An Approach to Help Functionally Illiterate People with Graphical Reading Aids

About half the world’s population is illiterate, and since the command of a (natural) language is necessary for web access, these potential users are being left out of the information society. Such persons have been called the information poor; in developed countries they will be denied access to services such as e-commerce. In developing countries they will not have access to information which can be vital for employment, health, and the participation in political processes. This paper raises issues related to web access for users who have very poor language skills (functionally illiterate people). We present the design and a prototypical implementation of a browser which provides interactive reading aids to such persons.