Volume 8, Issue 1, January – 2023 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Development of a Semantic Web

Framework for the Blind
1
akazue Maureen,
2
Comfort Ekpewu ,
3
edith Omede,
4
edje E. Abel
Department of Computer Science, Faculty of science, Delta State University Abraka

Abstract:- This research addresses some of the situation [1]. Simple data retrieval operations that would be
important issues related to web accessibility in the trivial to most users are comparatively complex for users
context of blind users. The problems of Web data who have a visual disability such as blindness or print
accessibility and navigation for blind users have become impairment. Blind users rely on tactile auditory output to
an active research field for the past decade. Many interact with computers; however, web pages are not
techniques have been created to solve them, some are designed with these access methods in mind. Users often
hardware-based and others are software based. Yet, the find themselves overwhelmed by complicated methods in
web is rapidly evolving toward the far-anticipated mind. Users usually find themselves overwhelmed by
Semantic Web (SW): a revolutionary vision extending complicated pages that are bloated with non-cohesive
Web information with well-defined meaning so that it information, lack structure, and are inconsistent with other
becomes more easily accessible by human users and pages on the same site [1].
automated processes. As a result, SW technological
breakthroughs such as ontologies and semantic data Assistive Technologies (ATs) such as screen readers
description, as well as data representation and employ the underlying document object model (DOM)
manipulation technologies (i.e RDF, OWL, and structure of a web page to narrate its contents to a blind user
SPARQL) are being recently explored to improve data [2];[3]. Web developers must follow the W3C and other
accessibility for blind Web surfers. This research, briefly criteria while designing websites to guarantee that ATs
explores existing studies targeting Web data accessibility perform properly. Unfortunately, due to a lack of
for blind users ranging from traditional techniques understanding among web developers, this need is not being
(Braille output, screen readers, etc.) to semantically satisfied adequately, and as a result, a huge amount of web
enhanced techniques (using Speech and alternative material remains unavailable to ATs and blind users. Web
speech-based interfaces for human-computer 2.0 has accelerated this trend by providing end users with
interaction). A semantic web for the blind was designed web authoring skills [4]; [2]. Thus, the goal of ATs is to
and implemented using JAVASCRIPT, HTML, CSS, disclose such inaccessible webpage information using
and MySQL. After the evaluation of the developed creative approaches and deliver them to blind users [2]. The
framework, the result of the research revealed that it has compelling need for more user friendly products as well as
load-time as 75%, success ratio of 0.93, repository size of the recent trends towards universal accessibility and greater
65%, and CPU-time up to 80% and comparing it to the usability of interactive applications is highly important [5].
existing performance evaluation, it can be said that the
proposed developed framework out performed. The problems such as stigmatization, difficulties in
web accessibility, and mobility are what motivated this
Keywords:- Semantic; Framework; Blind; Web; Interaction research. Due to the continuity of the blind persons
struggling with Web access as a result of the fact that most
I. INTRODUCTION webpages are increasingly reliant on visual content and
graphical design, even in the face of screen readers or
The internet is a vast resource that has increased the talking browsers [6], and in the high informality of the
availability of information by stratospheric proportions; declarative graphic representations that were used to
unfortunately, information availability is not proportional to represent knowledge and support automated systems is what
accessibility. The internet is overwhelmingly visual and the brought difficulties in web accessibility and mobility
advancement of multimedia on the web is not improving the according to [7].

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Fig 1 The Semantic Web for the Data and Services on the Web [8].

Fig 2 The Workflow of a Semantic Web [9]

Fig 3 The Semantic Web RDF Core Ontology Repository [10].

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ISSN No:-2456-2165
The materials and findings of this research provides the and with large text so that they may be easily read by
awareness that blind users can surf the web. This was achieved those who are blind.
by providing an alternate speech-based interface for human-
computer interaction. This aids developers to incorporate speech These adaptive approaches allow developers to take
recognition while designing any program to aid blind users and advantage of the pre-existing functions present in an
create the most realistic method of utilizing the Internet for application, which they would not have the time or
their vital and routine tasks that will allow them to live resources to implement themselves. However, it can be
independently and with dignity. technically difficult to adapt a piece of software to perform a
different task to which it was originally intended, especially
II. METHODS AND MATERIALS ADOPTED if the code is highly complex or proprietary.

