39 research outputs found
Toward 2^W beyond Web 2.0
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
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
Recommended from our members
Teaching the Art of Computer Programming at a Distance by Generating Dialogues using Deep Neural Networks
While teaching the art of Computer Programming, students with visual impairments (VI) are disadvantaged, because speech is their preferred modality. Existing accessibility assistants can only read out predefined texts sequentially, word-for-word, sentence-for-sentence, whilst the presentations of programming concepts could be conveyed in a more structured way. Earlier we have shown that deep neural networks such as Tree-Based Convolutional Neural Networks (TBCNN) and Gated Graph Neural Networks (GGNN) can be used to classify algorithms across different programming languages with over 90% accuracy. Furthermore, TBCNN or GGNN have been shown useful for generating natural and conversational dialogues from natural language texts. In this paper, we propose a novel pedagogy called “Programming Assistant”, by creating a personal tutor that can respond to voice commands, which trigger an explanation of programming concepts, hands-free. We generate dialogues using DNNs, which substitute code with the names of algorithms characterising the programs, and we read aloud descriptions of the code. Furthermore, the application of the dialogue generation can be embodied into an Alexa Skill, which turns them into fully natural voices, forming the basis of a smart assistant to handle a large number of formative questions in teaching the Art of Computer Programming at a distance
SCREEN READER FOR THE BLIND USERS TO READ IMAGES USING SANG KANCIL AND SANG BUAYA STORYBOOK
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
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
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
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
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