| Towards a Visual Speech Learning System for the Deaf by Matching Dynamic Lip Shapes | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-9 | |
| Shizhi Chen; D. Michael Quintian; YingLi Tian | |||
| In this paper we propose a visual-based speech learning framework to assist
deaf persons by comparing the lip movements between a student and an E-tutor in
an intelligent tutoring system. The framework utilizes lip reading technologies
to determine if a student learns the correct pronunciation. Different from
conventional speech recognition systems, which usually recognize a speaker's
utterance, our speech learning framework focuses on recognizing whether a
student pronounces are correct according to an instructor's utterance by using
visual information. We propose a method by extracting dynamic shape difference
features (DSDF) based on lip shapes to recognize the pronunciation difference.
The preliminary experimental results demonstrate the robustness and
effectiveness of our approach on a database we collected, which contains
multiple persons speaking a small number of selected words. Keywords: Lip Reading; Speech Learning; Dynamic Shape Difference Features; Deaf people | |||
| Teaching Support Software for Hearing Impaired Students Who Study Computer Operation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 10-17 | |
| Makoto Kobayashi; Takuya Suzuki; Daisuke Wakatsuki | |||
| Teaching support software for the hearing impaired students who study
computer operation was developed. It is named as SZKIT. The software shows
icons of modifier keys when the teacher presses modifier keys and shows mouse
icon when he/she clicks a mouse button. These icons appear near the mouse
cursor. By this function, a difference between simple dragging and dragging
with modifier key can be distinguishable. For the hearing impaired students, it
is difficult to distinguish such differences without voice information, because
the motions of the mouse cursor on the screen are almost same. Also SZKIT can
show instruction texts under the mouse cursor. The timing of changing the texts
is controlled by a hot key, keeping the focus on the main application software.
From the results of questionnaire to the hearing impaired students, it is clear
that SZKIT is useful to learn computer operation. Keywords: hearing impaired student; learning computer operation; modifier keys | |||
| The Hybrid Book -- One Document for All in the Latest Development | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 18-24 | |
| Petr Hladík; Tomáaš Gura | |||
| The term "Hybrid Book" stands for a digital document with a synchronized
multimedia content. In the narrower sense, the Hybrid Book is a name of a
technology used at Masaryk University for creation of study materials for users
with a variety of information channel impairments: the blind, the deaf,
dyslectics, and others. A document in this format can include a digital text,
an audio recording of a text read by a human voice, and a video recording of a
translation of a text into a sign language. These records are shown
simultaneously by the given software application when browsing documents. A
user can navigate in documents using a variety of specific navigation
functions. The Hybrid Book does not only compensate for an information channel;
for example, it can also be used as a unique system for creation of foreign
language textbooks. Keywords: (e)Accessibility; Assistive Technology; Design for All; eLearning and
Universal Learning Design | |||
| Dealing with Changes in Supporting Students with Disabilities in Higher Education | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 25-32 | |
| Andrea Petz; Klaus Miesenberger | |||
| This paper discusses necessary changes and adaptations faced in supporting
students with disabilities at Linz University within the last 20 years and the
methodology used compared to other support schemes around Europe. The research
is based on findings from the study "Social Situation of People with
Disabilities in Austria", the only formal Austrian study also dealing with
disability and higher education (as information on a possible "disability" is
numbered among "highly sensitive personal data" and therefore not formally
surveyed during enrollment), findings from an own survey collecting information
from support structures for students with disabilities at Universities in
Europe and experiences from supporting students with most diverse
(dis-)abilities, skills and knowledge. Keywords: Counseling; Support; Disability; Students; University; Higher Education;
Social Inclusion | |||
| Putting the Disabled Student in Charge: Introduction to the Special Thematic Session | | BIBA | Full-Text | 33-35 | |
| Lisa Featherstone; Simon Ball | |||
| Students with disabilities or impairments have often been passive recipients of 'inclusive practice' or 'assistive technology'. The Special Thematic Session (STS) on Putting the Disabled Student in Charge focusses on topics that have a direct impact upon the education of disabled students and covers all aspects of disabled students' education, from the development of resources to full participation in lectures and collaborative work and the provision of alternative formats. | |||
| Biblus -- A Digital Library to Support Integration of Visually Impaired in Mainstream Education | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 36-42 | |
| Lars Ballieu Christensen; Tanja Stevns | |||
| This paper presents the background, status, challenges and planned future
directions of the Danish Biblus project which aims creating a digital library
solution to be used to support the integration of visually impaired pupils and
students in the mainstream educational system. As a supplement to the
RoboBraille alternative media conversion system as well as a stand-alone
repository for copyrighted educational material in alternate formats, Biblus
was created to allow students, teachers, visual impairment professionals and
relatives to access digital versions of educational material. Subject to proper
access rights, material can either be delivered directly to the user in the
formats stored in the library or indirectly via RoboBraille as mp3 files, Daisy
full text/full audio, e-books or Braille books. Future versions of Biblus will
be available in multiple languages and include digital rights management as
well as support for decentralised contribution of material. Keywords: Digital library; inclusion; integration; mainstreaming; educational
material; alternative media; Braille transcription; Daisy; mp3; e-book; blind;
partially sighted; visually impaired; dyslexic; dyslexia | |||
| Alternative Approaches to Alternative Formats -- Changing Expectations by Challenging Myths | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 43-50 | |
| Alistair McNaught; Lisa Featherstone | |||
| Traditional textbooks can be difficult for print impaired learners to
access. Every organisation has its own approach to providing alternative
formats but there are common myths that need to be dispelled: the myth of
responsibility, that alternative formats should be provided by disability
support staff; the myth of specialism, that disabled students should be dealt
with by a small team of specialist staff; and the myth that e-books are
automatically accessible. This paper suggests a move beyond alternative formats
to looking at alternative approaches to meeting the needs of print impaired
students. Keywords: e-books; alternative formats; dyslexia; libraries | |||
| Access Toolkit for Education | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 51-58 | |
| Mike Wald; E. A. Draffan; Russell Newman; Sebastian Skuse; Chris Phethean | |||
| This paper describes three tools that have been developed to help overcome
accessibility, usability and productivity issues identified by disabled
students. The Web2Access website allows users to test any Web 2.0 site or
software application against a series of checks linked to the WCAG 2.0 and
other guidelines. The Access Tools accessible menu helps with navigation to
portable pen drive applications that can assist with accessibility,
productivity and leisure activities when on the move. The accessible Toolbar
provides support for the majority of browsers and accessible websites through
magnification, spellchecking, text to speech readout, dictionary definitions
and referencing modification of text, page style, colour and layout. Keywords: accessibility; tool; learning | |||
| Community-Based Participatory Approach: Students as Partners in Educational Accessible Technology Research | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 59-64 | |
| Poorna Kushalnagar; Benjamin Williams; Raja S. Kushalnagar | |||
| This paper discusses the critical role of bringing together students with
disabilities as research partners using principles of community-based
participatory research (CBPR). Most accessible technology research approaches
include the target population as end-users, not as community partners. This
paper describes how CBPR can enhance designs and increase likelihood of
effective and efficiency of end-user designs or prototypes that impact students
in education. We conclude with a discussion on how to empower students as
research partners using CBPR principles. Keywords: Accessible Technology Research; Design and Evaluation; Students with
Disabilities; Participatory Research | |||
| Applying New Interaction Paradigms to the Education of Children with Special Educational Needs | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 65-72 | |
| Paloma Cantón; Ángel L. González; Gonzalo Mariscal; Carlos Ruiz | |||
| The proliferation of new devices over the last decade has introduced new
ways of interaction such us tactile (iPhone [1]) or touchless gesture (Kinect
[2]) user interfaces. This opens up new opportunities for the education of
children with special needs. However, it also raises new issues. On the one
hand, children have to be able to manage different technologies, some of which
do not enable natural ways of interaction. On the other hand, software
developers have to design applications compatible with many different
platforms. This paper offers a state-of-the-art discussion about how new
interaction paradigms are being applied in the field of education. As a
preliminary conclusion, we have detected the need for a standard on
gesture-based interfaces. With this in mind, we propose a roadmap setting out
the essential steps to be followed in order to define this standard based on
natural hand movements. Keywords: SEN; Education; Touch; Touchless; Gesture; User Interface; Kinect;
Interaction Paradigms | |||
| InStep: A Video Database Assessment Tool | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 73-76 | |
| Fern Faux; David Finch; Lisa Featherstone | |||
| InStep is an Open Source video database assessment tool designed to provide
reliable assessment for students with LLDD in areas not covered by traditional
measures. Videos of students undertaking specific activities are shown
side-by-side so that changes in development over time can be seen. InStep has
been trialled to measure how well teachers can take suitable videos, the
reliability of the assessments and whether learners and their parents could
recognise progress using the tool. Keywords: Assessment; LLDD | |||
| SCRIBE: A Model for Implementing Robobraille in a Higher Education Institution | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 77-83 | |
| Lars Ballieu Christensen; Sean J. Keegan; Tanja Stevns | |||
| The provision of alternate formats for students with print-based
disabilities can be challenging. Producing educational material in alternate
formats is often time consuming, expensive and requires special knowledge and
training of staff. Therefore, in most settings, students are dependent on
others, such as disability service personnel or external producers, to obtain
their academic materials in their preferred accessible format. Even with these
resources available, students may still encounter delays in receiving their
alternate formats in a timely manner. For example, a student receiving an
inaccessible version of a hand-out or other academic content from a professor
on a Friday afternoon may be required to wait until the next business week to
receive an accessible version of the document as most institutions or external
providers do not run their alternate format production centres seven days per
week, year-round. The RoboBraille service offers fully automated conversion of
text into a number of alternate formats allowing the individual student to be
independent. This paper describes how the RoboBraille Service was turned into a
self-service solution for students at Stanford University, called the Stanford
Converter into Braille and E-Text -- or SCRIBE. The overall purpose of SCRIBE
is to encourage students to become self-sufficient by simplifying the
production of accessible formats. Keywords: Alternate formats; accessibility; self-sufficiency; conversion; educational
material; print-based disability; Braille; MP3; DAISY; e-books; student
independence | |||
| Identifying Barriers to Collaborative Learning for the Blind | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 84-91 | |
| Wiebke Köhlmann | |||
| Digital materials can help blind and visually impaired students to
participate in e-learning and collaborative settings. The use of multimedia
content enhances the learning experience of sighted students, but new barriers
arise for the visually impaired. This paper describes surveys on e-learning and
collaborative settings, defines existing barriers and presents a survey on the
use of computer usage, e-learning and collaborative learning amongst 42 blind
and visually impaired users in educational and professional life. Keywords: Collaborative learning; CSCL; virtual classroom; e-learning; accessibility;
visually impaired; survey | |||
| Deaf and Hearing Students' Eye Gaze Collaboration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 92-99 | |
| Raja S. Kushalnagar; Poorna Kushalnagar; Jeffrey B. Pelz | |||
| In mainstreamed lectures, deaf students face decision-making challenges in
shifting attention from looking at the visual representation of the lecture
audio, i.e., sign language interpreter or captions. They also face challenges
in looking at the simultaneous lecture visual source, i.e., slides, whiteboard
or demonstration. To reduce the decision-making challenge for deaf student
subjects, we analyze the efficacy of using hearing students' eye gaze and
target as reference cues in lectures. When deaf students view the same lectures
with reference cues, they show less delay in switching to the active visual
information source and report high satisfaction with the reference cues. The
students who liked the cued notifications were more likely to demonstrate
reduction in delay time associated with shifting visual attention. Keywords: deaf; hearing; attention switching; cues | |||
| The Musibraille Project -- Enabling the Inclusion of Blind Students in Music Courses | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 100-107 | |
| José Antonio Borges; Dolores Tomé | |||
| The Musibraille Project was created to address the difficulties to include
blind students in music courses in Brazil. The strategy of this project
involves the development of powerful software for Braille music edition,
building of an online library of Braille music and the application of intensive
courses on music transcription, both for blind and non-blind people. This
project is producing an extraordinary effect on revitalizing Braille Music in
this country, with hundred of teachers and students already trained. Keywords: Assistive technology; Education of blind; Braille Music | |||
| Important New Enhancements to Inclusive Learning Using Recorded Lectures | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 108-115 | |
| Mike Wald | |||
| This paper explains three new important enhancements to Synote, the freely
available, award winning, open source, web based application that makes web
hosted recordings easier to access, search, manage, and exploit for learners,
teachers and other users. The facility to convert and import narrated
PowerPoint PPTX files means that teachers can capture and caption their
lectures without requiring institution-wide expensive lecture capture or
captioning systems. Crowdsourcing correction of speech recognition errors
allows for sustainable captioning of any originally uncaptioned lecture while
the development of an integrated mobile speech recognition application enables
synchronized live verbal contributions from the class to also be captured
through captions. Keywords: speech recognition; recorded lectures; learning | |||
| Development of New Auditory Testing Media with Invisible 2-Dimensional Codes for Test-Takers with Print Disabilities | | BIBA | Full-Text | 116-123 | |
| Mamoru Fujiyoshi; Akio Fujiyoshi; Akiko Ohsawa; Toshiaki Aomatsu; Haruhiko Sawazaki | |||
| Utilizing invisible 2-dimensional codes and digital audio players with a 2-dimensional code scanner, we developed two types of new auditory testing media. The result of experimental evaluation of the new testing media shows that, in addition to existing special accommodations such as large-print-format test and braille-format test, the introduction of the new auditory testing media enables all test-takers with print disabilities, including the newly blind, the severely partially sighted and the dyslexic, to take the National Center Test for University Admissions. | |||
| More Accessible Math | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 124-129 | |
| John Gardner; Courtney Christensen | |||
| Blind people generally access written information linearly -- through
Braille or speech/audio. Math can be written in linear form, e.g. LaTeX,
MathML, computer programming languages, or word descriptions. These forms are
too verbose to be practical for reading any but the simplest math equations.