The research evaluated existing semantic web systems  Hardware Based Techniques
and their techniques with a view to exposing their flaws These techniques provide the user with hardware
through in-depth literature review. The literature review was interfaces using the universal language Braille 1 (used by 2
followed by an analysis of how to apply better discovered out of 10 blind people). These are implemented through
features that will efficiently build a quality and easily devices like the Braille keyboard (data input) and Braille
accessible semantic web for the blind. A Javascript web- display (data output). Yet, such devices are generally
based framework which used easy simple setup rules and expensive, and need to be mounted and configured manually
intelligent keyboard keys detection scoring to achieve high on each computer system (e.g., PC, tablet, smartphone, etc.)
rates of internet usage among the blind. The semantic web to be utilized by the blind user.
framework designed for easy accessibility of the blind to
world-wide-web incorporated knowledge, best practices and
technology in mitigating the problem of stigmatization.

The developed framework incorporated the wide use of

ontology, meaningful semantics, suitable programming
language and best database tools for implementation to
ensure that the success ratio, CPU-time and load time are
not less than one. In other words, the proposed framework
used SAT which provided a common interface for service
providers (SPs) in order to register their services according
to the descriptors supported by the proposed framework
Fig 4 Main hardware accessibility techniques for blind users.
ontologies and integrating those procedures and techniques
that could be easily adopted under the current computing
environments with affordable consumption of resources. The Braille system is a method based on tactile
contact, widely used by blind people in order to read and
write text.
The framework developed is then tested, validated and
reviewed through its functionalities for future and
 Software Based Techniques
improvement.
These techniques can be implemented on any basic
[11] explains how the existing tools for disabled users computer system and do not require special hardware:
are ``adaptive in nature'' so the methodology that would be  Speech synthesizers are software tools that transform
used, would be adaptive methodology whose primary text-based input into (human) speech output.
purpose is to extend an existing piece of software to  Screen readers (e.g., VoiceOver (mac), YASR (Linux),
incorporate some new functionality that improves disabled Tiny Voice (Dos)) are software tools that attempt to
user interaction. identify and interpret what is being displayed on the
screen of a computer: the text shown on screen is
 Such Adaptations Can Be Categorized In Three Different straightforwardly transformed into audio (speech)
Levels: output, whereas images and other multimedia objects are
 Alternative access adaptations extend an existing confined to their alternative text descriptions which are
solution to provide support for specialist input/output transformed into speech.
equipment such as Braille displays or screen magnifiers.  Talking browsers are internet browsers that transform an
 Information content adaptations involve modifying the input Webpage into an audio (speech-based) output
representation of data to make it more accessible. Such using speech synthesizers, providing some shortcuts
an adaptation may extend html to make it more (e.g., list of headings (insert+F6), list of links
accessible to text-to-speech engines by adding further (insert+F7). While some of these tools have been shown
descriptive tags to the visual elements of a page. efficient (such as WebTalkster, Word read, Browse-
 User Interface adaptations involve changing the way aloud, yet they remain confined to reading text-only
users interact with an application in order to cater for the input that appears on the screen.
needs of a specific user group. Such an adaptation may
alter a web browser to render web pages without images

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Volume 8, Issue 1, January – 2023 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
While the above software-based techniques have been user in audio or sound-based modality). They do not
shown practical and efficient, they were designed to provide however target data input.
data output only (transforming and presenting data to the

