OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology - a way forward

The global Assistive Technology(AT)and Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) software field, while expanding all the time, remains small land very specialised. AT is a relatively under funded field with its players widely spread across the globe. Open sourcing, if managed sensibly and creatively could offer the AT field an inexpensive opportunity to create, share, and above all disseminate good products that have high AT end user value but no (or relatively little)commercial interest or return. Open sourcing offers great potential for AT software users, however currently there are a number of barriers that stop its use in AT situations. It is generally difficult to find on the Internet and there are no specific areas dedicated to developing or downloading AT software. Open source software can also be unfriendly to install, often obliging the user to download many different packages before it can be used. This project is investigating the viability of the open source model for the future development of AT software. The OATS project removes these barriers to Open Source AT software: users will have a single point of contact for obtaining open source software and developers will have a forum to write software to meet the needs of specific users. The potential uses and market factors involved with Open Source AT software will be investigated and the underlying concepts promoted. Open Sourcing is a well-established and growing method of software development and it has potential to be beneficial within the Assistive Technology field. Open Source development allows multiple developers to work on software simultaneously even on different sides of the world it also encourages a very close relationship between the user and the developer. Many developers are looking to use their skills on interesting, challenging and worthwhile projects and offer a potential resource for the field that has not so far been utilised. Open Source also allows customisation to software œ an important aspect when working with such a diverse range of users as exist within the Assistive Technology community. Further to this, Open Source promotes common standards œ something very much lacking in existing Assistive Technology software œ and could allow better portability for users between programs. The main deliverable of this project is a website where users can find appropriate software to meet their needs and Open Source developers can find exciting and interesting projects. This software 'Repository' has a user-friendly web interface to allow users to browse the software and download/installitwith ease. The second part of the website, the 'Forge', allows software developers to find motivating, interesting and useful projects. The 'Forge' also provides a wide range of Open Source development tools including Subversion CVS (a tool to enable 'source code' to be stored on-line and for multiple developers to access it)and Trac(a project management tool and bug-tracking system). The site is developed using Plone - a powerful content management system that allows users control over their own project areas and provides a range of tools such as polls, noticeboards, FAQs etc. The website is fully accessible and meets the W3C WAI guidelines. To summarise the OATS project and website offers: - Downloadable Open Source AT software that is of sufficient quality to disseminate widely. - A 'forge' for the development of new Open Source AT software based on specific user needs. - A searchable list of links to other related websites - A discussion forum to promote discussion between end users, AT professionals and Open Source developers. And, in the longer term, itcouldalso provide: - Specific solutions to individual needs by 'tuning' existing applications - End users with help to develop solutions themselve

OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology - a way forward

The global Assistive Technology(AT)and Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) software field, while expanding all the time, remains small land very specialised. AT is a relatively under funded field with its players widely spread across the globe. Open sourcing, if managed sensibly and creatively could offer the AT field an inexpensive opportunity to create, share, and above all disseminate good products that have high AT end user value but no (or relatively little)commercial interest or return. Open sourcing offers great potential for AT software users, however currently there are a number of barriers that stop its use in AT situations. It is generally difficult to find on the Internet and there are no specific areas dedicated to developing or downloading AT software. Open source software can also be unfriendly to install, often obliging the user to download many different packages before it can be used. This project is investigating the viability of the open source model for the future development of AT software. The OATS project removes these barriers to Open Source AT software: users will have a single point of contact for obtaining open source software and developers will have a forum to write software to meet the needs of specific users. The potential uses and market factors involved with Open Source AT software will be investigated and the underlying concepts promoted. Open Sourcing is a well-established and growing method of software development and it has potential to be beneficial within the Assistive Technology field. Open Source development allows multiple developers to work on software simultaneously even on different sides of the world it also encourages a very close relationship between the user and the developer. Many developers are looking to use their skills on interesting, challenging and worthwhile projects and offer a potential resource for the field that has not so far been utilised. Open Source also allows customisation to software œ an important aspect when working with such a diverse range of users as exist within the Assistive Technology community. Further to this, Open Source promotes common standards œ something very much lacking in existing Assistive Technology software œ and could allow better portability for users between programs. The main deliverable of this project is a website where users can find appropriate software to meet their needs and Open Source developers can find exciting and interesting projects. This software 'Repository' has a user-friendly web interface to allow users to browse the software and download/installitwith ease. The second part of the website, the 'Forge', allows software developers to find motivating, interesting and useful projects. The 'Forge' also provides a wide range of Open Source development tools including Subversion CVS (a tool to enable 'source code' to be stored on-line and for multiple developers to access it)and Trac(a project management tool and bug-tracking system). The site is developed using Plone - a powerful content management system that allows users control over their own project areas and provides a range of tools such as polls, noticeboards, FAQs etc. The website is fully accessible and meets the W3C WAI guidelines. To summarise the OATS project and website offers: - Downloadable Open Source AT software that is of sufficient quality to disseminate widely. - A 'forge' for the development of new Open Source AT software based on specific user needs. - A searchable list of links to other related websites - A discussion forum to promote discussion between end users, AT professionals and Open Source developers. And, in the longer term, itcouldalso provide: - Specific solutions to individual needs by 'tuning' existing applications - End users with help to develop solutions themselve

Baobab LIMS: An open source biobank laboratory information management system for resource-limited settings

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDA laboratory information management system (LIMS) is central to the informatics infrastructure that underlies biobanking activities. To date, a wide range of commercial and open source LIMS are available. The decision to opt for one LIMS over another is often influenced by the needs of the biobank clients and researchers, as well as available financial resources. However, to find a LIMS that incorporates all possible requirements of a biobank may often be a complicated endeavour. The need to implement biobank standard operation procedures as well as stimulate the use of standards for biobank data representation motivated the development of Baobab LIMS, an open source LIMS for Biobanking. Baobab LIMS comprises modules for biospecimen kit assembly, shipping of biospecimen kits, storage management, analysis requests, reporting, and invoicing. Baobab LIMS is based on the Plone web-content management framework, a server-client-based system, whereby the end user is able to access the system securely through the internet on a standard web browser, thereby eliminating the need for standalone installations on all machines. The Baobab LIMS components were tested and evaluated in three human biobanks. The testing of the LIMS modules aided in the mapping of the biobanks requirements to the LIMS functionalities, and furthermore, it helped to reveal new user suggestions, such as the enhancement of the online documentation. The user suggestions are demonstrated to be important for both LIMS strengthen and biobank sustainability. Ultimately, the practical LIMS evaluations showed the ability of Boabab LIMS to be used in the management of human biobanks operations of relatively different biobanking workflows

Designing and prototyping WebRTC and IMS integration using open source tools

WebRTC, or Web Real-time Communications, is a collection of web standards that detail the mechanisms, architectures and protocols that work together to deliver real-time multimedia services to the web browser. It represents a significant shift from the historical approach of using browser plugins, which over time, have proven cumbersome and problematic. Furthermore, it adopts various Internet standards in areas such as identity management, peer-to-peer connectivity, data exchange and media encoding, to provide a system that is truly open and interoperable. Given that WebRTC enables the delivery of multimedia content to any Internet Protocol (IP)-enabled device capable of hosting a web browser, this technology could potentially be used and deployed over millions of smartphones, tablets and personal computers worldwide. This service and device convergence remains an important goal of telecommunication network operators who seek to enable it through a converged network that is based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). IMS is an IP-based subsystem that sits at the core of a modern telecommunication network and acts as the main routing substrate for media services and applications such as those that WebRTC realises. The combination of WebRTC and IMS represents an attractive coupling, and as such, a protracted investigation could help to answer important questions around the technical challenges that are involved in their integration, and the merits of various design alternatives that present themselves. This thesis is the result of such an investigation and culminates in the presentation of a detailed architectural model that is validated with a prototypical implementation in an open source testbed. The model is built on six requirements which emerge from an analysis of the literature, including previous interventions in IMS networks and a key technical report on design alternatives. Furthermore, this thesis argues that the client architecture requires support for web-oriented signalling, identity and call handling techniques leading to a potential for IMS networks to natively support these techniques as operator networks continue to grow and develop. The proposed model advocates the use of SIP over WebSockets for signalling and DTLS-SRTP for media to enable one-to-one communication and can be extended through additional functions resulting in a modular architecture. The model was implemented using open source tools which were assembled to create an experimental network testbed, and tests were conducted demonstrating successful cross domain communications under various conditions. The thesis has a strong focus on enabling ordinary software developers to assemble a prototypical network such as the one that was assembled and aims to enable experimentation in application use cases for integrated environments

