Auditory navigation in hyperspace: design and evaluation of a non-visual hypermedia system for blind users

This paper presents the design and evaluation of a hypermedia system for bl ind users, making use of a nonvisual interface? non-speech sounds, three in put devices, and a 37 node hypermedia module. The important components of a n effective auditory interface are discussed, together with the design of t he auditory interface to hypermedia material. The evaluation, which was con ducted over several weeks and used a range of complementary objective and s ubjective measures to assess users' performance and preferences, is describ ed. The findings from the evaluation with nine visually impaired student pa rticipants are presented. The results from this research can be applied to the design and evaluation of other non-visual hypermedia systems, such as a uditory World Wide Web (WWW) browsers and digital talking books.