Multimodal and ubiquitous computing systems: supporting independent-living older users

We document the rationale and design of a multimodal interface to a pervasive/ubiquitous computing system that supports independent living by older people in their own homes. The Millennium Home system involves fitting a resident’s home with sensors – these sensors can be used to trigger sequences of interaction with the resident to warn them about dangerous events, or to check if they need external help. We draw lessons from the design process and conclude the paper with implications for the design of multimodal interfaces to ubiquitous systems developed for the elderly and in healthcare, as well as for more general ubiquitous computing applications

Universal Accessibility as a Multimodal Design Issue

In recent years, many research activities have focused on design that aims to produce universally accessible systems, taking into account special needs of various user groups. These special needs are associated with many user factors, such as impairments of speech, hearing or vision, cognitive limitations, aging, as well as with various environmental factors. Fields that address this problem, such as Usability, Universal Accessibility, Universal Design, or Inclusive Design have been developed as relatively independent domains, but they share many aspects with other human-computer interaction (HCI) disciplines. However, researchers and practitioners are often not aware of interconnections among concepts of universal accessibility and "ordinary" HCI. In view of this situation, in this article we show there is a fundamental connection between multimodal interface design and universal accessibility, and that awareness of these links can help both disciplines. Researchers from these areas may use different terminology, but the concepts they use often have essentially the same meaning. We propose a unified conceptual framework where these areas can be joined

User Interface Abstraction for enabling TV set based Inclusive Access to the Information Society

199 p.The television (TV) set is present in most homes worldwide, and is the most used Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Despite its large implantation in the market, the interactive services consumption on TV set is limited. This thesis focuses on overcoming the following limiting factors: (i) limited Human Computer Interaction and (ii) lack of considering user’s real life context in the digital television (dTV) service integration strategy. Making interactive services accessible to TV set’s large user base, and especially to the most vulnerable ones, is understood as the path to integrate the mankind with the information society. This thesis explores the use of user interface abstraction technologies to reach the introduced goals. The main contributions of this thesis are: (i) an approach to enable the universally accessible remote control of the TV set, (ii) an approach for the provision of universally accessible interactive services through TV sets, and (iii) an approach for the provision of universally accessible services in the TV user’s real life context. We have implemented the contributing approaches for different use cases, and we have evaluated them with real users, achieving good results

Inclusive Intelligent Learning Management System Framework - Application of Data Science in Inclusive Education

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Data ScienceBeing a disabled student the author faced higher education with a handicap which as experience studying during COVID 19 confinement periods matched the findings in recent research about the importance of digital accessibility through more e-learning intensive academic experiences. Narrative and systematic literature reviews enabled providing context in World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, legal and standards framework and information technology and communication state-of-the art. Assessing Portuguese higher education institutions’ web sites alerted to the fact that only outlying institutions implemented near perfect, accessibility-wise, websites. Therefore a gap was identified in how accessible the Portuguese higher education websites are, the needs of all students, including those with disabilities, and even the accessibility minimum legal requirements for digital products and the services provided by public or publicly funded organizations. Having identified a problem in society and exploring the scientific base of knowledge for context and state of the art was a first stage in the Design Science Research methodology, to which followed development and validation cycles of an Inclusive Intelligent Learning Management System Framework. The framework blends various Data Science study fields contributions with accessibility guidelines compliant interface design and content upload accessibility compliance assessment. Validation was provided by a focus group whose inputs were considered for the version presented in this dissertation. Not being the purpose of the research to deliver a complete implementation of the framework and lacking consistent data to put all the modules interacting with each other, the most relevant modules were tested with open data as proof of concept. The rigor cycle of DSR started with the inclusion of the previous thesis on Atlântica University Institute Scientific Repository and is to be completed with the publication of this thesis and the already started PhD’s findings in relevant journals and conferences

Improving elderly access to audiovisual and social media, using a multimodal human-computer interface

