Making Data Flow Diagrams Accessible for Visually Impaired Students Using Excel Tables

This paper addresses the use of Excel tables to convey information to blind students that would otherwise be presented using graphical tools, such as Data Flow Diagrams. These tables can supplement diagrams in the classroom when introducing their use to understand the scope of a system and its main sub-processes, on exams when answering questions about such relationships, or in group projects in discussing problems with and recommendations for systems. The main contributions are a)a suggestion on how to translate the different aspects of Data Flow Diagrams into a table format and b) the in-classexperiences from using the approach. The approach can be broadened to other graphical representations such as Entity-Relationship Diagrams or Use-Case Diagrams. Further, this approach could be broadened to support alternative learning styles of sighted students in the class

Investigation of dynamic three-dimensional tangible touchscreens: Usability and feasibility

The ability for touchscreen controls to move from two physical dimensions to three dimensions may soon be possible. Though solutions exist for enhanced tactile touchscreen interaction using vibrotactile devices, no definitive commercial solution yet exists for providing real, physical shape to the virtual buttons on a touchscreen display. Of the many next steps in interface technology, this paper concentrates on the path leading to tangible, dynamic, touchscreen surfaces. An experiment was performed that explores the usage differences between a flat surface touchscreen and one augmented with raised surface controls. The results were mixed. The combination of tactile-visual modalities had a negative effect on task completion time when visual attention was focused on a single task (single target task time increased by 8% and the serial target task time increased by 6%). On the other hand, the dual modality had a positive effect on error rate when visual attention was divided between two tasks (the serial target error rate decreased by 50%). In addition to the experiment, this study also investigated the feasibility of creating a dynamic, three dimensional, tangible touchscreen. A new interface solution may be possible by inverting the traditional touchscreen architecture and integrating emerging technologies such as organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays and electrorheological fluid based tactile pins

User-defined multimodal interaction to enhance children's number learning

Children today are already exposed to the new technology and have experienced excellent number learning applications at an early age. Despite that, most of the children's application softwares either fail to establish the interaction design or are not child-friendly. Involving children in the design phase of any children application is therefore essential as adults or developers do not know the children’s needs and requirements. In other words, designing children's computer applications adapted to the capabilities of children is an important part of today's software development methodology. The goal of this research is to propose a new interaction technique and usability that evaluates children learning performance of numbers. The new interaction technique is designed by participatory design in which children are involved in the design process. A VisionMath interface was implemented with the user-defined multimodal interaction dialogues which was proposed to evaluate the children’s learning ability and subjective satisfaction. An evaluation with 20 participants was conducted using usability testing methods. The result shows that there is a significant difference in the number learning performance between tactile interaction and multimodal interaction. This study reveals the proposed user-defined multimodal interaction dialogue was successful in providing a new interaction technique for children’s number learning by offering alternative input modality and potentially providing a rich field of research in the future

Conceptual design model of Assistive Courseware for Low Vision (AC4LV) learners

This paper describes an ongoing study related to the design of conceptual design model which specific to learning content application for low vision learners.Reviews from literature s indicate that content application such as course ware which is specifically designed to cater the needs of low vision learners in learning is highly scarce.It was found that most of the existing content applications including courseware focus to the needs of normal student, in which most of this course ware mean too little to the low vision learners in terms of information accessibility, navigation ability, and pleasure aspects.In addition, the use of Assistive Technology (AT) such as magnifying glass was also problematic for them.Thus, this study aims at creating an alternative content application particularly courseware for low vision learners.It is called as Assistive Courseware for Low Vision (AC4LV).Prior to develop an AC4LV a specific design model has to be proposed as guidance for the developer to refer to.So, this paper proposes a Conceptual Design Model of AC4LV by utilizing three phases of activities.Future works is to validate the proposed model through expert review and prototyping method

Integration of Assistive Technologies into 3D Simulations: Exploratory Studies

Virtual worlds and environments have many purposes, ranging from games to scientific research. However, universal accessibility features in such virtual environments are limited. As the impairment prevalence rate increases yearly, so does the research interests in the field of assistive technologies. This work introduces research in assistive technologies and presents three software developments that explore the integration of assistive technologies within virtual environments, with a strong focus on Brain-Computer Interfaces. An accessible gaming system, a hands-free navigation software system, and a Brain-Computer Interaction plugin have been developed to study the capabilities of accessibility features within virtual 3D environments. Details of the specification, design, and implementation of these software applications are presented in the thesis. Observations and preliminary results as well as directions of future work are also included

WebVoice: Speech Access to Traditional Web Content for Blind Users

Traditional web content and navigation features are made available to blind users by converting a webpage into a speech enabled X+V application, which allows blind users to follow the links present in a web page via speech commands. Also the application can read the different paragraphs and search for a word. This X+V application runs on the Opera browser

Multimodal Content Delivery for Geo-services

This thesis describes a body of work carried out over several research projects in the area of multimodal interaction for location-based services. Research in this area has progressed from using simulated mobile environments to demonstrate the visual modality, to the ubiquitous delivery of rich media using multimodal interfaces (geo- services). To effectively deliver these services, research focused on innovative solutions to real-world problems in a number of disciplines including geo-location, mobile spatial interaction, location-based services, rich media interfaces and auditory user interfaces. My original contributions to knowledge are made in the areas of multimodal interaction underpinned by advances in geo-location technology and supported by the proliferation of mobile device technology into modern life. Accurate positioning is a known problem for location-based services, contributions in the area of mobile positioning demonstrate a hybrid positioning technology for mobile devices that uses terrestrial beacons to trilaterate position. Information overload is an active concern for location-based applications that struggle to manage large amounts of data, contributions in the area of egocentric visibility that filter data based on field-of-view demonstrate novel forms of multimodal input. One of the more pertinent characteristics of these applications is the delivery or output modality employed (auditory, visual or tactile). Further contributions in the area of multimodal content delivery are made, where multiple modalities are used to deliver information using graphical user interfaces, tactile interfaces and more notably auditory user interfaces. It is demonstrated how a combination of these interfaces can be used to synergistically deliver context sensitive rich media to users - in a responsive way - based on usage scenarios that consider the affordance of the device, the geographical position and bearing of the device and also the location of the device

