Rendering tables in audio: The interaction of structure and reading styles

Tables remain a persistent problem for visually impaired people using screen readers. Tables are complex structures that are widely used for different purposes such as spatial layout or data summarisation. The multi-dimensional nature of tables challenges the linear interaction styles typically supported by screen readers. To read a table, a user needs to maintain coherency of, and interact with more than one dimension. In this paper, we first characterise why tables are useful in print, but difficult to read in the audio. We present a survey of the relationship between table structure, intention and the reading styles employed to use the content of tables. We then present two different approaches for interacting with tables non-visually. These approaches are designed to support the characteristics of tables that make them such a popular and useful means of conveying information. The first approach provides a small table browser called EVITA (Enabling Visually Impaired Table Access), whose aim is to enable non-visual table browsing and reading in an analogous manner to the print medium. The second approach provides a table lineariser to transform tables into a form such that they can be easily read by screen readers. Copyright 2004 ACM.