Fig 5 The overall architecture of the proposed system back-end system

III. IMPLEMENTATION  The DMM supports the following operations:

 It manages incoming requests for services. It processes
As soon as a request for service is launched by the the requests via a query engine that submits the
client user application, the DMM submits a semantic query appropriate semantic queries to the ontological
to the ontological framework in order to retrieve the framework. After processing the DMM request, the
appropriate service. The retrieved service is invoked by the ontology replies by a list of retrieved services and their
corresponding wrapper via SOAP messages exchange. locations.
 It also performs invocation of real WSs via the
The data management module (DMM) handles corresponding wrapper, a client application, which is
incoming user requests for services. The DMM listens to the aware of the valid mappings that should occur between
request, decomposes it, searches for the appropriate services real WS data types and the ones defined in the ontology.
through the query engine and retrieves the service that best In this way, the wrapper becomes capable to invoke the
fulfils the user request. real service when receives a request for service
invocation in the common ontological format. It finally
 In The Back-End System Architecture The Following wraps content returned by the previously invoked WS
Units Are Included: and sends it back to the user application in the common
 SAT. This component provides a common interface for ontological format.
SPs in order to register their services according to the
descriptors supported by the ASK-IT ontologies. As Content exchange between DMM and real WSs is
soon as a new service is registered, its location is stored performed by appropriate messages defined in the Simple
in a service repository. Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
 The ontological framework consists of the overall
ontology, which consists of a number of domain-specific  The Service Alignment Tool
ontologies and the service repository. An ontology Service alignment is the process of registering an
author is granted access to the ontology in order to existing WS into the back-end subsystem of the proposed
perform modifications on it. The service repository acts framework so that it adheres to the ontological definitions of
as an index of services, which are linked to the ontology. services. This process is performed by any SP who is
The structure of the overall ontology and the separate interested to provide one or more services that deliver
domain-specific ontologies are presented in below. content in the one of the application domains and for those
user groups that are defined in the context of the proposed
project. Service alignment is facilitated by the SAT, which
is equipped with a web-based user-friendly interface, shown

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ISSN No:-2456-2165
in Figure 3. The aforementioned process results into the defined in the service ontology. SPs correlate their WSs
completion of service integration whose purpose is to enable with the ontologies. By doing so, WSs are consistently
the efficient invocation of services whenever it is requested marked up. The alignment mechanism facilitates a flexible
by any of the integrated client applications. standardization process.

 Service Integration In this context, ‘similarity’ between the ontology and

SPs participate in the service alignment process by the WS is established when the following criteria are
being able to establish relationships between the services satisfied:
and the ontologies. WSs are described in the service  the inputs of the supported WS operations are identical
ontology by the service model that defines the operations to the inputs provided by the service model’s operations
and the structure that should characterize any registered WS.  the outputs of the real WS operations are described by
the outputs provided by the service model in the
Before the alignment takes place, SAT collects ontology.
information about the SPs. Any registered provider has the
ability to navigate through the supported models as these are

Fig 6 A snapshot of the SAT user interface

Notes: SPs may exploit drag-and-drop functionality in where P_id is the provider’s identifier, wsdl is the URI
order to provide mappings of data types and operations to the WSDL service description and, op is a list of defined
defined in their services to the corresponding fields. operations. Each operation is defined as:

The SAT allows any SP to see the ontological op =< name i, ,1 …, in, o >,
operations that are defined in similar manner to those where name is the name of the operation, i1, …, in its
appearing in a WSDL file. Furthermore, by clicking on the inputs and o its output.
operation models, SPs can get information about the inputs
and outputs that their services must have in order to comply Let us assume that service S is described in the
with the model. ontology by the service ontological representation Sm. Two
arbitrary operations op ∈ S and opm ∈ Sm have a degree of
After the identification of the appropriate model, the similarity equal to 1, when they have equal number of inputs
providers should select from a drop-down list the operation and also: ik ≡ imk and o ≡ om, ∀ik, o∈op and imk, om∈opm,
that complies with the service they want to register. Thus, where k = 1…n.
they provide the uniform resource identifier (URI) of the
WSDL file that describes the service. At this point, the tool The alignment process, which is performed by the
automatically parses the WSDL file and extracts the provider initially determines the degree of similarity
required information. In this context, any service can be between the operation defined in the ontology and the one
described by the triplet: that has been selected to be included as part of a registered
service. It is up to the SP to verify the accuracy of the
S =< P _id, wsdl, op[ ] >, alignment operation and select the service to be aligned.