With the growth of Internet and especially, the proliferation of social media services, an opportunity has emerged for greater social and technological integration of the elderly. However, the adoption of new technologies by this segment of the population is not always straightforward mainly due to the physical and cognitive difficulties that are typically associated with ageing. Thus, for elderly to take advantage of new technologies and services that can help improve their quality of life, barriers must be broken by designing solutions with those needs in mind from the start. The aim of this work is to verify whether Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction (MHCI) systems designed with Universal Accessibility principles, taking into account elderly specific requirements, facilitate the adoption and access to popular Social Media Services (SMSs) and Audiovisual Communication Services, thus potentially contributing to the elderly social and technological integration. A user study was initially conducted in order to learn about the limitations and requirements of elderly people with existing HCI, concerning particularly SMSs and Audiovisual Communication Services, such as Facebook or Windows Live Messenger (WLM). The results of the study, basically a set of new MHCI requirements, were used to inform further development and enhancement of a multimodal prototype previously proposed for mobility-impaired individuals, now targeting the elderly. The prototype allows connecting users with their social networks through a text, audio and video communication service and integrates with SMSs, using natural interaction modalities, like speech, touch and gesture. After the development stage a usability evaluation study was conducted. The study reveals that such multimodal solution could simplify accessibility to the supported services, through the provision of simpler to use interfaces, by adopting natural interaction modalities and by being more satisfying to use by the elderly population, than most of the current graphical user interfaces for those same services, such as Facebook.Com o crescimento da Internet e, especialmente, das redes sociais surge a oportunidade para uma maior integração social e tecnológica dos idosos. No entanto, a adoção de novas tecnologias por essa população nem sempre é simples, principalmente devido às dificuldades físicas e cognitivas que estão associadas com o envelhecimento. Assim, e para que os idosos possam tirar proveito das novas tecnologias e serviços que podem ajudar a melhorar sua qualidade de vida, essas barreiras devem ser ultrapassadas desenhando soluções de raiz com essas necessidades em mente. O objetivo deste trabalho é verificar se interfaces humano-computador multimodais desenhadas com base em princípios de Acessibilidade Universal, tendo em conta requisitos específicos da população idosa, proporcionam um acesso simplificado a serviços de média social e serviços de comunicação audiovisuais, potencialmente contribuindo para a integração social e tecnológica desta população. Um estudo com utilizadores foi inicialmente conduzido a fim de apurar as necessidades especiais desses utilizadores com soluções de software, mais especificamente serviços de média social e serviços de conferência, como o Facebook ou o Windows Live Messenger. Os resultados do estudo foram utilizados para planear o desenvolvimento de um protótipo multimodal proposto anteriormente para utilizadores com mobilidade reduzida. Este permite ligar utilizadores às suas redes sociais através de um serviço de conferência por texto, áudio e vídeo, e um serviço integrado de média social, usando modalidades de interação natural, como o toque, fala e gestos. Após a fase de desenvolvimento foi realizado um estudo de usabilidade. Esse estudo revelou que este tipo de soluções pode simplificar a acessibilidade aos serviços considerados, dado ter interfaces mais simples, por adotar modalidades de interação mais naturais e por ser mais gratificante do que a maioria das interfaces gráficas atuais para os mesmos serviços, como por exemplo o Facebook

Accessible Conversational User Interfaces: Considerations for design

Conversational user interfaces (CUIs), such as chatbots and voice assistants, are increasingly common in areas of day-to-day life, and can be expected to become ever more pervasive in the future. These interfaces are being designed for ever more complex interactions, and they appear to have potential to be beneficial to people with disabilities to interact through the web and with technologies embedded in the environment. However, to fulfil this promise they need to be designed to be accessible. This paper reviews a range of current guidance, reports, research and literature on accessible design for different disability groups, including users with mental health issues, autism, health conditions, cognitive disabilities, dyslexia or learning difficulties, and sensory, mobility or dexterity impairments. We collate the elements from this body of guidance that appear relevant to the design of accessible CUIs, and instances where guidance presents issues which are less conclusive, and require further exploration. Using this, we develop a set of questions which could be useful in the further research and development of accessible CUIs. We conclude by considering why CUIs could present opportunities for furthering accessibility, by introducing an example of this potential – a project to design an assistant to support students to disclose their disabilities and organise support, without the need to fill in forms

Impact of universal design ballot interfaces on voting performance and satisfaction of people with and without vision loss

Since the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002 that addressed improvements to voting systems and voter access through the use of electronic technologies, electronic voting systems have improved in U.S. elections. However, voters with disabilities have been disappointed and frustrated, because they have not been able to vote privately and independently (Runyan, 2007). Voting accessibility for individuals with disabilities has generally been accomplished through specialized designs, providing the addition of alternative inputs (e.g., headphones with tactile keypad for audio output, sip-and-puff) and outputs (e.g., audio output) to existing hardware and/or software architecture. However, while the add-on features may technically be accessible, they are often complex and difficult for poll workers to set up and require more time for targeted voters with disabilities to use compared to the direct touch that enable voters without disabilities to select any candidate in a particular contest at any time. To address the complexities and inequities with the accessible alternatives, a universal design (UD) approach was used to design two experimental ballot interfaces, namely EZ Ballot and QUICK Ballot, that seamlessly integrate accessible features (e.g., audio output) based on the goal of designing one voting system for all. EZ Ballot presents information linearly (i.e., one candidate’s name at a time) and voters can choose Yes or No inputs that does not require search (i.e., finding a particular name). QUICK Ballot presents multiple names that allow users to choose a name using direct-touch or gesture-touch interactions (e.g., the drag and lift gesture). Despite the same goal of providing one type of voting system for all voters, each ballot has a unique selection and navigation process designed to facilitate access and participation in voting. Thus, my proposed research plan was to examine the effectiveness of the two UD ballots primarily with respect to their different ballot structures in facilitating voting performance and satisfaction for people with a range of visual abilities including those with blindness or vision loss. The findings from this work show that voters with a range of visual abilities were able to use both ballots independently. However, as expected, the voter performance and preferences of each ballot interface differed by voters through the range of visual abilities. While non-sighted voters made fewer errors on the linear ballot (EZ Ballot), partially-sighted and sighted voters completed the random access ballot (QUICK Ballot) in less time. In addition, a higher percentage of non-sighted participants preferred the linear ballot, and a higher percentage of sighted participants preferred the random ballot. The main contributions of this work are in: 1) utilizing UD principles to design ballot interfaces that can be differentially usable by voters with a range of abilities; 2) demonstrating the feasibility of two UD ballot interfaces by voters with a range of visual abilities; 3) providing an impact for people with a range of visual abilities on other applications. The study suggests that the two ballots, both designed according to UD principles but with different weighting of principles, can be differentially usable by individuals with a range of visual abilities. This approach clearly distinguishes this work from previous efforts, which have focused on developing one UD solution for everyone because UD does not dictate a single solution for everyone (e.g., a one-size-fits-all approach), but rather supports flexibility in use that provide a new perspective into human-computer interaction (Stephanidis, 2001).Ph.D