They are even worse for authoring or "doing pencil and paper math". Braille is
more useful, but relatively few blind people are fluent in any of the many
special Braille math codes, none of which is robust enough for back-translation
to be useful for authoring math. The authors of this paper have developed a
very compact notation, which could be the basis of a new math Braille font, but
which is useful today for reading / writing using computers with all common
speech screen readers. Translators to/from MathML have been written and
integrated with Microsoft Word / MathType. Preliminary usability data will be
reported. Keywords: linear math notation; Braille math codes; audio math | |||
| Accessible Authoring Tool for DAISY Ranging from Mathematics to Others | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 130-137 | |
| Katsuhito Yamaguchi; Masakazu Suzuki | |||
| Although DAISY is an excellent solution for various print-disabled people,
producing DAISY content is not necessarily accessible works. In particular, it
is almost impossible for them to edit technical DAISY content such as
mathematics. Here, a new accessible authoring tool to enable both of sighted
people and the print disabled to produce/edit easily a DAISY book ranging from
mathematics to others is shown. In it, since a new function to control speech
output is implemented, all the content is read out in a correct manner with
speech synthesis. This approach can be applied also to DAISY content in many
languages other than English or Japanese. Keywords: DAISY; mathematics; authoring tool; speech control | |||
| Blind Friendly LaTeX | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 138-141 | |
| Wanda Gonzúrová; Pavel Hrabák | |||
| This article focuses on the accessibility of study materials containing
mathematics to visually impaired students and students with learning
disabilities. The electronic editable document (EED) is introduced within the
legislative frame of the "Rules for providing support to the public
universities" in the Czech Republic. An idea how to fulfil the requirements of
EED by creating a document combining structured text in MS Word with
mathematics in LaTeX code is presented. For this purposes it is necessary to
define strict and simple rules for LaTeX keeping the code translatable. Basic
principles of Czech standard for mathematics in Braille are presented as an
inspiration. Keywords: Czech standards for mathematics in Braille; electronic editable document
(EED); blind friendly LaTeX | |||
| A System for Matching Mathematical Formulas Spoken during a Lecture with Those Displayed on the Screen for Use in Remote Transcription | | BIBA | Full-Text | 142-149 | |
| Yoshinori Takeuchi; Hironori Kawaguchi; Noboru Ohnishi; Daisuke Wakatsuki; et al | |||
| A system is described for extracting and matching mathematical formulas presented orally during a lecture with those simultaneously displayed on the lecture room screen. Each mathematical formula spoken by the lecturer and displayed on the screen is extracted and shown to the transcriber. Investigation showed that, in a lecture in which many mathematical formulas were presented, about 80% of them were both spoken and pointed to on the screen, meaning that the system can help a transcriber correctly transcribe up to 80% of the formulas presented. A speech recognition system is used to extract the formulas from the lecturer's speech, and a system that analyzes the trajectory of the end of the stick pointer is used to extract the formulas from the projected images. This information is combined and used to match the pointed-to formulas with the spoken ones. In testing using actual lectures, this system extracted and matched 71.4% of the mathematical formulas both spoken and displayed and presented them for transcription with a precision of 89.4%. | |||
| Supporting Braille Learning and Uses by Adapting Transcription to User's Needs | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 150-157 | |
| Bruno Mascret; Alain Mille; Vivien Guillet | |||
| This paper focuses on how to improve accessibility for Braille readers on
Internet. We criticize actual technologies and show their limits in scientific
Braille and Braille personnalization, especially in pedagogical situations. We
present NAT Braille, a free software solution designed to respond to
pedagogical specific needs. The transcribing process uses a set of customizable
XSLT transformations and several XML formats. We detail the design of NAT
Braille and the technologies used for transcriptions. Then we explain why NAT
Braille improves personnalization in Braille rendering on Internet. We give the
example of our Mozilla extension which is able to transcribe web pages
including MathML markup, and is set up with adapted transcription rules taking
into account the user's preferences. We conclude by raising issues related to
our work. Keywords: Accessibility; Braille; Pedagogy; Web based education | |||
| A Non-visual Electronic Workspace for Learning Algebra | | BIBA | Full-Text | 158-165 | |
| Nancy Alajarmeh; Enrico Pontelli | |||
| In this paper we describe a multi-layer system that is designed to help students who have moderate to severe visual impairments learn algebra while manipulating algebraic equations through an interactive non-visual web-based workspace. The functional algebraic transformation options provided in the interactive system through its various layers, and the carefully provided help associated to each of those domain specific manipulation functions enhanced the overall process by which students who are visually impaired learn and deal with solving equations in the developed non-visual workspace. | |||
| Interaction Design for the Resolution of Linear Equations in a Multimodal Interface | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 166-173 | |
| Silvia Fajardo-Flores; Dominique Archambault | |||
| This article belongs to the field of Human-Computer Interaction, in the
context of the access to Mathematics for people with visual disabilities. In a
school scenario, the students with blindness who learn Algebra need to work on
mathematical expressions, to collaborate and to communicate with their
classmates and teacher. This interaction is not straightforward between
students with and without sight, due to the different modalities they use in
order to represent mathematical contents and to work with them. The computer
presents a great opportunity to promote this type of interaction, because it
allows the multimodal representation of mathematical contents. After the
conduction of experiments on linear equation solving with students with and
without sight, we have modelled their intentions and actions and we present a
proposal for the interactions required in a multimodal interface serving this
purpose. Lastly, we consider the possibilities and limitations for
implementation. Keywords: visual disability; accessibility; mathematics; HCI | |||
| Development of Software for Automatic Creation of Embossed Graphs | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 174-181 | |
| Tetsuya Watanabe; Toshimitsu Yamaguchi; Masaki Nakagawa | |||
| To investigate appropriate representation of numerical data to blind people,
a user experiment was conducted. Its results have shown that embossed graphs
give quicker and correct access to the data than braille and electronic tables.
Based on this observation, we started developing software for creation of
embossed graphs which can be operated by blind people. Up until now line graphs
can be created with this software. Keywords: Blind People; Tactile Graphs; Tabular Forms; Braille; Mathematics and
Science | |||
| Expression Rules of Directed Graphs for Non-visual Communication | | BIBA | Full-Text | 182-185 | |
| Ryoji Fukuda | |||
| This paper propose expression rules to describe directed graphs for communication without visual information and corresponding explanation documents. The structures of directed graphs are often complicated especially when they describe visual contents. For the importance of the nodes and edges in these directed graphs, an evaluation method is proposed and this will simplify the structures of the graphs. | |||
| How to Make Unified Modeling Language Diagrams Accessible for Blind Students | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 186-190 | |
| Karin Müller | |||
| In this paper, we present a survey of the material used in the computer
sciences lectures of two blind students showing that they have to deal with a
high number and various types of UML diagrams. We also report on different
textual representations of UML and present our own solutions. Moreover, we
point at a current initiative, BLINDUML, which works at solutions for making
UMLs accessible. Keywords: accessible UML | |||
| AutOMathic Blocks Usability Testing Phase One | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 191-195 | |
| Yonatan Breiter; Arthur Karshmer; Judith Karshmer | |||
| The AutOMathic Blocks [1] system has been designed to help young blind
students learn arithmetic and beginning algebra through the use of tactile [2,
3] blocks that display their work in two-dimensional space. The traditional
method of presenting math problem presentation uses special Braille-like codes
that present information in a linear form. It is our hypothesis that learning
math via a two-dimensional method will expedite and improve the learning
experience for young children. Before upgrading our prototype system, we have
chosen to first carry out usability testing experiments testing the advantage
of using tactile two-dimensional presentation methods. Keywords: AutOMathic; Blind; Math | |||
| MathInBraille Online Converter | | BIBA | Full-Text | 196-203 | |
| Klaus Miesenberger; Mario Batusic; Peter Heumader; Bernhard Stöger | |||
| MathInBraille offers an online portal for converting mathematical formulae and e-Documents with mathematical content into Braille and spoken formats. MathInBraille provides an open conversion service, which can be used for free by anybody what should help to increase access, use and availability of math content for blind people. | |||
| The Effects of Teaching Mathematics to Students with Disabilities Using Multimedia Computer-Assisted Instruction Coupled with ARCS Model | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 204-206 | |
| Chen-Tang Hou; Chu-Lung Wu | |||
| This study aims to design Multimedia Computer Assisted Instruction (MCAI)
coupled with ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction) model of
learning motivation and to investigate the effects of teaching mathematics
using MCAI coupled with ARCS model for elementary school students with
disabilities. The participants are recruited from the resource room and general
classes. The multiple-probe across behavior design is utilized in the study.