Mobile Datenbanken - heute, morgen und in 20 Jahren. Tagungsband zum 8. Workshop des GI-Arbeitskreises "Mobile Datenbanken und Informationssysteme" am 28.2.2005 im Rahmen der BTW 2005 in Karlsruhe

Der Workshop Mobile Datenbanken heute, morgen und in 20 Jahren ist der nunmehr achte Workshop des GI Arbeitskreises Mobile Datenbanken und Informationssysteme. Der Workshop findet im Rahmen der BTW 2005, der GI Fachtagung für Datenbanksysteme in Business, Technologie und Web, vom 28. Februar bis zum 01. März 2005 in Karlsruhe statt. Das Workshopprogramm umfasst zwei eingeladene Vorträge sowie sieben wissenschaftliche Beiträge, die vom Programmkomitee aus den Einreichungen ausgewählt wurden. Für den zweiten Workshoptag, der im Zeichen intensiver Diskussionen stehen soll, wurden zwei weitere Einreichungen als Diskussionsgrundlage ausgewählt. Inhaltlich spannt der Workshop einen weiten Bogen: Von fast schon klassischen Fragen aus dem Kernbereich mobiler Datenbanken, wie etwa der Transaktionsbearbeitung in diesen Systemen, bis hin zu neuen Multimediaanwendungen auf mobilen Geräten und von der Anfragebearbeitung in Ad-hoc-Netzen bis zur Analyse des Stands der Technik beim Entwurf mobiler Anwendungen. Diese Breite spiegelt die Breite der Fragestellungen, die bei der Betrachtung von mobiler Informationsnutzung zu Tage treten, wider. Wir hoffen mit unserem Workshop einen Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis dieser Fragestellungen zu liefern und ein Forum zum Austausch von Fragen, Lösungsansätzen und Problemstellungen zwischen Praktikern und Forschern aus dem universitären Umfeld zu bieten

Taux : a system for evaluating sound feedback in navigational tasks

This thesis presents the design and development of an evaluation system for generating audio displays that provide feedback to persons performing navigation tasks. It first develops the need for such a system by describing existing wayfinding solutions, investigating new electronic location-based methods that have the potential of changing these solutions and examining research conducted on relevant audio information representation techniques. An evaluation system that supports the manipulation of two basic classes of audio display is then described. Based on prior work on wayfinding with audio display, research questions are developed that investigate the viability of different audio displays. These are used to generate hypotheses and develop an experiment which evaluates four variations of audio display for wayfinding. Questions are also formulated that evaluate a baseline condition that utilizes visual feedback. An experiment which tests these hypotheses on sighted users is then described. Results from the experiment suggest that spatial audio combined with spoken hints is the best approach of the approaches comparing spatial audio. The test experiment results also suggest that muting a varying audio signal when a subject is on course did not improve performance. The system and method are then refined. A second experiment is conducted with improved displays and an improved experiment methodology. After adding blindfolds for sighted subjects and increasing the difficulty of navigation tasks by reducing the arrival radius, similar comparisons were observed. Overall, the two experiments demonstrate the viability of the prototyping tool for testing and refining multiple different audio display combinations for navigational tasks. The detailed contributions of this work and future research opportunities conclude this thesis

An exploratory study of screen-reader users navigating the web

textResearchers have learned much about how sighted individuals seek information on Web sites - for example, users follow "information scent" as they move from page to page, and individual differences may impact successful information seeking on the Web. While it is possible that individuals with disabilities, especially those with severe visual impairments, perform information-seeking activities in a similar manner, little is known about how individuals who use screen readers to navigate actually seek information on the Web. In this study, we used both qualitative and quantitative measures to investigate the Web navigation techniques of four screen-reader users and how a user’s experience affects these navigation techniques and his or her ability to successfully complete an information-finding task. We compared metrics for between-page and within-page navigation to studies of sighted users. We also considered how a Web site’s compliance with Section 508 guidelines affects the overall information-finding experience of a visually-impaired individual. We discovered that among the four individuals in this study, user experience was not necessarily indicative of a successful information-finding experience. As individuals, the participants' navigation techniques varied widely; as a group, they generally searched more frequently and used the back button less frequently than has been reported for sighted individuals. Screen-reader users in this study followed a more flimsy, linear navigation style and generally used scrolling actions rather than searching actions. When using a Web site that has a Section 508 compliant home page, we found that the screen-reader users in this study completed information-finding tasks significantly more quickly, used significantly fewer actions, and reported a more satisfying information-finding experience. They were also more successful at finding the information goal and encountered fewer impasses. Using both quantitative and qualitative measures was critical in this study. The quantitative metrics allowed us to compare values and the qualitative data provided additional insight into individual differences as well as allowing a deeper understanding of the quantitative data. The information from this study contributes to the growing body of research knowledge about screen-reader users. It also contributes a new understanding of screen-reader users that can be used by the worldwide community of Web developers, designers, and users.Informatio