CLUE: A Usability Evaluation Checklist for Multimodal Video Game Field Studies with Children Who Are Blind

Multimodal video games can enhance the cognitive skills of children who are blind by allowing interaction with scenarios that would be unfeasible in their everyday life. To assist the identification of relevant interface and interaction issues when children who are blind are playing multimodal video games, we propose a Checklist for Usability Evaluation of Multimodal Games for Children who are Blind (CLUE). CLUE was designed to assist researchers and practitioners in usability evaluation field studies, addressing multiple aspects of gameplay and multimodality, including audio, graphics, and haptics. Overall, initial evidence indicates that the use of CLUE during user observation helps to raise a greater number of relevant usability issues than other methods, such as interview and questionnaire. CLUE makes the analysis of recorded user interactions a less time- and effort-consuming process by guiding the identification of interaction patterns and usability issues

Epistemological Trends in the Literature on Mobile Devices, Mobile Learning, and Learners with Visual Impairments

This study is significant because learning with mobile devices is increasing as a method of educating and training learners with visual impairments, but evaluation of its method is rare. In addition, the epistemological model used in this study is designed to improve future research designs. This article reviews the literature on the use of mobile devices by learners with visual impairments in a variety of learning environments. The study's three objectives are to pursue avenues of research in m-learning and visual impairment, stimulate debate on the nature and role of mobile technologies in the education of learners with visual impairments, and develop a debate on the best use of technologies in m-learning. The study uses an epistemological model of visual impairment as an instrument to critically analyze different ontologies and paradigms of research. The epistemological model is also analyzed as an analytical instrument. The study identifies three academic paradigms in this field: (1) conceptual, (2) design and user testing, (3) m-learning in situ. The study also finds these three paradigms ontologize visual impairment in different ways, meaning that there is little cohesion in research and practice. The study finds that research on the development and use of technologies by learners with visual impairments is restricted by a lack of cohesion in theory and practice. This lack of cohesion is thought to be largely due to the immature nature of this topic as a field of study