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The last step of the service alignment procedure access a WS, it should have the client stub code of the
involves mapping of inputs and outputs between the service integrated service, which provides the ability to call the
to be aligned and the proposed framework ontological service each time this is requested by the user interface.
service model. This process, which is supported by drag and
drop operations on the GUI is illustrated in the snapshot of  Usage Scenarios
Figure 6. Once this final step is completed, the information In the framework, a wide range of services have been
of the alignment operation is stored in a registry of services, defined with respect to the following domains:
known as service repository. In this way, the invocation of  transportation
services is enabled through the back-end system. The  tourism and leisure
invocation mechanism handles incoming requests for  personal support services
specific content by the client applications and launches the  work, business and education
appropriate services in order to receive the required content.  home automation
 social relations and community building.
 Service Invocation
As soon as a service alignment process is completed, All content, required for the implementation of the
the newly aligned service is integrated within the system’s various use cases, becomes available through a set of WSs.
back-end and at the same time a new entry is added in the The required content is being rendered on the user device,
service repository. Actual service integration involves each time a user sends a request via the user interface for a
manual generation and compilation of the required source particular type of content. It should be noted that the whole
code of the wrapper that corresponds to the newly aligned process of service search, selection and invocation is
service. This wrapper provides the necessary mappings and executed in a seamless way on behalf of the users. For
transformations between SP’s native data type formats and example, a user who is interested in finding information
the proposed framework ontological description of data about the available restaurants that are located within a
types and services. specific range activates the search for points of interest
(POI) application performing the following actions:
After the completion of the alignment process, the
invocation of the real WSs is then performed based on  selects the restaurant POI type from a drop-down list
SOAP. Each WS is described by a WSDL file, which  specifies the range (e.g., 1 km)
contains a complete description of the WS that facilitates the  provides accessibility preferences of the POIs to be
invocation process. returned (optional)
 presses a ‘search’ button on the user interface.
•
This software, often referred to as the WS client stub is .
a WS client. Thus, in order for the DMM to be able to

Fig 7 Snapshots of the system’ PDA end-user application

The user interface then sends a request for a list of quality of service (QoS) criteria is selected for invocation
POIs to the DMM. A service search and retrieval and then a message is sent to the DMM. In practice, this is
mechanism submit a semantic query to the ontology performed by a filtering mechanism that ranks the returned
requesting a list of POI search services. Among the returned results according to the user’s previous choices. After this
services, the one that is ranked first according to a set of step, the appropriate wrapper is activated whose

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responsibility is to transform user input into the particular  Indoor Route Guidance:-
WS-specific format. The wrapper finally invokes the service Route guidance is also available as a stand-alone
providing the right values for its parameters. service, activated on demand. Users may explicitly request
to be guided to any POI via accessible routes, starting form
 The main QoS criteria that are taken into account for the an indoor location.
invocation of services include:
 Outdoor Route Guidance:-
 The frequency of use of the particular service, i.e., how The route guidance service is offered for both indoor
many times the user has requested invocation of this and outdoor locations. The invocation of this service results
service. in a route drawn on a map that the user should follow in
 The geographical location of the service. This is order to reach the requested destination. As the user moves
especially necessary in order to make sure that the from an indoor place to an outdoor area, the map changes
selected service will provide localized or location- accordingly.
specific information, which is required in a mobile and
ubiquitous environment.  Search For Social Events:-
The user is able to request a list of social events that
In the most common use cases, users request the may occur nearby. As soon as the users select a specific
availability of general-purpose location-aware, localisation, social event and express their interest in this event, the route
guidance and travel assisting services. guidance service is invoked in order to show them how to
move to the place of interest.
Figure 7 above shows a number of such use cases,
assuming that the user is equipped with a Java-enabled PDA  Distance Learning:-
device with an integrated GPS sensor. All these use cases The proposed system distance learning functionality
involve user requests for content that is available via a set of contains a set of services and tools to facilitate courses taken
registered WSs. For each user request for content, a on a long-distance basis.
corresponding WS is invoked that has been aligned on the
grid.  Distance Working:-
Supports e-working capabilities (e-mail, calendar,
All screenshots of the main application shown in document authoring), which are enable by the invocation of
Figure 7 are displayed on a device running Java J9 version the corresponding WS.
1.4 under Windows Mobile version 6.0. The following use
cases and the corresponding end-user services are displayed. IV. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

