Web browser accessibility using open source software

A Web browser provides a uniform user interface to \ndifferent types of information. Making this interface universally \naccessible and more interactive is a long term goal still far from being \nachieved. Universally accessible browsers require novel interaction \nmodalities and additional functionalities, for which existing browsers \ntend to provide only partial solutions. Although functionality for Web \naccessibility can be found as open source and free software components, \ntheir reuse and integration is complex because they were developed in \ndiverse implementation environments, following standards and conventions \nincompatible with the Web. To enable the integration of existing partial \nsolutions within a mainstream Web browser environment, we have developed a \nmiddleware infrastructure, AMICO:WEB. This enables browser access to a \nwide variety of open source and free software components. The main \ncontribution of AMICO:WEB is in enabling the syntactic interoperability \nbetween Web extension mechanisms and a variety of integration mechanisms \nused by open source and free software components. It also bridges the \nsemantic differences between the high-level world of Web XML-based APIs \nand the low-level APIs of the device-oriented world. We discuss the \ndesign decisions made during the development of AMICO:WEB in the context \nof Web accessibility, using two typical usage scenarios: one describing a \ndisabled user using a mainstream Web browser with additional interaction \nmodalities; another describing a non-disabled user browsing in a \nsuboptimal interaction situation. \