The independent variable is the strategies of MCAI coupled with ARCS model, and
the dependent variables are the performances of learning mathematics. The
results indicated that the MCAI program coupled with ARCS model of learning
motivation promotes participants' mathematics performance. Keywords: Multimedia Computer Assisted Instruction (MCAI); Students with Disabilities;
ARCS Model; Teaching Mathematics | |||
| Information Needs Related to ICT-Based Assistive Solutions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 207-214 | |
| Renzo Andrich; Valerio Gower; Sabrina Vincenti | |||
| Within the ETNA project -- a European Thematic Network aimed at implementing
a EU-wide Portal devoted to ICT-based assistive technologies and
e-accessibility solution -- a study was carried out to detect the information
needs of the various stakeholders involved, such as end-users of assistive
technologies, professionals in health, social services and education,
manufacturers and developers, policy makers and academic/researchers. Thirty
"search profiles" were identified, each related to a specific reason why
information may be sought in response to a specific information need that
people may encounter at given times. In turn, each profile involves a specific
body of information. This study provides a detailed insight in the audience's
expectations, that is guiding the design of the future Portal. The Portal will
stem by the existing Portal of the European Assistive Technology Information
Network (EASTIN), enriched by the contributions brought by the ETNA project and
its "sister" ATIS4All Thematic Network. Keywords: Information needs; Information systems; Assistive solutions; eAccessibility
solutions | |||
| The European Assistive Technology Information Portal (EASTIN): Improving Usability through Language Technologies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 215-222 | |
| Valerio Gower; Renzo Andrich; Andrea Agnoletto; Petra Winkelmann; Thomas Lyhne; et al | |||
| The EASTIN Portal -- which aggregates the contents of six national databases
and make it searchable in 22 European languages -- is currently the major
information system on assistive technology available in Europe. Its usability
has been recently improved through the use of advanced language technologies,
thanks to the EU-funded project EASTIN-CL. The project developed three main
components (the query processing, the machine translation, and the speech
output) that have been implemented and plugged to the existing EASTIN website. Keywords: Language technology; AT information; Search query processing | |||
| Use of Assistive Technology in Workplaces of Employees with Physical and Cognitive Disabilities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 223-226 | |
| Kirsi Jääskeläinen; Nina Nevala | |||
| Information technology (IT), especially assistive devices and programs,
enable people with disabilities to work. The aim of this study was to determine
the knowledge and use of this IT among workers with disabilities in the open
labor market. The focus was on the IT accommodation solutions used in
workplaces and how these improved the working skills of disabled people. One
fourth (27%) of the participants considered their knowledge regarding assistive
technology to be very good or good, whereas 39% considered their knowledge to
be very poor or poor. Workers with visual disorders were the most aware of
assistive technology in computer work. Over half of the respondents indicated
that the user interface, display screen, and mouse settings of their computers
were not accommodated. Keywords: Assistive technology; Workplace Accommodation; Disability; Disabled workers;
Computer work; Information technology; Employment | |||
| Multimodal Guidance System for Improving Manual Skills in Disabled People | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 227-234 | |
| Mario Covarrubias; Elia Gatti; Alessandro Mansutti; Monica Bordegoni; Umberto Cugini | |||
| The paper describes a multimodal guidance system whose aim is to improve
manual skills of people with specific disorders, such as Down syndrome, mental
retardation, blind, autistic, etc. The multimodal guidance system provides
assistance in the execution of 2D tasks as for example: sketching, hatching and
cutting operations through haptic and sound interactions. The haptic technology
provides the virtual path of 2D shapes through the point-based approach, while
sound technology provides some audio feedback inputs about his or her actions
while performing a manual task as for example: start and/or finish an sketch;
some alarms related to the hand's velocity while sketching and filling or
cutting operations. Unskilled people use these interfaces in their educational
environment. Keywords: Haptic Guidance; Unskilled People; Sound Interaction | |||
| Identifying Barriers to Accessibility in Qatar | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 235-242 | |
| Erik Zetterström | |||
| To identify barriers to accessibility in Qatar a study was conducted by
distributing a survey to 211 persons with disabilities and conducting
interviews. Lack of awareness, lack of Assistive Technology in Arabic,
inaccessible ATMs and absence of assistive communication services are the
largest barriers. Keywords: statistics; Qatar; accessibility; disabilities | |||
| NCBI and Digital Literacy: A Case Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 243-250 | |
| Denise Leahy; Stuart Lawler | |||
| The European Commissioner with responsibility for the Digital Agenda has
declared that she wants to make "Every European Digital" [1] and it is accepted
that knowledge of computing is necessary for everyone in the Information
Society [2] The knowledge and skills which are needed are often called "digital
literacy". The National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) has provided
training in the use of computers for over 15 years and, in 2010, decided to
take part in the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) programme and become
an authorised ECDL test centre. ECDL is a standard of digital literacy which is
accepted in 146 countries and has been taken by over 12 million people. This
paper is a case study of the implementation of the ECDL programme in NCBI. Keywords: Digital literacy; accessibility; ECDL; vision impairment | |||
| A User-Friendly Virtual Guide for Post-Rehabilitation Support Following Stroke | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 251-253 | |
| Sascha Sommer; Matthias Bartels; Martina Frießem; Joachim Zülch | |||
| Post-rehabilitation support aids socio-professional reintegration.
Information about options for post-rehabilitation support following stroke is
provided by an application based on Wiki-principles and semantic technologies
(Virtual Guide). Core feature is a knowledge-management system. Regional health
care professionals contribute initial content for the database. User
involvement is facilitated by an interface based on internet blog posts
describing prototypical situations stroke patients face during
post-rehabilitation. On the condition that sufficient users proactively provide
regular contributions, the platform will, ideally, develop into a living system
representing regional infrastructures for post-rehabilitation support both
accurately and up to date. Keywords: Stroke; semantic technologies; service delivery; socio-professional
reintegration; social innovation | |||
| Musicking Tangibles for Empowerment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 254-261 | |
| Birgitta Cappelen; Anders-Petter Andersson | |||
| We present a novel approach towards understanding and design of interactive
music technology for people with special needs. The health effects of music are
well documented, but little research and interactive music technology has been
developed, for Music Therapy and health improvement in everyday situations.
Further, the music technology that has been used, exploits little of the
potential current computer technology has to offer the Music and Health and
Music Therapy fields, because it is designed and used based on a narrow
perspective on technology and its potential. We present and argue for a broader
understanding of music technology for empowerment and health improvement,
building on a multidisciplinary approach with perspectives from Tangible
interaction design, empowerment and resource oriented Music Therapy. We call
this approach Musicking Tangibles, inspired by Christopher Small's term
"musicking". We also present two designed Musicking Tangibles, and argue for
their empowering qualities based on user observations. Keywords: Interaction Design; Empowerment; Tangibles; Music; Health | |||
| RHYME: Musicking for All | | BIBA | Full-Text | 262-269 | |
| Harald Holone; Jo Herstad | |||
| This paper describes the RHYME project, aimed at children with multiple disabilities, their families and caregivers. The goal in this cross disciplinary project is to create and evaluate platforms for co-creation through music and physical interaction in order to improve health and well being for the participants. The paper has two main contributions: 1) a review and discussion of Participatory Design in Design for All, and 2) Tangible Interaction and familiarity as a basis for the possibility of musicking for all, for children, their families and caregivers, on individual terms. | |||
| Enhancing Audio Description: A Value Added Approach | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 270-277 | |
| Jack Sade; Komal Naz; Malgorzata Plaza | |||
| Audio Description makes films, shows and TV programs accessible to visually
impaired audience. It is expensive so wide adoption of this technology is not
practical. Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requires
that broadcaster describes a minimum of four hours of primetime programming a
week. Production companies do not see any incentives to move beyond the
required minimum. This paper investigates the possibility of making AD
profitable by making a described movie, show or program attractive to all kind
of audiences including visually impaired. We argue that AD can become a revenue
generation product widely adopted by production companies. Keywords: AD; Business Analysis | |||
| Triple Helix -- In Action? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 278-283 | |
| Niels Henrik Helms; Susanne Tellerup | |||
| This paper presents a project i-Space about learning and playful
applications, which could also document performance. The target group is
mentally impaired citizens. The project is used as reference to a discussion on
structures within innovation processes. This discussion leads to a discussion
of the user as a sense-making category in multi-disciplinary settings. Keywords: Innovation; Triple Helix; quadrant model; user categories | |||
| Virtual User Models for Designing and Using of Inclusive Products: Introduction to the Special Thematic Session | | BIBA | Full-Text | 284-287 | |
| Yehya Mohamad; Manfred Dangelmaier; Matthias Peissner; Pradipta Biswas; et al | |||
| This STS on Virtual User Models for designing and using of inclusive products is targeted towards generic interoperable user models that describe the relevant characteristics of users, who will interact with products and user interfaces. A user profile is an instantiation of a user model representing either a specific user or a representative of a group of users [1]. With such a model designers can define as many user profiles as needed to address the whole range of requirements from a target population in order to maximize the level of accessibility of products and services according to the selected user profile. The papers in this STS address many of the issues addressed by the VUMS cluster of projects. The cluster is formed by four projects funded by the European Commission under the Theme "FP7-ICT-2009.7.2 Accessible and Assistive ICT"; the projects are VICON, MyUI, GUIDE and VERITAS (http://www.veritas-project.eu/vums/). | |||
| Creative Design for Inclusion Using Virtual User Models | | BIBA | Full-Text | 288-294 | |
| Markus Modzelewski; Michael Lawo; Pierre Kirisci; Joshue O. Connor; Antoinette Fennell; et al | |||
| The development of products that are accessible to the largest possible group of users can be regarded as a major challenge for manufacturers of consumer products. It is therefore crucial, that the product development process is supported by practical methods and tools that can help incorporate these essential human factors in early phases of the development process. Ergonomics evaluation and user testing with real users are user centred design methodologies often conducted by companies that are not only complex, but can be very time and cost-intensive. As an alternative approach virtual user models (VUM) have been proposed for supporting the early phases of the product development process. In this paper we will present the model-based design approach of the European research project VICON supporting inclusive design of consumer products particularly at the early stages of product development. | |||
| A Methodology for Generating Virtual User Models of Elderly and Disabled for the Accessibility Assessment of New Products | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 295-302 | |
| Nikolaos Kaklanis; Konstantinos Moustakas; Dimitrios Tzovaras | |||
| The paper presents a highly novel user modeling framework for the detailed
description of geometric, kinematic, physical, behavioral and cognitive aspects
of users affected by disabilities and elderly. Several aspects of the user's
interaction behavior are examined, while user models are quantified, in terms
of their kinematics and dynamics parameters, in tests with disabled users
through a multisensorial platform, in order to develop accurate and realistic
virtual user models. Hierarchical Task and Interaction Models are introduced,
in order to describe the user's capabilities in multiple scales of abstraction.