 Indoor User Localisation:- These following set of metrics captures various aspects
Users send through the user interface a request for a of performance and scalability evaluation of semantic web
localisation service. This service actually returns a map that databases. During the proposed framework’s evaluation,
shows the user’s current location. When a user is located these two important parameters were considered, i.e.,
inside a building, an appropriate network of indoor location- execution time and resource usage for execution cost of a
aware sensors (e.g., Zigbee devices) is required in order for test case. Based on test cases, we considered main memory,
the service to be able to locate the user position. In this case, CPU time and/or secondary disk space as cost primitives for
an indoor map is displayed by the invocation of the resource usage to build an in-depth study of performance.
appropriate WS.
 Load Time
 Outdoor Localisation:- This metric gives loading time T for datasets of
The localisation operation supports seamless transition different sizes. Load time is measured as a cumulative time
between indoor and outdoor maps. Once the user leaves an to build a repository structure, build initial index structures
indoor area, the map that displays the current user position and generate statistics about a dataset for query
automatically (‘seamlessly’) changes to an outdoor map. In optimization.
outdoor mode, the user position is received via the GPS TLoad = TRepositoryCreation + TLoadDataset +
sensor. The opposite action is also supported, i.e., when the TIndexCreation
user goes from outdoors to indoors, the map changes back to + TStatisticsGeneration
an indoor map.
 Query Response Time
 Search For Pois:- This metric provides query execution time T for each
This facility allows the user to search for POIs of test carried on datasets of different sizes. Query execution
specific type (e.g., museums, restaurants, etc.). Information time includes time to connect to a repository, execute the
about the requested POIs is based on the user profile and query, print its result set and then close the connection.
specific type of impairment. After the user receives a list of TExecution = TOpenConnection + TExecuteQuery +
available points of interest, route guidance capability is TPrintResultSet
enabled, as an integrated facility, in order to guide users to +TCloseConnection
the place chosen from the list of POIs.

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 Main Memory  Cpu Time
This metric compute memory required for execution of This metric shows CPU time consumed for processing
a particular test case. This is the amount of memory needed a particular test case. Whenever a test case is executed by a
to hold working buffers. Small size of main memory is a user, it engages some of system resources among which
limit on size of the semantic data that can reside or process CPU time is important, because the higher the percentage of
in main memory. For our analysis, we have considered the a CPU used by a semantic store, the lesser the power the
maximum committed memory for a task as memory used to CPU can devote to other tasks.
measure each task.

Table1 Semantic Web Databases and Datasets Success Ratio

Datasets
Entries 1 2 3 4 SREntries
S F S F S F S F
First Usage 7 0 7 0 7 0 0 7 0.75
Second Usage 7 0 7 0 6 1 0 7 0.71
Third Usage 7 0 7 0 6 1 4 3 0.86
Fourth Usage 7 0 7 0 6 1 5 2 0.89
Fifth Usage 7 0 7 0 7 0 5 2 0.93
Sixth Usage 7 0 7 0 6 1 5 2 0.89
Seven Usage 7 0 7 0 6 1 5 2 0.89
SRDatasets 1.0 1.0 0.89 0.49

where SRentries and SRdataset are success ratio for entries

and dataset, respectively, ST entriesdataset(i) represents a number
of successful test on dataset i for entries, TTentriesdataset(i)
shows a number of total tests on dataset i for entries,
STdatasetentries(i) represents a number of successful tests on
store i for dataset and TTdatasetentries(i) represents a number of
total tests on entries i for dataset.

V. CONCLUSION

The results of the survey revealed that the blind

individuals have tough times accessing and navigating web
apps. It is commendable that developers do their best to
Fig 8 SR Entries incorporate all necessary tools and approaches into semantic
web application as technologies evolve on daily basis.
 Repository Size
This metric presents storage size S occupied by a Also, the developed semantics web framework should
dataset after loading it into persistent storage. Repository be employed for use by the blind students due to its
size is a composite figure of the total size of all files present consistency as well as processing power and computation
in the repository, including data files and index files. speed.
SRepository = SDataFiles + SIndexFiles
 The suggestions for further studies are as follows:
 Success Ratio  Further research can be carried out using the
Success ratio describes the fraction of successfully hybridization of ensemble learning and deep learning.
executed test cases either for a semantic store or for a  Further research could deploy the framework into a
dataset. For success ratio computation, we considered one system for commercialization.
bulk load test case and six read test cases (i.e., a total of 7
test cases on a dataset) to develop a better effect of failed
tests. For each store and dataset size, the success ratio is
calculated using the formulas given in Equation. 1 and 2,
respectively.

i4=1 STstoredataset(i)
SRstore = i4=1 store
TTdataset(i)
7 STdataset
SRdataset = i7i=11 store/

TTstoredatasetstore((ii))

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