Medox Oy:n verkkopalvelun kehitys

Medox Oy halusi selkeät ja yksinkertaiselta näyttävän verkkopalvelun, jonka vaatimustaso vastaisi nykypäivää. Sivuston tarkoituksena on tarjota asiakkaille tarvittavaa tietoa, että he kiinnostuisivat yrityksestä ja sen asiantuntemuksesta. Verkkopalvelulla pyrittiin myös kohottamaan yrityksen imagoa sillä toimeksiantajalla ei ollut ennestään omaa verkkopalvelua. Medox Oy:n kotisivut suunniteltiin ja toteutettiin palvelumuotoilu prosessilla, jonka rajasimme kolmeportaiseksi. Tähän kuului tutkimusvaihe, suunnitteluvaihe ja toteutusvaihe. Internet tuo kuluttajille lisäarvoa monella tavalla perinteisiin markkinoinnin menetelmiin verrattuna. Esimerkiksi uudet sivustot on toimittava eri päätelaitteilla. Näin toimii myös Medox Oy:n verkkopalvelu, joka on suunniteltu toimimaan päätelaitteesta riippumatta. Opinnäytetyössä on toteutettu konstruktiivista tutkimusmenetelmää. Tutkimusaineistona käytettiin benchmarkingia, haastateltiin Medox Oy:n henkilöstöä ja löydettiin varteenotettavimmat kilpailijat sekä peilattiin muihin samankaltaisiin yrityksiin. Benchmarkingin tarkoituksena oli hankkia tietoa eri tekstiili agentuuriyritysten sivustoista. Sivustoja tutkittiin palvelumuotoilussa esitetyn asiakasmatka mallin avulla, ottaen samalla huomioon perinteiset Internet- sivustojen suunnitteluun liittyvät käytännöt. Verkkopalvelun toteutuksessa käytettiin avoimeen lähdekoodiin pohjautuvia järjestelmiä ja tekniikoita. Medox Oy:n verkkopalvelu tehtiin Drupal sisällönhallintajärjestelmällä, jolla oli mahdollista luoda vaatimukset täyttävä verkkopalvelu kohdeyritykselle. Sivustosta tuli helppokäyttöinen ja visuaalisesti miellyttävä. Graafinen ulkoasu toteutettiin yrityksen yleisilmeen mukaisesti. Kaiken kaikkiaan jokainen sidosryhmä oli tyytyväinen lopputulokseen. Tämä oli myös tekijälle hyvä tilaisuus oppia uusia asioita nykypäivän Internetistä sekä sisällönhallintajärjestelmistä.Medox Ltd aimed at creating a simple and clear web service for today’s standards. The purpose of this new web service is to present the company’s products and expertise in a way that would generate interest among potential customer. The web service was also to enhance the Medox Ltd image because the company did not have a website before. The project was developed with a three-step Service Desing process: study phase, desing phase and implementation phase. Compared to traditional marketing the Internet brings added value to the customer in many ways. For example, new sites must work with different devices. Medox Ltd web service was built to meet these standards and was designed and developed as full responsive. This thesis project is based on the constructive research method. The data for the research was collected from Medox Ltd staff interviews and from the Internet. All the major competitors and all other companies linked to textile agencies in some way could be found in the Internet. The purpose of benchmarking was to compare Medox Ltd to other agencies by finding customer journeys and typical design practises of creating web sites. The final web service was built with an open source based content management system. Medox Ltd’s new web service was built with the Drupal Content Management System. Drupal was one of the best CMS systems that meet the requirements of this project. The final website was easy to use and visually pleasant. The final visual feel and look were developed strictly accoording to the current visual lines of Medox. In summary, all stakeholders were satisfied with the outcome. This was also an excellent opportunity for the author to learn something new about today’s web development techniques and content management systems