The use of alternative ways of a user task's execution, using different
modalities and assistive devices, are also supported by the proposed task
analysis. Keywords: User modeling; UsiXML; virtual user; elderly; disabled; simulation;
accessibility evaluation; ergonomy evaluation | |||
| VERITAS Approach for Parameterization of Psychological and Behavioral Models | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 303-310 | |
| Ana María Navarro; Juan Bautista Mocholí; Juan Carlos Naranjo | |||
| This paper focuses on the description of the approach used to parameterize
the psychological and behavioural user models developed under the FP7 EU
Founded project VERITAS: Virtual and Augmented Environments and Realistic User
Interactions To achieve Embedded Accessibility DesignS. The present paper will
focus on the methodology used to define the relevant psychological and
behavioural parameters within the context of VERITAS. Two complementary
approaches have been selected: on one hand, the use of existing models of the
cognitive architecture Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) for
cognitive simulation purposes; on the other hand, a second approach based on
existing metrics coming from medical and human behavior studies and biomedical
models. Keywords: Psychological; cognitive models; ACT-R; VERITAS; accessibility; cognitive
architectures; cognitive simulation | |||
| Integration of a Regular Application into a User Interface Adaptation Engine in the MyUI Project | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 311-314 | |
| Alejandro García; Jesús Sánchez; Víctor Sánchez; José Alberto Hernández | |||
| Software development is increasingly focusing its design on users suffering
from different kinds of disabilities or impairments, as it is the case for the
elderly or handicapped people for instance. Real-time adaptable graphical user
interfaces is a promising solution for designing accessible applications for
users with special needs. Essentially, collecting context information and
combining it with information about the user can be used to customize the
content of the interface itself, and so it allows improving the user experience
in his interaction with the application.
The EU-funded FP7 MyUI project has emerged in the adaptive graphical interfaces domain, addressing important barriers which include the developers' lack of awareness and expertise, time and cost requirements of incorporating accessibility and missing validated approaches and infrastructures of accessible software design. This paper presents the technology used and the experiences collected in the integration process of a regular application into such a framework. Keywords: Adaptation; user interfaces; accessibility; elderly; disabilities; user
profiling | |||
| Using Annotated Task Models for Accessibility Evaluation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 315-322 | |
| Ivo Malý; Jiri Bittner; Pavel Slavík | |||
| Evaluation of application accessibility is a challenging task that requires
an intensive testing with potential application users. An alternative to user
tests is the model based testing using simulations. The simulations provide
important feedback about application accessibility particularly when it is hard
to involve the target users in the tests which is often the case for users with
disabilities. In this paper we propose a methodology of providing the quickly
and easily necessary data for the simulations. In particular we show how to
annotate task models using application walkthroughs logs that is data obtained
by recording the application usage. We create annotated task models, which
together with the user models are suitable for simulation of application usage
by virtual users with various disabilities. We present tools for recording and
processing of the application walkthrough logs and tools for the interactive
task model annotation. Finally, we provide actual examples of task model
annotation on three scenarios involving the Second Life metaverse. Keywords: Task Models; Accessibility Evaluation; User Centred Design and User
Involvement | |||
| Web Accessibility in Advanced Technologies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 323-324 | |
| Shadi Abou-Zahra; Konstantinos Votis; Karel Van Isacker | |||
| The Web is rapidly evolving and converging with other media and
technologies. Today the Web is on mobile devices, televisions, self-service
terminals, and computer desktops. It is continuing to be increasingly
ubiquitous and indistinguishable from other interfaces and became an ambient
part of our daily lives, particularly with the advancement of "the cloud".
Thus, there is a need for developers and designers to better understand the
relationship and overlap of the existing accessibility methodologies, and
introduce Web accessibility in advanced and mainstream technologies for
providing accessible products that work better for people who experience
difficulties and changes in their abilities due to aging. Keywords: Web; Accessibility; Ubiquitous Web; Cloud Computing; Digital TV; People with
Disabilities; Aging Population | |||
| The eAccess+ Network: Enhancing the Take-Up of eAccessibility in Europe | | BIBA | Full-Text | 325-328 | |
| Klaus Miesenberger; Eric Velleman; David Crombie; Helen Petrie; Jenny S. Darzentas; et al | |||
| This short paper introduces the idea, the main tool and the work of the EU-supported eAccess+ network (www.eaccessplus.eu) for fostering the uptake of eAccessibility in Europe. The rationale for the network starts from the fact that a considerable and elaborated body of knowledge, established in the eAccessibility and Assistive Technology domain, exists but is rarely implemented in mainstream design. There are many reasons for this situation and the network is working to identify and address them and to start processes to remedy the situation. | |||
| A Method for Generating CSS to Improve Web Accessibility for Old Users | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 329-336 | |
| Jesia Zakraoui; Wolfgang Zagler | |||
| We propose a method to improve Web Accessibility. First, we generate a list
of Cascading Style Sheet CSS for Websites depending on user's needs and
meaningful contextual information. Second, we rank this list in order to best
fit with the current user. In order to provide means for that, formally
connected knowledge in user interaction processes are used to support a
reasoning unit, which is based on Answer Set Programming (ASP). Finally, visual
aspects of user interfaces such as sizes of user interface elements, colours,
relative position of the elements or navigation devices are specified. In Web
environments, user interface adaptation is needed to tailor user interfaces to
older people's needs and impairments while preserving their independence. Keywords: Ontology; Answer Set Programming; Default knowledge; Web Accessibility;
Cascading style sheet; Context; User interaction | |||
| Implementing Web Accessibility: The MIPAW Approach | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 337-342 | |
| Jean-Pierre Villain; Olivier Nourry; Dominique Burger; Denis Boulay | |||
| This paper presents the elaboration of a model for a progressive
implementation of WCAG, centered on the notions of access to information and
essential users' needs. MIPAW's main goal is to serve as a framework for the
elaboration of gradual implementation methodologies, of systems measuring the
real level of accessibility, and the setting up of efficient quality assurance
management systems. It is based on state of the art, real-world experience, and
expertise in accessibility as well as quality assurance. The project aims at
providing methodological tools better suited to the constraints of web
industrialization, while preserving the deployment of real user-centric
accessibility. MIPAW is a project lead as part of the activities of the
AccessiWeb GTA (Workgroup on Accessibility), and has received active support
from 16 of the most prominent French companies in the area of expertise in
digital accessibility. Keywords: WCAG; AccessiWeb; Accessibility; Progressive Enhancement; User centric;
Design for All; Quality Assessments; Access to information; Accessibility
Barrier | |||
| Accessibility of Dynamic Adaptive Web TV Applications | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 343-350 | |
| Daniel Costa; Nádia Fernandes; Carlos Duarte; Luís Carriço | |||
| In the last years, TVs have become platforms providing content and
entertainment services, such as video on demand, interactive advertising or
social networking. Often, these services are Web based applications that run of
connected TVs or set-top boxes. Given TV's wide reach, it is paramount TV
applications are designed so that information can be perceived by everyone,
i.e. should be accessible. These applications increasingly present dynamic
aspects, which have been rendering traditional Web evaluation approaches
obsolete. Additionally, TV based interaction has specificities that Web based
evaluation is unable to cope with. In this paper, we present an automated
accessibility evaluation framework to address these challenges. It is based on
WCAG 2.0 and Digital TV guidelines. It supports evaluation of the code after
browser processing and scanning the whole set of application states. It is
capable of evaluating user interface adaptation based on selected user
profiles. The paper also presents the evaluation results of three TV based
applications according to the proposed framework, which allow a comparison of
results of pre and post browser processing as well as pre and post adaptation. Keywords: Web Accessibility; Web TV applications; Automated Evaluation; Rich Internet
Applications | |||
| Ontology Based Middleware for Ranking and Retrieving Information on Locations Adapted for People with Special Needs | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 351-354 | |
| Kevin Alonso; Naiara Aginako; Javier Lozano; Igor G. Olaizola | |||
| Current leisure or touristic services searching tools do not take into
account the special needs of large amount of people with functional
diversities. However, the combination of different semantic, web and storage
technologies make possible the enhancement of such search tools, allowing more
personalized searches. This contributes to the provision of better and more
suitable results. In this paper we propose an innovative ontology driven
solution for personalized tourism directed to people with special needs. Keywords: information retrieval; ontology; special needs | |||
| Automatic Color Improvement of Web Pages with Time Limited Operators | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 355-362 | |
| Sébastien Aupetit; Alina Mereuta; Mohamed Slimane | |||
| Accessibility is unfortunately not among the main concern when developing
web sites. Webmasters create mostly involuntarily numerous obstacles for people
with visual impairments. That's why it becomes fundamental to identify the
existing barriers and to propose solutions in order to at least diminish their
impact to the user. Accessibility guidelines, as WCAG 2.0, indicate that a
minimum difference of brightness, tonality and contrast is necessary to reach a
minimum level of accessibility. In numerous cases, web designers ignore or just
limit their choices to a low level of accessibility. For an user needing a
higher level of accessibility than the one offered by the web page, the access
to information may be difficult. In this context, we propose to transform the
colors of web pages according to user's needs with the help of a client-side
HTTP proxy. The requirements for the colors can be expressed as a fitness
function. In order to recolor the page to increase accessibility, it's enough
to minimize the fitness function.
