is an integral part of the user experience. © 2009 IEEE.