Tools in and out of sight : an analysis informed by Cultural-Historical Activity Theory of audio-haptic activities involving people with visual impairments supported by technology

The main purpose of this thesis is to present a Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) based analysis of the activities conducted by and with visually impaired users supported by audio-haptic technology.This thesis covers several studies conducted in two projects. The studies evaluate the use of audio-haptic technologies to support and/or mediate the activities of people with visual impairment. The focus is on the activities involving access to two-dimensional information, such as pictures or maps. People with visual impairments can use commercially available solutions to explore static information (raised lined maps and pictures, for example). Solu-tions for dynamic access, such as drawing a picture or using a map while moving around, are more scarce. Two distinct projects were initiated to remedy the scarcity of dynamic access solutions, specifically focusing on two separate activities.The first project, HaptiMap, focused on pedestrian outdoors navigation through audio feedback and gestures mediated by a GPS equipped mobile phone. The second project, HIPP, focused on drawing and learning about 2D representations in a school setting with the help of haptic and audio feedback. In both cases, visual feedback was also present in the technology, enabling people with vision to take advantage of that modality too.The research questions addressed are: How can audio and haptic interaction mediate activ-ities for people with visual impairment? Are there features of the programming that help or hinder this mediation? How can CHAT, and specifically the Activity Checklist, be used to shape the design process, when designing audio haptic technology together with persons with visual impairments?Results show the usefulness of the Activity Checklist as a tool in the design process, and provide practical application examples. A general conclusion emphasises the importance of modularity, standards, and libre software in rehabilitation technology to support the development of the activities over time and to let the code evolve with them, as a lifelong iterative development process. The research also provides specific design recommendations for the design of the type of audio haptic systems involved

Perspectives and research on play for children with disabilities: collected papers

This book includes eight chapters reflecting various approaches towards the theme of play for children with disabilities that characterised the work of the members of the COST Action TD1309 "LUDI-Play for Children with Disabilities". Alongside these multifaceted points of view, some theoretical aspects emerged as a common background: the ICF-CY theoretical perspective, the vision of "play for the sake of play" and play as a fundamental right

Perspectives and research on play for children with disabilities. Collected papers

This book includes eight chapters reflecting various approaches towards the theme of play for children with disabilities that characterised the work of the members of the COST Action TD1309 “LUDI–Play for Children with Disabilities”. Alongside these multifaceted points of view, some theoretical aspects emerged as a common background: the ICF-CY theoretical perspective, the vision of “play for the sake of play” and play as a fundamental right

Visual Impairment and Blindness

Blindness and vision impairment affect at least 2.2 billion people worldwide with most individuals having a preventable vision impairment. The majority of people with vision impairment are older than 50 years, however, vision loss can affect people of all ages. Reduced eyesight can have major and long-lasting effects on all aspects of life, including daily personal activities, interacting with the community, school and work opportunities, and the ability to access public services. This book provides an overview of the effects of blindness and visual impairment in the context of the most common causes of blindness in older adults as well as children, including retinal disorders, cataracts, glaucoma, and macular or corneal degeneration

Proceedings of the 4th international conference on disability, virtual reality and associated technologies (ICDVRAT 2002)

The proceedings of the conferenc

Accessibility of Health Data Representations for Older Adults: Challenges and Opportunities for Design

Health data of consumer off-the-shelf wearable devices is often conveyed to users through visual data representations and analyses. However, this is not always accessible to people with disabilities or older people due to low vision, cognitive impairments or literacy issues. Due to trade-offs between aesthetics predominance or information overload, real-time user feedback may not be conveyed easily from sensor devices through visual cues like graphs and texts. These difficulties may hinder critical data understanding. Additional auditory and tactile feedback can also provide immediate and accessible cues from these wearable devices, but it is necessary to understand existing data representation limitations initially. To avoid higher cognitive and visual overload, auditory and haptic cues can be designed to complement, replace or reinforce visual cues. In this paper, we outline the challenges in existing data representation and the necessary evidence to enhance the accessibility of health information from personal sensing devices used to monitor health parameters such as blood pressure, sleep, activity, heart rate and more. By creating innovative and inclusive user feedback, users will likely want to engage and interact with new devices and their own data

Proceedings of the 9th international conference on disability, virtual reality and associated technologies (ICDVRAT 2012)

The proceedings of the conferenc

Externalities and Enterprise Software: Helping and Hindering Legal Compliance

Enterprise software helps organizations comply with laws and regulations, yet software itself creates negative externalities that can undermine rights and laws. Software developers are an important regulatory force, yet many know little about how law and software interact. This work examines developer understanding of legal concepts and examples of the software code and law relationship: payroll, Sarbanes Oxley Act, web accessibility, and data protection

An investigation of the role of the scanning laser ophthalmoscope in the assessment of patients with macular disease

Diseases of the macula are the primary cause of blindness in the western world. Given the current lack of effective medical treatment, there is a requirement for investigation of alternative therapeutic modalities. Traditionally, low vision services provide magnifying devices and advice on illumination. However, there have been claims that training is essential for successful rehabilitation. Using the scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO), novel techniques have been developed for the investigation of visual function. Validation was undertaken on subjects with normal vision and patients with a variety of central field defects. Microperimetry in patients demonstrated that visual function did not always correlate with fundus appearance. In normals, small inaccuracies of fixation were found to have no measurable influence on the reproducibility of scotoma maps. Measurements of fixation indicated that the ability to maintain a steady eye position varied significantly between observers both with normal and low vision. Some patients had exceptionally poor fixation whilst in others it was normal. To minimise the problems of target acquisition due to eye movements, a scrolling text system was developed. Assessment of reading performance at specific retinal locations demonstrated that the ability to recognise letters declined with increasing retinal eccentricity and decreasing text contrast. Patients were notably worse at reading tasks than normal observers. Longitudinal evaluation of visual function was undertaken on patients entered into a low vision training programme. Most patients self-selected a single eccentric retinal location for viewing and no suggested alternative locus could be identified that provided superior performance. Although training improved visual performance, it probably resulted from enhancement of patients' psychological status and skill acquisition. This study has demonstrated the usefulness of the SLO in the functional evaluation of vision and its potential for optimising the use of residual vision in patients with macular disease