Trying to find a minimum can be a time consuming task not appropriate for real time recoloring. Finding a minimum can be considered as a search with varying time limits. In this article, our objective is to compare different search methods and their performance under time limit: the search can be interrupted at any time. The studied methods are a random search, different types of pseudo gradient descend and an adaptation of the API metaheuristic. Finally, the different methods are compared. Keywords: accessibility; assistive technology; recoloring; web; optimization | |||
| Improving Web Accessibility for Dichromat Users through Contrast Preservation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 363-370 | |
| Alina Mereuta; Sébastien Aupetit; Mohamed Slimane | |||
| Unfortunately, accessibility is not one of designers priorities while
developing web sites, resulting in barriers for numerous disabled users. In
this context, it is fundamental to identify the difficulties they may
experience while surfing web and to propose solutions in order to remove them
or diminish their impact. The choice of colors is far from being a random
process but often a way to transmit or emphase information. This is
particularly true for textual information contained in a web page. The
perception of colors by a dichromat user is different. This results in a loss
of the information conveyed by color. In our study, we show that there is a
significant loss of contrast for a dichromat user resulting in information
loss. We propose a method based on a mass-spring simulation to modify the
colors with aim to enforce similar contrast for dichromat users. Tests on
several websites allow us to conclude that our method significantly reduce the
loss of contrast for both protanope and deuteranope users. Keywords: assistive technology; accessibility; dichromacy; web sites; contrast
preservation | |||
| Sociological Issues of Inclusive Web Design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 371-377 | |
| Michael Pieper | |||
| The German BIENE award (Barrierefreies Internet Eröffnet Neue
Einsichten / Accessible Internet Provides New Insights), a best practice
competition for accessible websites organized by the social association "Aktion
Mensch" and the endowment "Digitale Chancen" enters into a new competitive
phase. For the 2010 competition 224 web pages have been checked for their
barrier free accessibility. Web applications that facilitate interactive
sharing of user generated content are of particular importance, when it comes
to Web 2.0 technologies. In this respect it soon turned out, that Web 2.0
services cannot only be made accessible by applying common design guidelines
and ad-hoc adaptations. In addition to conventional software ergonomic
verification procedures, accessibility validation has to rely on sociological
reasoning about unique Web 2.0 entities and corresponding usage obstacles.
Empirically these considerations have been conceptualized by an online survey
amongst 671 respondents with all kinds of different disabilities, carried out
by "Aktion Mensch". Keywords: Accessibility; Usability; Human-Computer Interaction; Web 2.0. | |||
| Online Shopping Involving Consumers with Visual Impairments -- A Qualitative Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 378-385 | |
| Elisabeth Fuchs; Christine Strauss | |||
| Despite the general popularity of online shopping, its usage is not entirely
granted to all user groups. In this context, especially consumers with visual
impairments are often faced with challenging barriers. To provide a better
understanding of their actual needs and to identify experienced difficulties,
personal in-depth interviews were conducted with visually impaired users. The
obtained results of this empirical qualitative study form a knowledge base of
consumer insights, which can be further used as a source for target-group
specific improvements and innovations. Keywords: visual impairment; online shopping; web accessibility; e-inclusion consumer
research; qualitative study | |||
| Website Accessibility Metrics: Introduction to the Special Thematic Session | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 386-387 | |
| Shadi Abou-Zahra | |||
| In many situations it is useful to measure the level of accessibility of
websites using a more continual scale rather than the rather limited set of
four ordinal values (none, A, AA, and AAA) proposed by the W3C/WAI Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). For example, a continual scale allows more
granular benchmarking of websites to compare them or to help assess
improvements made over time. However, finding reliable metrics is a non-trivial
challenge for a variety of reasons. This paper introduces a Special Thematic
Session to explore this challenge, further to a previously held online
symposium of the W3C/WAI Research and Development Working Group (RDWG). Keywords: Web Accessibility; Accessibility Metrics; Benchmarking; Quality Assurance;
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) | |||
| Integrating Manual and Automatic Evaluations to Measure Accessibility Barriers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 388-395 | |
| Paola Salomoni; Silvia Mirri; Ludovico A. Muratori; Matteo Battistelli | |||
| Explicit syntax and implicit semantics of Web coding are typically addressed
as distinct dominions in providing metrics for content accessibility. A more
down-to-earth portrait about barriers and their impact on users with
disabilities could be obtained whether any quantitative synthesis about number
and size of barriers integrated measurements from automatic checks and human
assessments. In this work, we present a metric to evaluate accessibility as a
unique measure of both syntax correctness and semantic consistence, according
to some general assumptions about relationship and dependencies between them.
WCAG 2.0 guidelines are used to define boundaries for any single barrier
evaluation, either from a syntactic point of view, or a subjective/human one.
In order to assess our metric, gathered data form a large scale accessibility
monitor has been utilized. Keywords: Web accessibility metrics; Web accessibility barriers; accessibility
evaluation | |||
| Assessing the Effort of Repairing the Accessibility of Web Sites | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 396-403 | |
| Nádia Fernandes; Luís Carriço | |||
| The paper presents a new metric and a framework to assess the effort of
repairing the accessibility of a Web site. For that all the HTML elements of
all the pages of a site are considered, excluding those that are duplicated.
The rationale is that those elements are originated in a reusable construct,
such as a template and, therefore, need to be corrected only once. The
evaluation then ap-plies the accessibility evaluation techniques on those
elements instead of on all the instances that are presented to the user. The
reported fails and warnings are then computed in a simple sum metric.
The paper also describes the validation experiment of both metric and framework, providing very important results. These may well contribute to a different perspective from managers and development team leaders about the effort to revamp the accessibility of a site. Keywords: Web Accessibility; Templates; Automated Evaluation; Metrics | |||
| Lexical Quality as a Measure for Textual Web Accessibility | | BIBA | Full-Text | 404-408 | |
| Luz Rello; Ricardo Baeza-Yates | |||
| We show that a recently introduced lexical quality measure is also valid to measure textual Web accessibility. Our measure estimates the lexical quality of a site based in the occurrence in English Web pages of a set of more than 1,345 words with errors. We then compute the correlation of our measure with Web popularity measures to show that gives independent information. This together with our previous results implies that this measure maps to some of the WCAG principles of accessibility. | |||
| Accessibility Testing of a Healthy Lifestyles Social Network | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 409-416 | |
| Cecília Sík Lányi; Eszter Nagy; Gergely Sik | |||
| The current development of the Internet and its growing use makes it
necessary to satisfy the needs of all users including those with disabilities
having accessibility problems. The healthy lifestyle is increasingly important
to people. The number of webpages dealing with healthy lifestyles is growing.
"Webstar" healthy lifestyle social network was tested by Wave Toolbar, HTML
Validator, Web Developer Toolbarand WCAG Contrast Checker. Keywords: social network; validator; WCAG 2.0. | |||
| Following the WCAG 2.0 Techniques: Experiences from Designing a WCAG 2.0 Checking Tool | | BIBA | Full-Text | 417-424 | |
| Annika Nietzio; Mandana Eibegger; Morten Goodwin; Mikael Snaprud | |||
| This paper presents a conceptual analysis of how the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and its accompanying documents can be used
as a basis for the implementation of an automatic checking tool and the
definition of a web accessibility metric. There are two major issues that need
to be resolved to derive valid and reliable conclusions from the output of
individual tests. First, the relationship of Sufficient Techniques and Common
Failures has to be taken into account. Second, the logical combination of the
techniques related to a Success Criterion must be represented in the results.
The eGovMon project has a lot of experience in specifying and implementing tools for automatic checking of web accessibility. The project is based on the belief that web accessibility evaluation is not an end in itself. Its purpose is to promote web accessibility and initiate improvements. | |||
| Entertainment Software Accessibility: Introduction to the Special Thematic Session | | BIBA | Full-Text | 425-427 | |
| Dominique Archambault; Roland Ossmann | |||
| The kids of the first generation who grew up with computer games are now in their forties, and younger people have been surrounded by more and more devices allowing to use such games. The descendants of our old game stations which were displaying 2 bars on a black and white TV set to play tennis, are now very close to very powerful computers. Games appeared also on websites and mobile phones, while portable game stations allow some amazing visual features. The budgets of some of the major games have reached the level of motion pictures, and a huge number of small games are developed every year. Computer games are now in the heart of the youngsters culture. At the same time one could observe also that a growing part of the population of other age groups are using computer games. Indeed a lot of software application implementing the games the people of these older groups want to play have been designed and became more and more simple to use, while the people of these groups have been familiarised to computer at their work. Therefore it's not rare to see retired people playing scrabble online or card games. | |||
| Assessment of Universal Design Principles for Analyzing Computer Games' Accessibility | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 428-435 | |
| Moyen Mohammad Mustaquim | |||
| Universal design is a significant topic of interest in the research of
accessibility. However, to date there are no certain verification of these
principles on the accessibility issues for computer games. In this paper the
existing universal design principles were verified to assess accessibility in
computer games. Quantitative analysis of collected data showed that some design
principles are not really optimal for assessing computer games' accessibility
while other design principles were overlooked. The findings from this study
take the argument of alternation of existing universal design principles
further ahead and initializes the possibilities of developing accessible games
design principles. Keywords: Accessibility in Games; Universal Design; Design Principles for Accessible
Games Design; Inclusive Games Design | |||
| One Way of Bringing Final Year Computer Science Student World to the World of Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Case Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 436-442 | |
| Isabel M. Gómez; Rafael Cabrera; Juan Ojeda; Pablo García; Alberto J. Molina; et al | |||
| In this paper, a learning project is explained which is being carried out at
the school of computer science at the University of Seville. The aim is that
students receive knowledge of assistive technologies when in fact there is no
this discipline in our curricula. So the best way, it is programming final
studies projects in this field. We want to make the projects have a real
application and can solve difficulties that children with Cerebral Palsy have
in their daily activities in the school. Keywords: serious games; training in assistive technologies; access device | |||
| Making the PlayStation 3 Accessible with AsTeRICS | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 443-450 | |
| Roland Ossmann; David Thaller; Gerhard Nussbaum; Christoph Veigl; Christoph Weiß | |||
| People with mobility disabilities can hardly play any of the mainstream
computer and video games. For most of them, special developed games are the
only chance to play games. So, playing together with friends or the family is
only possible on a very limited way.
