SCREEN ACCESS MANAGER FOR THE IBM PC (SAM)

THE PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH PROJECT WILL BE TO TEST THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING A SCREEN ACCESS MANGER (SAM) UTILITY TO ASSIST VISUALLY IMPAIRED INDIVIDUALS IN ACCESSINGDIFFICULT TO USE OFF-THE-SHELF SOFTWARE FOR THE IBM PC, IBM AT, AND COMPATIBLES. THE PROJECT WILL FOCUS ON DETERMINING A METHODOLOGY (LOGIC) FOR AUTOMATICALLY LOCATING THE DIFFERENT NEARLY RANDOM VISUAL SCREEN FORMATS PRESENTED ON THE PC DISPLAY. IN ORDER TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CURRENT ADAPTIVE AIDS, THE SAM WILL BE DESIGNED TO WORK AS A UTILITY WITH THESE SYSTEMS. THIS DESIGN WILL ALLOW TEACHERS AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED USERS TO USE THEIR CURRENT ADAPTIVE AIDS, WHILE GAINING FAST AND ACCURATE ACCESS TO THOUSANDS OF VERY VISUAL OFF-THE-SHELF COMPUTER PROGRAMS. THE PROJECT OBJECTIVES ARE: (1) SELECT A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF "ILL-BEHAVED" PROGRAMS; (2) ANALYZE DATA INPUT, PROCESSING AND DISPLAY METHODS OF THE SAMPLE PROGRAMS TO IDENTIFY COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OR PATTERNS THAT LINK THEM TOGETHER; (3) CREATE FLOW CHARTS AND DEFINE ALGORITHMS USED BY THESE PROGRAMS FOR LOCATING TEXT ON THE SCREEN; AND (4) CREATE, VIA STANDARD AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CONSTRUCTS,THE LOGIC ALGORITHM FOR THE INTERFACE SECTION OF THE SCREEN ACCESS MANAGER.