More than Words: The Impact of Memory on How Undergraduates with Dyslexia Interact with Information

Despite the prevalence of dyslexia and the challenges it poses for seeking, assessing and using information, there has been relatively little research on the challenges people with dyslexia face when interacting with information. What existing research there is has mostly focused on the impact on information comprehension and spelling. However, people with dyslexia often face considerable memory impairment that can affect their learning. This paper reports findings from retrospective think-aloud (RTA) observations with 13 undergraduates with dyslexia, focusing on the memory-related barriers they face and the workarounds they use to overcome these barriers. An enhanced understanding of the full range of barriers faced by information-seekers with dyslexia can inform the design of dyslexia-aware digital information environments and information literacy programs. These can ‘level the information playing field’ by helping to break down barriers to information and, in turn, to knowledge creation

Dyslexia and password usage:accessibility in authentication design

Governments and businesses are moving online with alacrity, driven by potential cost savings, changing consumer and citizen expectations, and the momentum towards general digital provision. Services are legally required to be inclusive and accessible. Now consider that almost every online service, where people have to identify themselves, requires a password. Passwords seem to be accessible, until one considers specific disabilities, one of which can lead to many challenges: dyslexia being a case in point. Dyslexia is associated with word processing and retention difficulties, and passwords are essentially words, phrases or alphanumeric combinations. We report on a literature review conducted to identify extant research into the impact of dyslexia on password usage, as well as any ameliorations that have been proposed. We discovered a relatively neglected field. We conclude with recommendations for future research into the needs of a large population of dyslexics who seem to struggle with passwords, in a world where avoiding passwords has become almost impossible. The main contribution of this paper is to highlight the difficulties dyslexics face with passwords, and to suggest some avenues for future research in this area

Accessible authentication:dyslexia and password strategies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reveal the lived experiences of dyslexics in engaging with all kinds of alphanumeric authentication mechanisms.Design/methodology/approachA significant proportion of the world’s population experiences some degree of dyslexia, which can lead to spelling, processing, sequencing and retention difficulties. Passwords, being essentially sequences of alphanumeric characters, make it likely that dyslexics will struggle with these, even more so than the rest of the population. Here, this study explores the difficulties people with dyslexia face, their general experiences with passwords, the coping strategies they use and the advice they can provide to developers and others who struggle with passwords. This paper collects empirical data through semi-structured interviews with 13 participants. Thematic analysis was used to provide an in-depth view of each participant’s experience.FindingsThe main contribution of this paper is to provide evidence related to the inaccessibility dimensions of passwords as an authentication mechanism, especially for dyslexics and to recommend a solution direction.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a possible volunteer bias, as this study is dealing with self-reported data including historical and reflective elements and this paper is seeking information only from those with self-declared or diagnosed dyslexia. Furthermore, many expressed interest or curiosity in the relationship between dyslexia and password difficulties, for some a motivation for their participation. Finally, given that the participants told us that dyslexics might hide, it is possible that the experiences of those who do hide are different from those who chose to speak to us and thus were not hiding.Originality/valueA few authors have written about the difficulties dyslexics face when it comes to passwords, but no one has asked dyslexics to tell them about their experiences. This paper fills that gap

The state of web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities: a rapid evidence assessment

Increased digitisation of day-to-day activities was occurring prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic only accelerated the virtual shift, making web accessibility an urgent issue, especially for marginalised populations. Despite decades of work to develop, refine, and implement web accessibility standards, people with cognitive disabilities regularly experience many barriers to web accessibility. To inform ongoing work to improve web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities, a systematic review was conducted. The main question guiding this review is: what are the state-of-the-art of interventions that support web accessibility for citizens, 9 years of age and up, living with cognitive impairment? A set of 50 search strings were entered into three academic databases: SCOPUS, ProQuest, and Web of Science. Systematic screening procedures narrowed the search returns to a total of 45 included papers. A data analysis revealed themes associated with the lived experiences of people with cognitive disabilities, tools for improving web accessibility, and methodological best practices for involving people with cognitive disabilities in research. These findings have immediate implications for ongoing research and the development of meaningful solutions to the problem of web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Investigating the influence of ads on user search performance, behaviour, and experience during information seeking

The phenomenon of banner blindness explains that users can mentally ignore online advertisements (ads). However, eye-tracking studies have shown that users still fixate on ads, and even without direct gaze, ads still fall within a user's peripheral vision, which may negatively overload cognition. It is therefore unknown how blind, banner blindness, truly is, and what other effect ads may have on user's information seeking. To address this gap, a within subjects design experiment was conducted with 37 participants who performed search tasks from the TREC 2017 Common Core News Collection, where 3 search tasks contained various types of ads, and one search task had no ads. Although our results showed that on average, participants retrieved similar amounts of relevant documents regardless of whether ads were present or absent, participants took significantly longer achieving this performance when ads were present. Furthermore, when ads were absent, participants reported less frustration, and not only believed they learned more, but a post-task recall test showed that participants actually did learn up to 38% more. Consequently, our findings suggest that banner blindness is more costly than just mere annoyance, and that the influence of ads on user's information retrieval recall may extend current theories of visual crowdin