Within the Project AsTeRICS, a flexible and affordable construction set for the implementation of user driven assistive technologies solutions will be developed. This allows the combination of different sensors to process and manipulate the sensor data to control any supported device. This paper will show, how a Sony PlayStation 3 can become the supported device, and how the requirements of a mainstream game can be tailored to the possibilities of a disabled person. Furthermore, possible limitations of this solution will be discussed. Keywords: Assistive Technology; Games Accessibility; Alternative Game Control | |||
| Creating an Entertaining and Informative Music Visualization | | BIBA | Full-Text | 451-458 | |
| Michael Pouris; Deborah I. Fels | |||
| Auditory music is a universal art form that has spanned millennia. Music provides an insight into the collective culture of a society and acts as a vehicle to transmit shared knowledge that is common to all members of society. People who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing tend to have a limited access to music and as a result can be excluded from this shared knowledge and cultural experience. A music visualization system, MusicViz, was developed based on a model of audio-visual sensory substitution. An evaluation of six different music genres showed that the visualizations were enjoyable and able to convey some information and emotions to the participants. | |||
| Music at Your Fingertips: Stimulating Braille Reading by Association with Sound | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 459-462 | |
| Felix Grützmacher | |||
| Driven by the ongoing integration of computers into the daily lives of blind
people, the reading experience has been undergoing a significant shift from
Braille to synthetic speech. While it is true that speech involves less effort
on the part of the reader, the downside is that it creates the illusion of
completeness of information while in truth many important elements of layout,
punctuation, and spelling are lost. The presentation introduces an application
of Active Tactile Control which revolves around the medium of music and is
designed in such a way that students can only succeed if they mentally
translate auditive impressions into Braille characters. Keywords: MusikBraille; Learning; Didactic; Active Tactile Control; Braille music
notation; software; synaesthesia; auditive feedback; editor | |||
| Improving Game Accessibility with Vibrotactile-Enhanced Hearing Instruments | | BIBA | Full-Text | 463-470 | |
| Bernd Tessendorf; Peter Derleth; Manuela Feilner; Daniel Roggen; Thomas Stiefmeier; et al | |||
| In this work we present enhanced hearing instruments (HIs) that provide vibrotactile feedback behind the user's ears in parallel to sound. Using an additional feedback modality we display dedicated vibrotactile patterns to support the user in localizing sound sources. In a study with 4 HI users and 5 normal hearing participants we deploy the system in a gaming scenario. The open source availability of the mainstream 3D first person shooter game used in the study allowed us to add code for accessibility. We evaluate the system qualitatively with user questionnaires and quantitatively with performance metrics calculated from statistics within the game. The system was perceived as beneficial and allowed the HI users to achieve gaming performance closer to that of normal hearing participants. | |||
| An OCR-Enabled Digital Comic Books Viewer | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 471-478 | |
| Christophe Ponsard; Ravi Ramdoyal; Daniel Dziamski | |||
| The generalisation of user-friendly and mobile interfaces like smart phones,
eBook readers and tablets has accelerated the transition of comic books to the
digital format. Although such user interfaces are not always fit for use by
people with special needs, the underlying platform offers a large number of
innovative services which opens a wide spectrum of new possibilities for
enhancing accessibility.
This paper explores how these new technologies can improve the digital access to comic books. Our main contribution is the inclusion of optical character recognition within text bubble associated to comics characters. The recognised text can then be fed into a text-to-speech engine for an improved experience. We also details performance improvements of other functionalities such as the panel order detection and special backgrounds. Finally, we discuss how these application specific adaptations can be applied to other contexts and which kind of future deployment can be anticipated. Keywords: comics; accessibility; motor-impaired; low-sighted; mobile users; image
processing; cloud; OCR; text-to-speech | |||
| Spe-Ler: Serious Gaming for Youngsters with Intellectual Disabilities | | BIBA | Full-Text | 479-483 | |
| Joan De Boeck; Jo Daems; Jan Dekelver | |||
| When working with youngsters with intellectual disabilities, it is often a challenge to teach them 'boring' content (e.g. the 'rules of daily living' in their school or care-center). In this paper we propose a serious gaming approach in order to facilitate the learning process. The novelty in our concept is that we decouple the game and the didactical content, which allows us to transfer the learning to the youngster's leisure time. In our research, we built a framework containing several (fun) games and an administration environment that facilitates the creation of learning content. In a user experiment, measuring the user's joy and motivationwe found that the subjects enjoyed playing the games and were very attentive when the didactical content appeared. | |||
| An Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org Writer | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 484-491 | |
| Christophe Strobbe; Bert Frees; Jan Engelen | |||
| OpenOffice.org Writer and LibreOffice Writer both implement the OpenDocument
Format (ODF) and support output formats such as PDF and XHTML. Through the
extensions odt2daisy and odt2braille (developed in the context of the AEGIS
project) Writer can also export to DAISY (audio books) and Braille. In order to
output usable DAISY or Braille, authors first need to create an accessible
source document. The objective of AccessODF, the accessibility checker
developed in the context of the European AEGIS project, is to support authors
in creating accessible ODF documents and to prepare these documents for
conversion to DAISY and/or Braille. The paper discusses the user interface
options that were explored, describes how authors can repair errors and
warnings, gives examples of automatic and semi-automatic repairs supported by
the checker, and describes which errors and warnings are implemented. Keywords: Accessibility; accessibility evaluation; office documents; OpenOffice. org;
LibreOffice; Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) | |||
| Visualization of Non-verbal Expressions in Voice for Hearing Impaired | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 492-499 | |
| Hidetaka Nambo; Shuichi Seto; Hiroshi Arai; Kimikazu Sugimori; Yuko Shimomura; et al | |||
| Generally, a hearing impaired person is supported by staffs to take a note
while hearing a lecture. However, the lecture note cannot express a tone of the
teacher's voice. Further, non-verbal information such as a chatting voice in a
classroom, speed, loudness and tone of speaker's voice are also difficult to
express. As a result, it is difficult for a hearing impaired person to feel the
atmosphere in the classroom. In this study, we develop a system to inform
atmosphere in the classroom to a hearing impaired person. The system utilizes
expression techniques used in Japanese cartoons; they are "Ambient Font",
"Balloon & Symbols" and "Onomatopoeic Word". These techniques enable us to
inform to the hearing impaired person not only the textual information but also
the non-verbal information. Keywords: Hearing impaired; non-verbal expressions; Onomatopoeia | |||
| XML-Based Formats and Tools to Produce Braille Documents | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 500-506 | |
| Alex Bernier; Dominique Burger | |||
| The production of high quality Braille documents is time consuming because
it often involves a lot of manual work to be done on the text. To increase the
global number of Braille documents available to end-users, special efforts have
to be done to automate as most as possible the production processes. At the
mean time, the documents quality should not decrease, because Braille is often
used in learning situations where errors are harmful for the users. This paper
will present recent advances and current developments made in the field of
Braille production. Especially, XML-based formats useful to create complex
Braille documents will be introduced. Next, some tools operating on these
formats will be described, and finally, we will underline the need and the
possibility to create fully integrated production workflows based on these
tools and formats. Keywords: accessible publishing; Braille; DAISY; ebooks; EPUB; PEF; print-disabled
persons; scientific documents; workflow; XML | |||
| Japanese Text Presentation System for Pupils with Reading Difficulties | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 507-514 | |
| Shinjiro Murayama; Kyota Aoki | |||
| There are many pupils with reading difficulty in Japanese schools. The
dyslexia is the disability about reading and writing texts. We use Kanji,
Hiragana, Katakana characters in Japanese sentences. We propose the Japanese
text presentation system that eases the difficulties about reading Japanese
texts with or without dyslexia. The Kanji is an ideograph. The Hiragana and the
Katakana are phonograms. The reading difficulties include 2 types. One is a
difficulty about reading the Kanji. Another is the difficulty about tracing the
reading sequence. This paper proposes a system that presents the Japanese
sentences with suitable presentation method for each pupil with reading
difficulties. The main function of the proposed system is 3 levels of
highlighting/masking that are independently controlled. The highlighting only
is not enough to prevent the error about the reading sequence of character
chunks. The 3 level highlighting/masking enables to adapt the presentation to
wide varieties of reading difficulties. This paper proposes the design and the
experiments of the Japanese text presentation system on the students without
reading difficulty. Keywords: Reading difficulty; Text presentation; Highlighting/Masking; Dyslexia | |||
| Development of a DAISY Player That Utilizes a Braille Display for Document Structure Presentation and Navigation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 515-522 | |
| Kazunori Minatani | |||
| From the perspective of assistive Technology, the hierarchical document tree
structure is particularly relevant to represent a document's logical structure.
This research proposes a way of realizing advantages attainable from making use
of the logical structure of documents by developing a method of presenting the
tree structure information of a document on a braille display. The document
browser software developed for this research operates as a DAISY player.
Experimentation found that using a user interface of that document browser
software improves the efficiency of understanding the document's general
structure and finding headings when compared to the user interface of a
conventional DAISY player with numeric keypad cursor navigation. Not just the
DAISY contents, the proposed user interface can be used for general-purpose
applications. Keywords: Blind person; Multi Modal Interface; Document Structure Presentation and
Navigation; Braille Display; DAISY Player | |||
| Acce-Play: Accessibility in Cinemas | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 523-526 | |
| Alexandre Paz; Mari Luz Guenaga; Andoni Eguíluz | |||
| In this paper we present Acce-Play: a system that aims to provide accessible
content to all life cycle of films. It is designed to be platform independent
and currently allows to play accessible content in cinemas. The content is
synchronized with the playing film using audio fingerprinting techniques with
the projector audio stream. Keywords: Accessibility; Cinema; Audio Fingerprinting; Audiovisual Accessibility | |||
| Automatic Simplification of Spanish Text for e-Accessibility | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 527-534 | |
| Stefan Bott; Horacio Saggion | |||
| In this paper we present an automatic text simplification system for Spanish
which intends to make texts more accessible for users with cognitive
disabilities. This system aims at reducing the structural complexity of Spanish
sentences in that it converts complex sentences in two or more simple sentences
and therefore reduces reading difficulty. Keywords: Automatic Text Simplification; Natural Language Processing; e-Accessibility | |||
| Can Computer Representations of Music Enhance Enjoyment for Individuals Who Are Hard of Hearing? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 535-542 | |
| David Fourney | |||
| Music is an art form present in all cultures and a shared experience. People
who are Deaf, Deafened, or Hard of Hearing (D/HOH) do not have full access to
the music of the larger hearing cultures in which they live. As a consequence,
access to this shared experience and the cultural knowledge it contains is
lost. As a result of an increasingly aging global population the number of
D/HOH people is growing creating a consumer need for improved access to music
information. Challenging the notion that music is only something that can be
heard, this paper reviews the state of the art for supporting D/HOH music
consumers and describes a study conducted with HOH music consumers to determine
how best to support their needs. Results show that HOH people have several
difficulties accessing music. Keywords: Music; Deaf; Hard of Hearing; visualisation | |||
| Assistive Photography | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 543-549 | |
| Ludek Bártek; Ondrek Lapácek | |||
| Many people make photographs of places they visited and when they are
browsing the collections they can not often remember the names of buildings on
the pictures. There also exist people with visual impairment interested in a
photography[1].