Developing an understanding of the nature of accessibility and usability problems blind students face in web-enhanced instruction environments

The central premise of this research is that blind and visually impaired (BVI) people cannot use the Internet effectively due to accessibility and usability problems. Use of the Internet is indispensable in today's education system that relies on Web-enhanced instruction (WEI). Therefore, BVI students cannot participate effectively in WEI. Extant literature recognizes that non-visual Web interaction is inherently challenging. However, it does not explain where, how and why BVI students face accessibility and usability problems in performing academic tasks in WEI. This knowledge is necessary to adequately inform the development of interventions that improve the functional and academic outcomes of BVI students in WEI. The purpose of this doctoral research is to understand the nature of accessibility and usability problems BVI students face in WEI environments. It adopts a novel user-centered, task-oriented, cognitive approach to develop an in-depth, contextually-situated, observational and experiential knowledge of these problems. The context of WEI experience under investigation is an online exam over a typical course management system. Research design is a qualitative field study that involves a multimethod evaluation of the WEI environment. The core component of this multimethod evaluation is BVI students' assessment of the WEI environment. This is triangulated through assessments made by WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and Web developers. The BVI student assessment employs an integrated problem solving model, in combination with verbal protocol analysis, to identify and understand where, how and why BVI students face a problem in completing the exam. The WCAG assessment employs automated accessibility testing and WCAG textual analysis to identify interface objects that violate accessibility standards and characterizes a problem. The Web developer assessment involves open-ended interviews to identify the source of a problem. Results show that the WEI environment consisted of innumerable interface objects that violated WCAG's standards on Web accessibility and usability. BVI participants faced many accessibility and usability problems that posed significant challenges completing the online exam. These problems fall into six major problem types as described below: 1. Confusion while navigating across WEI environment due to its frame-based page structure without unique frame names; 2. Susceptibility to submitting incomplete work when a new question page does not provide location and contextual information; 3. Difficulty understanding how to submit work when the selection controls for multiple option questions lack a consistent keyboard navigation procedure; 4. Inability to negotiate security information pop-up when the WEI environment uses an alert dialogue box; 5. Ambiguity in essay-type question page that lack meaningful labels for interface objects, including text area and text formatting toolbar; 6. Vulnerability of losing work when Backspace behaves as browser's Back button inside text area. This doctoral research contributes in three ways. It fills the knowledge gap about the nature of problems BVI students face in Web interactions for academic tasks. This kind of knowledge is necessary to determine accessibility and usability requirements for WEI. Another contribution is a set of mental model representations that explicate the thought processes of BVI students. Such representations are useful in developing user instruction and design of more accessible and usable Web sites. A third contribution is a user-centered, task-based, cognitive and multi-method approach to evaluate Web accessibility and usability

Migrating existing multimedia courseware to Moodle

Open source course management systems offer increased flexibility for instructors and instructional designers. Communities can influence the development of these systems and on an individual basis, the possibility to modify the system software exists. Migrating existing courseware to these systems can therefore be beneficial, sometimes even required. We report here about our experience in migrating an existing courseware system consisting of multimedia content and interactive, integrated infrastructure functionality to an open source course management system called Moodle. We will assess the difficulties that we have encountered during this process and, discuss the importance of standards in this context, and we aim to provide other instructors or instructional designers with guidelines and assessment support for other migration projects