Some results of the ongoing project are summarized here, including the abstracts of the project deliverables 

Deliverable D 1.1: State of the Art (due at the end of month 6) 

Summary. This deliverable provides an overview of the current state of the art in web accessibility, delving into the realm of assistive technologies. It also introduces to the field of conversational artificial intelligence, and explores how this innovative technology is currently being leveraged to deliver digital services to users. Furthermore, the chapter gives an overview on the advancements and applications of Large Language Models (LLMs), examining their role in the digital landscape and the ways in which they are utilized today. The document also discusses the LLMs potential and limitations related to their adoption in the PROTECT project.

Deliverable D1.2: Design space and Models for Conversational Web Browsing (due at the end of month 6) 

Summary. This document provides a comprehensive definition of the context within which the subsequent project activities will be conducted. Specifically, it details the outcomes of previous research conducted at PoliMI in 2022. These findings have been instrumental in guiding the consortium in identifying the key design dimensions to be addressed in the development of a new paradigm for the Conversational Web. The selected design dimensions provide the basis for the ongoing revision and enhancement of this paradigm that will involve an extensive validation study, focusing on blind and visually impaired users. 

Deliverable D1.3: Architectural models for the integration of Web Technologies and Conversational AI (due at the end of month 6) 

Summary. This deliverable introduces architectural requirements and models for the provision of a platform enabling the Conversational Web paradigm. The document illustrates the architectural choices adopted for an initial platform prototype. It then highlights how Large Language Models (LLMs) can be adopted to improve the technical performance of the Web page interpretation algorithm, and the quality of the user experience for the final users. This last aspect can be in particular achieved thanks to the fluidity that LLM can confer to the dialogic interaction with the ConWeb conversational agent, even in absence of any specific training of the Natural Language Understanding component.

D4.2 Request for ethical approval (due at the end of month 6) 

Summary. Ethical aspects and data management are carefully addressed in the PROTECT project. Several experimental studies are going to be performed, thus we have defined from the very beginning a precise plan on how to manage the ethical aspects of such studies and the collected data. The Ethical Committee of the University of Bari has been recently created but it is not operating yet, thus we could not present a request of approval of the user studies of the project. However, the studies are in collaboration with the colleagues of the Politecnico di Milano, who are formally requesting the approval for these studies to their Ethical Committee.