This paper deals with the algorithms and methods they can allow people with visual impairment to photograph. They allow to automatically add a semantic description of buildings on a photography and to browse the collection of photographs taken this way even by visually impaired users using the semantic description. Keywords: visual impairment; photography; geolocation; semantic description | |||
| The LIA Project -- Libri Italiani Accessibili | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 550-553 | |
| Cristina Mussinelli | |||
| The LIA Project -- Libri Italiani Accessibili is a biennial project started
in 2011. It aims at providing a service to increase availability on the market
of digital publications accessible to blind and visually impaired, in full
respect of the rights of authors and publishers. Keywords: Digital publications; e-book; accessible; accessibility; EPUB; mainstream;
blind; visually impaired | |||
| Inclusion by Accessible Social Media | | BIBA | Full-Text | 554-556 | |
| Harald Holone | |||
| Social Media has great promise for facilitation of inclusion and participation for all. With this Special Topic Session, we wanted to address two perspectives on social media and inclusion: accessibility to social media on various device configurations, and inclusion through use of and engagement in social media. The papers in this STS falls into two broad categories. Three of four papers mostly look at the accessibility of social media, either with design guidelines, methodological considerations or surveys as central contributions. The fourth paper looks more closely at a case where computers and multimedia is used rehabilitation studies. This introduction provides a short introduction to social media and technology development, the scope of the STS, and a summary of the included papers. | |||
| The Use of Multimedia to Rehabilitate Students and Release Talents | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 557-564 | |
| Luciana Maria Depieri Branco Freire | |||
| The use of new information and communication technologies can improve
learning with dynamic, creative strategies. New knowledge will be obtained by
exercising the mind, i.e., using the two cerebral hemispheres by
neuroplasticity, in a dynamic, intense and active way. It is necessary to show
that computer can be used as a means of exercising the mind through different
activities and can be also used in pedagogical practices with the purpose of
making learning easier. It offers ways that are alternative to those offered by
school for students, with or without special necessities, to develop their
capacities and potentialities. The computer can be used to develop several
activities, which are complex and allow the development of many abilities that
help in the solution of problems and make students learn more from their
mistakes. These activities will help students develop self-confidence and
improve their creative actions and be independent. Keywords: Education; Inclusive Education; Cerebral Exercise; Multimedia | |||
| Use of Social Media by People with Visual Impairments: Usage Levels, Attitudes and Barriers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 565-572 | |
| Kristin Skeide Fuglerud; Ingvar Tjøstheim; Birkir Rúnar Gunnarsson; Morten Tollefsen | |||
| Social medias are a central arena for participation, in social life,
politics, business and working life. This paper aims to document the social
media use among people with visual impairments (VI) in Norway, and to explore
some barriers and motivational factors to the use of social media for this
group. We present results from two surveys about social media usage among
people with VI. One telephone survey was conducted among 150 members of the
Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted (NABP). This survey
contained questions about social media usage. The results from this
quantitative survey are discussed in light of results from a web survey with
more open-ended questions. The web survey was about how disabled people in
Norway use social media, and what accessibility and usability challenges they
experience. Through the web survey informants brings to the surface some
important accessibility issues and adds nuances to the overall picture. While
the telephone survey shows that a high percentage of people with VI participate
in social media, the web-based survey indicate they face a variety of problems
and typically use the core functionality only. Together, these two surveys give
a broad picture of social media usage among people with visual impairments in
Norway. Keywords: universal design; accessibility; visually impaired; social media; social
networking sites; assistive technology; security barriers; Captcha; surveys | |||
| User Testing of Social Media -- Methodological Considerations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 573-580 | |
| Oystein Dale; Therese Drivenes; Morten Tollefsen; Arthur Reinertsen | |||
| The use of social media has in recent years increased dramatically. It is
imperative that social media are accessible to all. To ensure this, it is
important to conduct user testing as part of an accessibility and usability
assessment of social media services. This paper focuses on the methodology
applied in such undertakings, and its purpose is to draw attention to important
aspects that should guide user testing and user studies of social media
services. This is done by sharing the experiences gained in the project Net
Citizen. The main target groups for the paper are those planning the
implementation of social media services and those who conduct accessibility and
usability user testing. Key findings are that cumulative usability issues can
be likened to poor accessibility. Further, that web services that are
accessible in a strict technical sense, may not necessarily be perceived as
accessible by real users. Keywords: Social media; accessibility; usability; user testing; methodology | |||
| Designing User Interfaces for Social Media Driven Digital Preservation and Information Retrieval | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 581-584 | |
| Dimitris Spiliotopoulos; Efstratios Tzoannos; Pepi Stavropoulou; et al | |||
| Social Media provide a vast amount of information identifying stories,
events, entities that play the crucial role of shaping the community in an
everyday heavy user involvement. This work involves the study of social media
information in terms of type (multimodal: text, video, sound, picture) and role
players (agents, users, opinion leaders) and the potential of designing
accessible, usable interfaces that integrate that information. This case
examines the design of a user interface that uses an underlying engine for
modality components (plain text, sound, image, video) analysis, social media
crawling, contextual search fusion and semantic analysis. The interface is the
only point of user interaction to the world of knowledge. This work reports on
the usability and accessibility methods and concerns for the user requirements
phase and the design control and testing. The findings of the pilot user
testing and evaluation provide indications on how the semantic analysis of the
social media information can be integrated to the design methodologies for user
interfaces resulting in maximization of user experience in terms of social
information involvement. Keywords: social media; user interface design; user enablement | |||
| PDF/UA -- A New Era for Document Accessibility: Understanding, Managing and Implementing the ISO Standard PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility): Introduction to the Special Thematic Session | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 585-586 | |
| Olaf Drümmer; Markus Erle | |||
| Short introduction to the Special Thematic Session about the new ISO
standard for PDF accessibility and how PDF/UA changes the game for document
software developers, assistive technology vendors, decision-makers,
organizations in the public and private sector, accessibility experts,
publishers, authors and last but not least the end-users. Keywords: PDF; WCAG 2.0; PDF/UA; document accessibility; ISO standard; PDF/UA
Competence Center | |||
| PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1) -- Applying WCAG 2.0 Principles to the World of PDF Documents | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 587-594 | |
| Olaf Drümmer | |||
| PDF/UA-1 is an upcoming ISO standard defining accessible PDF. It claims to
apply principles established by W3C's WCAG 2.0 to the world of PDF documents.
This paper discusses a mapping table between WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria and
clauses in the PDF/UA-1 standard to point out, how and why PDF/UA-1 can indeed
be described as an application of WCAG 2.0 principles to PDF. It is to be
expected that this as a consequence will speed up adoption of PDF/UA-1 in the
field of accessible electronic content. Keywords: accessible PDF; tagged PDF; PDF/UA; ISO 14289-1; WCAG 2.0 | |||
| Mainstreaming the Creation of Accessible PDF Documents by a Rule-Based Transformation from Word to PDF | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 595-601 | |
| Roberto Bianchetti; Markus Erle; Samuel Hofer | |||
| axesPDF for Word is an add-in for Microsoft Word 2007 and Word 2010 allowing
to create high quality accessible PDF documents according to guidelines like
WCAG 2.0 and standards like PDF/UA. It is characterized by a specific role
model, a rule based transformation instead of static conversion and the
possibility of n:m-mapping. Even complex documents with elements like
footnotes, side notes, captions, references, indices and glossaries can be made
accessible without post-processing. Keywords: PDF; Microsoft Word; WCAG 2.0; PDF/UA; document accessibility | |||
| Developing Text Customisation Functionality Requirements of PDF Reader and Other User Agents | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 602-609 | |
| Shawn Lawton Henry | |||
| This paper addresses the text customisation needs of people with low vision,
dyslexia, and related conditions that impact reading, including people with
declining eyesight due to ageing. It reports on a literature review and an
initial study that explores the aspects of text that users customize (e.g.,
size, colour, leading, linearization/reflow, and more) for reading RTF and PDF
documents, in operating system settings, and in web browser settings. It
presents the gap between users' needs and PDF user agent (primarily Adobe
Reader) functionality. The existing literature and this exploratory study
indicate that with the technology currently available, PDF is not sufficiently
accessible to many people with low vision, dyslexia, and related conditions
that impact reading. This paper aims to encourage additional text customisation
functionality in Adobe Reader; and to encourage more rigorous studies to
understand, document, and communicate how to better meet users' text
customisation needs through mainstream user agents. Keywords: low vision; dyslexia; readability; adaptability; PDF; Adobe Reader; text
customisation; accessibility guidelines; accessibility standards; user agents | |||
| Using Layout Applications for Creation of Accessible PDF: Technical and Mental Obstacles When Creating PDF/UA from Adobe Indesign CS 5.5 | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 610-616 | |
| Olaf Drümmer | |||
| While substantial progress has been made in widely used applications like
Microsoft Word or Adobe Indesign, when it comes to creating accessible PDF
documents, a number of problems still exist that make it difficult even for
motivated users in a real world production situation to invest additional
effort to create decently tagged PDF. Improved features and enhanced user
interface in these applications could contribute substantially to increase the
likelihood that creators of print-oriented PDF files take the extra work on
them to also make these PDF files accessible. Keywords: tagged PDF; accessible PDF; accessibility; PDF/UA | |||
| Validity and Semantics -- Two Essential Parts of a Backbone for an Automated PDF/UA Compliance Check for PDF Documents | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 617-620 | |
| Markus Erle; Samuel Hofer | |||
| The paper shows why validity and semantics matters for a PDF/UA evaluation
concept and how an automated checking tool can address this. In order to
translate machine-testable requirements into checking criteria a special query
language is developed called PQL (PDF Query Language). PQL will be implemented
in PDF Accessibility Checker PAC 2, the first and free PDF/UA compliance
checker crowd-funded by the foundation "Access for all". Keywords: PDF; WCAG 2.0; PDF/UA; document accessibility; validity; semantics;
checking; PAC2; PDF accessibility checker; foundation "Access for all" | |||
| Two Software Plugins for the Creation of Fully Accessible PDF Documents Based on a Flexible Software Architecture | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 621-624 | |
| Alireza Darvishy; Thomas Leemann; Hans-Peter Hutter | |||
| This paper presents one of two new software plugins for MS PowerPoint and
Word documents which allow the analysis of accessibility issues and
consequently the generation of fully accessible PDF documents. The document
authors using these plugins require no specific accessibility knowledge. This
paper introduces the user interface of the Microsoft PowerPoint accessibility
plugin. The plugins are based on a flexible software architecture concept that
allows the automatic generation of fully accessible PDF documents originating
from various authoring tools, such as Adobe InDesign [1], Word and PowerPoint
[2], [3]. The accessibility plugin software implemented allows authors to check
for accessibility issues while creating their documents and add the additional
semantic information needed to generate a fully accessible PDF document. Keywords: Document accessibility; automatic generation of accessible PDF; screen
reader; visual impairment; accessibility; tagged PDF; software architecture;
PowerPoint and Word documents | |||
| Privacy Preserving Automatic Fall Detection for Elderly Using RGBD Cameras | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 625-633 | |
| Chenyang Zhang; Yingli Tian; Elizabeth Capezuti | |||
| In this paper, we propose a new privacy preserving automatic fall detection
method to facilitate the independence of older adults living in the community,
reduce risks, and enhance the quality of life at home activities of daily
living (ADLs) by using RGBD cameras. Our method can recognize 5 activities
including standing, fall from standing, fall from chair, sit on chair, and sit
on floor. The main analysis is based on the 3D depth information due to the
advantages of handling illumination changes and identity protection. If the
monitored person is out of the range of a 3D camera, RGB video is employed to
continue the activity monitoring. Furthermore, we design a hierarchy
classification schema to robustly recognize 5 activities. Experimental results
on our database collected under conditions with normal lighting, without
lighting, out of depth range demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposal
method. Keywords: Privacy Preserving; Fall Detection; Video Monitoring; Elderly; Activities of
Daily Living | |||
| The Proof of Concept of a Shadow Robotic System for Independent Living at Home | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 634-641 | |
| Lucia Pigini; David Facal; Alvaro Garcia; Michael Burmester; Renzo Andrich | |||
| In the framework of the EU funded SRS (Multi-Role Shadow Robotic System for
independent Living) project, an innovative semi autonomous service robot is
under development with the aim to support frail elderly people at their home.
