Patent ID: 7765496

Claim:
A method for improving navigation of complex visualizations for the visually impaired in a system having a display for illustrating nodes, each node having characteristics, the system having a plurality of toggle switches for receiving toggle commands from a user for toggling between the characteristics of each node and for selecting at least one of the characteristics, the method comprising: obtaining the characteristics of the nodes, the characteristics including, for each node: any incoming arcs to the node from other nodes; any outgoing arcs from the node to other nodes; any properties of the node; and any operations of the node; navigating to a selected one of the nodes using at least one of the toggle switches; verbally indicating to the user information regarding the selected node, the information comprising: a name of the selected node; a description of at least one of the properties of the selected node; a description of at least one of the operations of the selected node; a description of at least one of the incoming arcs to the selected node, and a description of at least one of the outgoing arcs from the selected node; receiving toggle commands from the toggle switches to toggle between the characteristics of the selected node and to select one of the characteristics of the selected node; verbally indicating to the user the selected characteristic; and receiving a toggle command from the toggle switches to act upon the selected characteristic.