Introduction

Vast amounts of information are now available in electronic forms: from novels to recipes, from encyclopedia to weather reports. This trend to provide information in electronic format is set to continue and increase, with new forms for electronic information provision appearing. CD's, the World Wide Web (WWW) and eBooks are all variations on the theme of electronic information provision.

Theoretically, the increased provision of information in electronic forms has great advantages for everyone, including people with a variety of print disabilities (i.e. blind, partially sighted, deaf and dyslexic). The presentation of the information can often be configured to assist in overcoming the disabilities in question. However, in practice, a growing number of people have serious problems with reading electronic information. These problems focus on properties like orientation and navigation, usability and accessibility.

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Therefore, the three key objectives of the MultiReader Project are:

• To develop a thorough understanding of the problems of navigating through and effectively using large multimedia documents such as eBooks and the WWW by both mainstream and print disabled readers;
  
• To design, implement and evaluate a prototypical electronic reading system which will meet the needs of both mainstream and print disabled readers;
  
• To participate in the development of emerging standards in multimedia and eBook technologies and influence them positively in terms of usability and accessibility for all users.
  

Taking each of these objectives in turn, a number of sub-goals and motivations for the work become apparent.

Until now, the navigational problems in using large multimedia documents have largely been underestimated in multimedia research. Although there is an acknowledgement that the "lost in hyperspace" phenomenon exists and various innovative navigational systems have been developed, these have not been clearly derived from user requirements, nor have they been evaluated in terms of their effectiveness in supporting users. Thus the starting point for the MultiReader project is a thorough analysis of the navigational problems of using multimedia documents.

The next major phase of the project is to design, implement and evaluate a prototype. This prototype consists of two components: the multimodal interfaces and the underlying multimedia document structures. In particular, three different interfaces with different combinations of modalities are developed for the MultiReader system: a non-visual interface for blind readers, a visual-only interface for deaf readers and a multimodal interface for all other groups, including mainstream readers. Readers are able to switch between the interfaces, if they wish. Within each interface type there is a possibility to individualise the interface to meet the needs of particular readers and particular reading situations (language and cultural situation).

Finally, throughout the project, the MultiReader Project team seeks to actively participate in and influence development of emerging standards in multimedia and eBook technologies, particularly in terms of usability and accessibility for all users. The MultiReader consortium has therefore joined the OpenEBook Forum, the international group which is developing platforms and standards in this area.