I'm currently working on a project with the aim to make Alfresco accessible for blind people. Thus, the whole user interface has to be compatible with common screenreaders what seems not to be the case at the moment. The easiest way to do this would be to develop a completely new UI that is kept very simple ("ugly" for sighted people) but offers all common functionality. Just like very old-fashioned web pages where all functionality is aligned one below the other. I have kind of an additional layer in my mind that is laid over the common Alfresco web interface and that redirects all interactions to the intended functions.
Do you have any recommendations how this can be done? Or at least some ideas about how to approach the problem? I appreciate any kind of advice.
One option is to allow visually impaired & blind people to use the alfresco iOS (iPad and iPhone) apps. This works well for navigation, and as a bonus includes the iOS built in screen reader.
Do you want to make alfresco's whole functionality accessible or are you looking for subset that can be implemented easily? If it's the latter, you can use the IMAP-Interface: browse the documents and their metadata, trigger actions is already there (mod configuration and all).