Mobile search made easier: An ability-based mobile search prototype for people with dyslexia

Although 1 person in 14 has dyslexia, most search interfaces are designed based on a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, creating inequity for neurodiverse searchers. This is also the case for mobile search, which accounts for most Google searches. While existing research has found search typically presents greater challenges for people with dyslexia, no prior work has examined how best to support them when searching on mobile devices. Rather than focus on addressing their search difficulties, we adopted an ability-based design approach. This involved designing a prototype, based on modifications to Google’s mobile SERPs, aimed at enhancing their abilities – identified through interviews and observations with mobile searchers with dyslexia. A user evaluation found several of the modifications were useful; they supported searchers with dyslexia in making relevance judgements and boosted their resilience and self-efficacy. Based on these findings, we propose four broad design principles for mobile search interface design. This research provides valuable insight into how to better support mobile searchers with dyslexia that can inform IIR research and design. It also demonstrates the potential of ability-based design approaches in supporting neurodiverse searchers

Digital text presentation and navigation to support people with dyslexia

Dyslexia is a reading disability that is characterised by difficulties of reading, decoding and spelling. In order make online materials accessible for people with dyslexia, developers should make on-screen presentation of text adaptable. There is very little research that has empirically tested which text presentations and web navigation are helpful or acceptable to people with dyslexia. Therefore two studies are conducted on the aspect of text presentation, Study 1 focused on the effects of typefaces and font size while Study 2 focused on the effects of line spacing and line length. Study 3 focused on the effects on menu organisation and visibility on web navigation. All three studies compared English native speaking adults with and without dyslexia on their eye gaze behaviour, performance, preferences and opinions. For the text presentation studies, the dyslexic participants were grouped into more specific categories, mild and moderately dyslexic, based on the results of a well-established checklist for identifying dyslexia. Eye gaze tracking was measured in all studies. Findings from the studies on text presentation show that all participants had fewer fixations with small font size, shortest fixation durations with dyslexia-optimised typefaces, and fewer and shorter fixations with longer line length. Participants preferred sans serif typeface and wider line spacing. There were different levels of comfort with dyslexia-optimised typefaces for non-dyslexic and dyslexic participants. Findings from the study on web navigation show that fragmented menus with visible sub-menus had fewer fixations, while dynamic sub-menus had fewer revisits and fewer fixations. However unified menus were rated as easier to use, to remember and to learn. Participants with dyslexia show poor performance in both text presentation and web navigation studies. Key contribution of this programme of research is to the methodology of studies to investigate text presentation on screen and web navigation effects for people with dyslexia

Ειδικές Μαθησιακές Δυσκολίες και Τεχνολογίες της Πληροφορίας και της Επικοινωνίας στη Δευτεροβάθμια Εκπαίδευση: Παρέμβαση στην Παραγωγή Γραπτού Λόγου

