Generating User Interfaces for Users with Disabilities Using Libraries of XSLT, UIML, and Stylesheet Files

We describe a method for reconfiguring and reformatting documents, in particular web pages, to meet the needs of users with different abilities. The method merges our previous work on semantic markup [1] and presentation of intelligent documents [2] with a new approach to interoperability of document processing [3]. Semantic markup provides information about the purpose of elements in a document, in the spirit of HTML5 [4]. The work on intelligent documents provides means for dynamically adding functionality to a presentation system. The first new concept in this paper is to use XSLT [5] to reformat and reconfigure the material in a document to better meet the needs of a user. The second new concept is to create public libraries of XSLT, UIML, and stylesheet files for classes of users with different needs. A user then configures his or her browser for that user’s abilities. When the browser opens a document, it retrieves an appropriate publicly accessible library to use in transforming and presenting the document.