39 research outputs found

    Toward 2^W beyond Web 2.0

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    From its inception as a global hypertext system, the Web has evolved into a universal platform for deploying loosely coupled distributed applications. 2^W is a result of the exponentially growing Web building on itself to move from a Web of content to a Web of applications

    Current Perspectives on Linux Accessibility Tools for Visually Impaired Users

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    The development of user-oriented technologies is related not only to compliance with standards, rules and good practices for their usability but also to their accessibility. For people with special needs, assistive technologies have been developed to ensure the use of modern information and communication technologies. The choice of a particular tool depends mostly on the user's operating system. The aim of this research paper is to study the current state of the accessibility software tools designed for an operating system Linux and especially used by visually impaired people. The specific context of the considering of the study’s objective is the possibility of using such technologies by Bulgarian users. The applied approach of the research is content analysis of scientific publications, official documentation of Linux accessibility tools, and legal provisions and classifiers of international organizations. The results of the study are useful to other researchers who work in the area of accessibility of software technologies, including software companies that develop solutions for visually impaired people. For the purpose of the article several tests are performed with the studied tools, on the basis of which the conclusions of the study are made. On the base of the comparative study of assistive software tools the main conclusion of the paper is made: Bulgarian visually impaired users are limited to work with Linux operating system because of the lack of the Bulgarian language support

    SCREEN READER FOR THE BLIND USERS TO READ IMAGES USING SANG KANCIL AND SANG BUAYA STORYBOOK

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    The dissertation is complete information about the project titled "Screen reader for the blind users to read images using sang kancil and sang buaya storybook". It probes on the difficulty that a visually impaired user having problem to imagine a picture and help to settle this problem by developing a new screen reader using the storybook as the control element. The scope of the project is within two semesters and the subjects of study are Malaysian visually impaired users in their teenage year. This dissertation also includes the findings and the analysis and discussion on the findings based on the experiment conducted in a controlled element

    Designing user experiences: a game engine for the blind

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    Video games experience an ever-increasing interest by society since their inception on the 70’s. This form of computer entertainment may let the player have a great time with family and friends, or it may as well provide immersion into a story full of details and emotional content. Prior to the end user playing a video game, a huge effort is performed in lots of disciplines: screenwriting, scenery design, graphical design, programming, optimization or marketing are but a few examples. This work is done by game studios, where teams of professionals from different backgrounds join forces in the inception of the video game. From the perspective of Human-Computer Interaction, which studies how people interact with computers to complete tasks, a game developer can be regarded as a user whose task is to create the logic of a video game using a computer. One of the main foundations of HCI. is that an in-depth understanding of the user’s needs and preferences is vital for creating a usable piece of technology. This point is important as a single piece of technology (in this case, the set of tools used by a game developer) may – and should have been designed to – be used on the same team by users with different knowledge, abilities and capabilities. Embracing this diversity of users functional capabilities is the core foundation of accessibility, which is tightly related to and studied from the discipline of HCI. The driving force behind this research is a question that came after considering game developers: Could someone develop a video game being fully or partially blind? Would it be possible for these users to be part of a game development team? What should be taken into account to cover their particular needs and preferences so that they could perform this task being comfortable and productive? The goal of this work is to propose a possible solution that can assure inclusion of fully or partially blind users in the context of computer game development. To do this, a Used Centered Design methodology has been followed. This approach is ideal in this case as it starts including people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor made to suit their needs. First, previously designed solutions for this problem and related works have been analyzed. Secondly, an exploratory study has been performed to know how should the target user be able to interact with a computer when developing games, and design insights are drawn from both the state of the art analysis and the study results. Next, a solution has been proposed based on the design insights, and a prototype has been implemented. The solution has been evaluated with accessibility guidelines. It has been finally concluded that the proposed solution is accessible for visually impaired users.Ingeniería Informátic

    The Accessibility of Mathematical Notation on the Web and Beyond

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    This paper serves two purposes. First, it offers an overview of the role of the Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) in representing mathematical notation on the Web, and its significance for accessibility. To orient the discussion, hypotheses are advanced regarding users’ needs in connection with the accessibility of mathematical notation. Second, current developments in the evolution of MathML are reviewed, noting their consequences for accessibility, and commenting on prospects for future improvement in the concrete experiences of users of assistive technologies. Recommendations are advanced for further research and development activities, emphasizing the cognitive aspects of user interface design

    SCREEN READER FOR THE BLIND USERS TO READ IMAGES USING SANG KANCIL AND SANG BUAYA STORYBOOK

    Get PDF
    The dissertation is complete information about the project titled "Screen reader for the blind users to read images using sang kancil and sang buaya storybook". It probes on the difficulty that a visually impaired user having problem to imagine a picture and help to settle this problem by developing a new screen reader using the storybook as the control element. The scope of the project is within two semesters and the subjects of study are Malaysian visually impaired users in their teenage year. This dissertation also includes the findings and the analysis and discussion on the findings based on the experiment conducted in a controlled element

    Clique: Perceptually Based, Task Oriented Auditory Display for GUI Applications

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    Screen reading is the prevalent approach for presenting graphical desktop applications in audio. The primary function of a screen reader is to describe what the user encounters when interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI). This straightforward method allows people with visual impairments to hear exactly what is on the screen, but with significant usability problems in a multitasking environment. Screen reader users must infer the state of on-going tasks spanning multiple graphical windows from a single, serial stream of speech. In this dissertation, I explore a new approach to enabling auditory display of GUI programs. With this method, the display describes concurrent application tasks using a small set of simultaneous speech and sound streams. The user listens to and interacts solely with this display, never with the underlying graphical interfaces. Scripts support this level of adaption by mapping GUI components to task definitions. Evaluation of this approach shows improvements in user efficiency, satisfaction, and understanding with little development effort. To develop this method, I studied the literature on existing auditory displays, working user behavior, and theories of human auditory perception and processing. I then conducted a user study to observe problems encountered and techniques employed by users interacting with an ideal auditory display: another human being. Based on my findings, I designed and implemented a prototype auditory display, called Clique, along with scripts adapting seven GUI applications. I concluded my work by conducting a variety of evaluations on Clique. The results of these studies show the following benefits of Clique over the state of the art for users with visual impairments (1-5) and mobile sighted users (6): 1. Faster, accurate access to speech utterances through concurrent speech streams. 2. Better awareness of peripheral information via concurrent speech and sound streams. 3. Increased information bandwidth through concurrent streams. 4. More efficient information seeking enabled by ubiquitous tools for browsing and searching. 5. Greater accuracy in describing unfamiliar applications learned using a consistent, task-based user interface. 6. Faster completion of email tasks in a standard GUI after exposure to those tasks in audio
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