Με βάση τα υπάρχοντα ερευνητικά δεδομένα, η παραγωγή γραπτού λόγου αποτελεί μια από τις πλέον σπουδαίες και απαιτητικές μαθησιακές δραστηριότητες. Οι έφηβοι μαθητές της δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης δεν περιορίζονται πλέον ως προς την παραγωγή γραπτού λόγου στο σχολείο ή στο φροντιστήριο και στο παραδοσιακό χαρτί∙ αντίθετα γράφουν στον ηλεκτρονικό υπολογιστή, στο κινητό τηλέφωνο, στο τάμπλετ που χρησιμοποιούνται ως μέσα μάθησης, έκφρασης και επικοινωνίας. Μέσα σε αυτό το δυναμικό πλαίσιο οι έφηβοι μαθητές με Ειδικές Μαθησιακές Δυσκολίες (ΕΜΔ) καλούνται και αυτοί να επικοινωνήσουν και να εκφραστούν γραπτώς μέσα από ένα μήνυμα στο κινητό τους έως μια έκθεση στο σχολείο. Η βιβλιογραφία αναφέρει εκτενώς μια σειρά από δυσκολίες που αντιμετωπίζει αυτή η κατηγορία μαθητών κατά την παραγωγή γραπτού λόγου, ενώ τα τελευταία χρόνια αναδεικνύει και τον θετικό ρόλο των Τεχνολογιών της Πληροφορίας και της Επικοινωνίας (ΤΠΕ) στην αντιμετώπιση των δυσκολιών τους. Σκοπός της παρούσας έρευνας είναι να καταγράψει τις στάσεις και τις απόψεις μαθητών της δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης με και χωρίς ΕΜΔ πάνω στην παραγωγή γραπτού λόγου και τη χρήση των ΤΠΕ μέσα σε ένα ευρύ και γενικό πλαίσιο. Παράλληλα, η έρευνα επιδιώκει να εξετάσει και να προτείνει πρακτικές, εργαλεία και τρόπους βελτίωσης της παραγωγής γραπτού λόγου των μαθητών με ΕΜΔ στη δευτεροβάθμια εκπαίδευση με τη βοήθεια της τεχνολογίας, τόσο ως διαδικασία αυτο-διόρθωσης όσο και ως τελικό αποτέλεσμα. Στην έρευνα συμμετείχαν 40 μαθητές με επίσημη διάγνωση ΕΜΔ και 20 μαθητές χωρίς διάγνωση. Αμφότερες οι ομάδες κλήθηκαν, έπειτα από σύντομη παρέμβαση στη χρήση έντυπων και ηλεκτρονικών εργαλείων διόρθωσης και εμπλουτισμού του γραπτού τους, να γράψουν από δύο εκθέσεις, μία στο χέρι και μία στον υπολογιστή. Στη συνέχεια τα γραπτά κωδικοποιήθηκαν και δόθηκαν για διόρθωση σε διορθώτριες- φιλολόγους ώστε να βαθμολογηθούν και να καταγραφούν τα λάθη σε επίπεδο ορθογραφίας. Παράλληλα, τα γραπτά αναλύθηκαν με βάση λογισμικό αναγνωσιμότητας ελληνικών κειμένων. Οι μαθητές απάντησαν επίσης σε ερωτηματολόγιο στάσεων απέναντι στην παραγωγή γραπτού λόγου. Τα αποτελέσματα του ερωτηματολογίου έδειξαν ότι οι μαθητές γράφουν σχεδόν σε καθημερινή βάση τόσο με έντυπα όσο και ηλεκτρονικά μέσα με κυρίαρχες τις σχολικές σημειώσεις και ασκήσεις και στη συνέχεια τα μηνύματα στο κινητό και τα σύντομα μηνύματα σε μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης. Κατά την παραγωγή γραπτού λόγου οι μαθητές και των δύο ομάδων δείχνουν να χρησιμοποιούν περισσότερο τα ηλεκτρονικά εργαλεία βελτίωσης και επιμέλειας του κειμένου, να εφαρμόζουν καλύτερες στρατηγικές και τέλος να παράγουν καλύτερα κείμενα, ως προς πολλούς δείκτες, με τη χρήση ηλεκτρονικού υπολογιστή έναντι της γραφής στο χέρι. Τέλος, οι μαθητές με ΕΜΔ έδειξαν να ωφελούνται περισσότερο από τη χρήση των ΤΠΕ σε σχέση με τους μαθητές χωρίς ΕΜΔ.Based on current research data writing is one of the most significant and demanding learning activities. Adolescent students of secondary education do not restrain themselves anymore, regarding writing, in school or private tutoring and in “traditional” handwriting. On the contrary, they write on their pcs, smart phones, tablets, which they use as means of learning, expressing themselves and communicating. In this dynamic field adolescent students with Specific Learning Difficulties (SLD) are also asked to communicate and express themselves by producing various types of texts, ranging from messages written in their mobile phones to school essays. Bibliography reports extensively on a wide range of difficulties which this category of students face during writing, while at the same time during the last years it underlines the positive role that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play in confronting those difficulties. The purpose of the present research is to record the attitudes and opinions of adolescents with and without SLD about writing and the use of ICT in a wide range. In parallel, the research aims at examining and proposing best practices, tools and means of improving the writing of secondary education students with SLD, with the help of technology both as a self-correcting process and also final product. A group of 40 secondary students with a formal diagnosis of SLD participated in the research together with another group of 20 typical secondary education students. Both groups where asked, after a brief intervention in the use of printed and electronic tools for text checking and editing, to write two school essays, one in handwriting and one with the use of a pc. Afterwards, their writings where coded and sent for checking to secondary education language teachers in order for them to be marked and the spelling mistakes be recorded. At the same time the texts where analyzed with a software for greek text reading difficulty. The students also answered a survey of attitudes towards writing. Results of the survey showed that students write almost every day both in printed and electronic forms, with a domination of school notes and exercises and mobile text messages and brief messages in the social media following. During writing, students of both groups seem to use more electronic tools for checking and editing their text, use better strategies and finally produce better writings, in many levels, with the use of a computer rather than writing in hand and using printed tools. Finally, students with SLD seemed to benefit more from the use of ICT in comparison with students without SLD