Why read if you can skim: towards enabling faster screen reading

Abstract

Skimming broadly refers to different speed-reading methods that aim to enhance the rate of reading without unduly compromising on comprehension and retention of information. Skimming of content could be particularly useful for people with vision impairments, who frequently experience information overload when listening to reams of digital content online. Support for usable and useful skimming in modern screen readers remains very poor. This paper explores the user requirements for a usable non-visual skimming interface, informed by a large-scale human-subject experiment with blind individuals. Specifically, the study has: (1) helped identify the type of skimming that can be useful in screen reading main content in web pages; (2) led to the development of a usable interface for accessible online skimming; (3) demonstrated the utility of the accessible skimming interface in two realistic use scenarios; (4) identified automatic summarization techniques that could "closely" approximate skimming methods used by sighted people.