This paper reports about the user validation of the SRS concept involving 63
potential users of the system coming from Italy, Germany and Spain: in
particular they were frail elderly people, their relatives and 24 hour telecare
professionals. Results confirmed that monitoring and managing emergency
situations as well as helping with reaching, fetching and carrying objects that
are too heavy or positioned in unreachable places are the tasks for which a
robot is better accepted to address users' needs. To support the scenarios
executions and operation modes, the interaction concept should provide three
different interaction devices and modalities for each user group. Keywords: Service robots; tele-operation; elderly people; remote operator; user
requirements; user centered design | |||
| Task Complexity and User Model Attributes | | BIBA | Full-Text | 642-649 | |
| Thomas Grill; Sebastian Osswald; Manfred Tscheligi | |||
| Modeling users in order to design appropriate interfaces and interactions or to simulate a specific user behavior is an ambitious task. When using user model attributes to design an interface as well as its interactions we focus tasks at different levels of complexity. In our work we address the appropriateness of physical, cognitive, behavioral, and psychological attributes and their relevancy for designing and describing tasks at such levels of complexity. We conducted a study that uses tasks of varying complexity levels that we relate to attributes in terms of the categorization previously described. A driving simulator together with a prototype of in-car controls that allows to perform primitive as well as complex tasks during a driving scenario represent the study context and the user interface for the participants who took part in three different scenarios, where they performed selected tasks that have been identified for the automotive area. Further additional workload tasks were used to induce stress and to investigate in the effect of cognitive, behavioral, and psychological attributes. First results show that the physical parameters address mainly primitive tasks. Regarding cognitive, behavioral and psychological parameters, tasks need to be addressed at a more complex level, which was supported by the results of the study. Concluding the relation of primitive tasks to cognitive, behavioral, and psychological attributes is not viable. | |||
| AALuis, a User Interface Layer That Brings Device Independence to Users of AAL Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 650-657 | |
| Christopher Mayer; Martin Morandell; Matthias Gira; Kai Hackbarth; Martin Petzold; et al | |||
| Many ICT services older people could derive a benefit from lack of
accessibility, adoptability and usability of the user interface concerning
arising special needs specific for the target group. AALuis intends to develop
an open User Interface Layer that facilitates a dynamically adapted,
personalized interaction between an elderly user and any kind of service, with
different types of input and output devices and modalities. To achieve this the
AALuis User Interface Layer keeps track of changes of a variety of information
models to adapt the transformation process from abstract task descriptions to a
user interface and to steer the user interaction in a suitable manner. One of
the main goals of AALuis is to create and exploit synergies by developing an
architecture that allows the easy integration into different established AAL
middleware platforms. AALuis aims to significantly contribute to the freedom of
choice for end-users of services and users interfaces. Keywords: AAL; Middleware; User Interaction; User Interfaces | |||
| Comparison between Single-touch and Multi-touch Interaction for Older People | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 658-665 | |
| Guillaume Lepicard; Nadine Vigouroux | |||
| This paper describes a study exploring the multi-touch interaction for older
adults. The aim of this experiment was to check the relevance of this
interaction versus single-touch interaction to realize object manipulation
tasks: move, rotate and zoom. For each task, the user had to manipulate a
rectangle and superimpose it to a picture frame. Our study shows that adults
and principally older adults had more difficulties to realize these tasks for
multi-touch interaction than for single-touch interaction. Keywords: interaction; multi-touch; older people; usability | |||
| Online Social Networks and Older People | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 666-672 | |
| Guillermo Prieto; Denise Leahy | |||
| The number of older people is growing significantly and accounts for an
ever-increasing percentage of the global population [1]. Online social networks
are continuously gaining more relevance and presence in everyday life for
communication, work and social interaction. Despite those trends, there is
little knowledge on how older people use online social networks, and the
benefits derived from it or the possible negative impacts [2], [3]. This paper
examines how older people use online social networks and the factors which
influence this use. Keywords: online social networks; older people; design; accessibility; digital divide;
adoption | |||
| "Break the Bricks" Serious Game for Stroke Patients | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 673-680 | |
| Tamás Dömok; Veronika Szucs; Erika László; Cecília Sík Lányi | |||
| This study introduces a serious game, "Break the Bricks", which is one of
the games planned within the "StrokeBack" project. The aim of this game is to
support the rehabilitation process of stroke patients whom have upper limb
impairments and damaged psychomotor abilities. In this paper we will present
the designing process and the development of the game. We would like to
represent the background of serious games, and the planned test methods of
"Break the Bricks". We will also delineate future plans and further work with
this game. Keywords: serious game; rehabilitation; stroke patients; locomotor disorder | |||
| Development of a Broadcast Sound Receiver for Elderly Persons | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 681-688 | |
| Tomoyasu Komori; Atsushi Imai; Nobumasa Seiyama; Reiko Takou; Tohru Takagi; et al | |||
| With the aim of making speech easier to listen to on a TV receiver, a noble
method for back-ground-sound suppression processing was proposed, and the
results of evaluation tests using broadcast-program sound showed that a
prototype device was able to adjust a suitable level of background sound for
elderly people. Our proposed method was able to suppress the magnitude of sound
components with low correlation by using 2ch stereo signals and perform
gain-control only on the speechless intervals. The preparatory evaluation tests
confirm that it is possible to suitably reduce program background volume by the
proposed method. On the basis of this result, a device for suppressing
background sound by decoding the transport stream (TS) of a broadcast program
was prototyped. The results of evaluation tests using this device demonstrate
that the magnitude of background sound can be adjusted to a suitable level for
elderly people. Keywords: elderly people; phoneme recognition; loudness; stereo correlation;
subjective evaluation; background-sound suppression | |||
| Complexity versus Page Hierarchy of a GUI for Elderly Homecare Applications | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 689-696 | |
| Mustafa Torun; Tim van Kasteren; Ozlem Durmaz Incel; Cem Ersoy | |||
| Using computerized devices comes quite natural for many users due to the
various graphical user interfaces. However, acceptability of graphical user
interfaces by elderly, a rapidly growing group of computer users, is a
challenging issue due to different levels of impairments experienced. In the
literature, providing simplicity is the main focus of the studies that try to
address this challenge. In this paper, we study the acceptance of graphical
user interfaces for elderly people with different impairments in the context of
in-home healthcare systems. We focus on the relation between two main design
parameters of a graphical user interface: page complexity, which is the number
of interface elements on each page and the page hierarchy, which is the number
of the pages to be traced in order to complete a task. For this purpose, we
designed two versions of an interface: one version has a high page complexity
and the other version is designed to have a high page hierarchy. We asked 18
experiment-subjects, aged between 65 and 95, to complete three tasks, using
both versions. Experiment results are evaluated using both objective and
subjective metrics. Results show that the flat version is found to be more
acceptable by elderly. Keywords: Graphical user interface; elderly; acceptance; complexity; hierarchy | |||
| Benefits and Hurdles for Older Adults in Intergenerational Online Interactions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 697-704 | |
| Verena Fuchsberger; Wolfgang Sellner; Christiane Moser; Manfred Tscheligi | |||
| In order to foster the relationship between geographically distant
grandparents and grandchildren, a prototype of an online platform is developed
in an Ambient Assisted Living project. After identifying relevant attributes in
the requirements analysis together with older adults and experts for children,
we conducted two rounds of user studies in a laboratory setting with older
adults. In the studies we were not only interested in the usability of the
platform and the older participants' computer skills, but especially in the
experiences the older users have when interacting with and via the platform. As
expected, we found a relation between self-rated computer skills and the
usability problems. However, the skills were not decisive for experiencing the
interaction regarding curiosity, engagement, social connectedness and social
presence. Finally, implications for the design of socially connecting online
platforms are presented. Keywords: Older adults; User-Centered Design; Usability; User Experience | |||
| kommTUi: Designing Communication for Elderly | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 705-708 | |
| Wolfgang Spreicer; Lisa Ehrenstrasser; Hilda TellioÄYlu | |||
| Getting older does not mean being merely excluded from digital worlds.
Elderly can at least use the current technology to communicate with their
friends and family members without toiling, on contrary with joy and easiness.
We know this is not true yet. With our research project kommTUi we do our part
to get closer to this goal. In this paper we present our achievement so far.
One of the outcomes is our approach to better design usable and user-sensitive
interaction for elderly. We further show how four design workshops, carried out
in two years, and tangible user interfaces we developed so far can generate and
support playful environments with elderly. We finish our paper with the
presentation of the final model of the new devices we are currently developing
in our project. Keywords: User centered design; technology for elderly; participatory design
workshops; tangible user interface; interaction design | |||
| Reducing the Entry Threshold of AAL Systems: Preliminary Results from Casa Vecchia | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 709-715 | |
| Gerhard Leitner; Anton Josef Fercher; Alexander Felfernig; Martin Hitz | |||
| Ambient assisted living holds promising solutions to tackle the problems of
an overaging society by providing various smart home as well as computing and
internet technologies that support independent living of elderly people.
However, the acceptance of these technologies by the group of elderly
constitutes a crucial precondition for the success of AAL. The paper presents
early results from the project Casa Vecchia which explores the feasibility of
AAL within a longitudinal field study with 20 participating households. Thereby
observed barriers hindering the acceptance of technologies applied in the
project are discussed as well as possible solutions to reduce the entry
threshold to assistive technology. Keywords: Ambient Assisted Living; Technology Acceptance; Ethnographic Fieldstudy | |||