Blind users' mental model of web page using touch screen augmented with audio feedback

The purpose of this study is to discover in detail the two-dimensional mental model created by the blind people using touch screen with audio feedback. It is hypothesized that by augmenting a touch screen display with audio feedback, blind user would be able to have two-dimensional perspective in their mental model. If their mental model of a web page is two-dimensional, the blind people should be able to gain an overview of the web pages accurately, which is important for navigation of the web page. This paper discusses an on-going study to elicit mental models from the blind users using diagrammatic epresentation. The study so far revealed that there is a significant difference between performances using screen-reader program and touch-screen display with audio feedback. However, the performance seems to be affected by page complexity.