Publicaciones científicas accesibles para personas ciegas y deficientes visuales

La obra, tesis doctoral de la autora, defendida en la Universidad de Barcelona en 2009, analiza la situación actual de la edición accesible, atendiendo a las necesidades específicas de los usuarios con discapacidad visual, y valora las características de los documentos digitales en función de tales necesidades. Al estudiar la estructura de los diversos tipos de documentos digitales, la autora señala la edición de artículos científicos como sector más avanzado, por lo que este tipo de documentos constituyen un modelo particularmente idóneo para validar la edición accesible

User Interface Abstraction for enabling TV set based Inclusive Access to the Information Society

199 p.The television (TV) set is present in most homes worldwide, and is the most used Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Despite its large implantation in the market, the interactive services consumption on TV set is limited. This thesis focuses on overcoming the following limiting factors: (i) limited Human Computer Interaction and (ii) lack of considering user’s real life context in the digital television (dTV) service integration strategy. Making interactive services accessible to TV set’s large user base, and especially to the most vulnerable ones, is understood as the path to integrate the mankind with the information society. This thesis explores the use of user interface abstraction technologies to reach the introduced goals. The main contributions of this thesis are: (i) an approach to enable the universally accessible remote control of the TV set, (ii) an approach for the provision of universally accessible interactive services through TV sets, and (iii) an approach for the provision of universally accessible services in the TV user’s real life context. We have implemented the contributing approaches for different use cases, and we have evaluated them with real users, achieving good results

An insight into the evolution of mutual understanding in teamwork - Volume 1

The topic of this research is characterising and monitoring mutual understanding in multidisciplinary teamwork. Existing literature has not drawn these two themes together in great detail. This research brings together literature from these two themes. This thesis explores the nature of mutual understanding in teams, monitors its evolution in one multidisciplinary team and proposes a set of guidelines for enhancing and promoting mutual understanding in teams that communicate face-to-face and by electronic-mail (e-mail). The term ‘mutual understanding’ although commonly referred to in literature, remains a term which is not well defined. For this reason a more precise definition is necessary to identity and establish what this term actually means. In addition, the theoretical work on mutual understanding, and aspects related to mutual understanding are often limited to dyadic interactions, involving just two persons. As teams can be more than two persons more attention needs to be paid to extend existing research. Further, the process of how mutual understanding can be monitored has not been well defined, and attempts which have been made also focus on dyadic interactions. This identifies and establishes the need to characterise a method to monitor the evolution of mutual understanding in a team. In the context of teamwork, understanding and supporting team members and their tasks is necessary to work towards shared goals and objectives. Sharing information is also important and can contribute towards the progress that the team makes. Including team members who have first-hand experiences to share can also benefit the make-up of the team. However, sometimes changes need to be made to accommodate team members’ individual needs, especially when the team member in question has a disability. Additional challenges can also be encountered when the team in question is multidisciplinary due to differences in disciplinary backgrounds, practices, professional languages, understanding, cultures (disciplinary, institutional, and cultural), and assumptions in communication. Such challenges can make it harder for mutual understanding to evolve in this type of team. This thesis presents a definition for mutual understanding that can be applied to a team and a method to monitor the evolution of mutual understanding. Detailed empirical analysis of a case study looking at how mutual understanding evolves in a large multidisciplinary team that communicates as a group face- to-face once every 3- months and uses e-mail messages to stay in touch with the team at all other times is also presented. Furthermore the analysis identifies how categories or aspects of mutual understanding appear over time. This analysis can provide an insight to developers and designers in computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) to show them in detail, how a team communicates together face-to-face and by e-mail, but in the context of mutual understanding. Also based on the empirical analysis, guidelines are proposed to promote the evolution of mutual understanding in other types of teamwork. Guidelines are aimed at team members and not just the manager or leader and focus on the two forms of interactions which are the focus of this investigation, face-to-face and e-mail communication. To assess the value of the proposed guidelines a validation exercise using a separate multidisciplinary team was performed

Student-Centered Learning: Functional Requirements for Integrated Systems to Optimize Learning

The realities of the 21st-century learner require that schools and educators fundamentally change their practice. "Educators must produce college- and career-ready graduates that reflect the future these students will face. And, they must facilitate learning through means that align with the defining attributes of this generation of learners."Today, we know more than ever about how students learn, acknowledging that the process isn't the same for every student and doesn't remain the same for each individual, depending upon maturation and the content being learned. We know that students want to progress at a pace that allows them to master new concepts and skills, to access a variety of resources, to receive timely feedback on their progress, to demonstrate their knowledge in multiple ways and to get direction, support and feedback from—as well as collaborate with—experts, teachers, tutors and other students.The result is a growing demand for student-centered, transformative digital learning using competency education as an underpinning.iNACOL released this paper to illustrate the technical requirements and functionalities that learning management systems need to shift toward student-centered instructional models. This comprehensive framework will help districts and schools determine what systems to use and integrate as they being their journey toward student-centered learning, as well as how systems integration aligns with their organizational vision, educational goals and strategic plans.Educators can use this report to optimize student learning and promote innovation in their own student-centered learning environments. The report will help school leaders understand the complex technologies needed to optimize personalized learning and how to use data and analytics to improve practices, and can assist technology leaders in re-engineering systems to support the key nuances of student-centered learning

An insight into the evolution of mutual understanding in teamwork - Volume 2

The topic of this research is characterising and monitoring mutual understanding in multidisciplinary teamwork. Existing literature has not drawn these two themes together in great detail. This research brings together literature from these two themes. This thesis explores the nature of mutual understanding in teams, monitors its evolution in one multidisciplinary team and proposes a set of guidelines for enhancing and promoting mutual understanding in teams that communicate face-to-face and by electronic-mail (e-mail). The term ‘mutual understanding’ although commonly referred to in literature, remains a term which is not well defined. For this reason a more precise definition is necessary to identity and establish what this term actually means. In addition, the theoretical work on mutual understanding, and aspects related to mutual understanding are often limited to dyadic interactions, involving just two persons. As teams can be more than two persons more attention needs to be paid to extend existing research. Further, the process of how mutual understanding can be monitored has not been well defined, and attempts which have been made also focus on dyadic interactions. This identifies and establishes the need to characterise a method to monitor the evolution of mutual understanding in a team. In the context of teamwork, understanding and supporting team members and their tasks is necessary to work towards shared goals and objectives. Sharing information is also important and can contribute towards the progress that the team makes. Including team members who have first-hand experiences to share can also benefit the make-up of the team. However, sometimes changes need to be made to accommodate team members’ individual needs, especially when the team member in question has a disability. Additional challenges can also be encountered when the team in question is multidisciplinary due to differences in disciplinary backgrounds, practices, professional languages, understanding, cultures (disciplinary, institutional, and cultural), and assumptions in communication. Such challenges can make it harder for mutual understanding to evolve in this type of team. This thesis presents a definition for mutual understanding that can be applied to a team and a method to monitor the evolution of mutual understanding. Detailed empirical analysis of a case study looking at how mutual understanding evolves in a large multidisciplinary team that communicates as a group face- to-face once every 3- months and uses e-mail messages to stay in touch with the team at all other times is also presented. Furthermore the analysis identifies how categories or aspects of mutual understanding appear over time. This analysis can provide an insight to developers and designers in computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) to show them in detail, how a team communicates together face-to-face and by e-mail, but in the context of mutual understanding. Also based on the empirical analysis, guidelines are proposed to promote the evolution of mutual understanding in other types of teamwork. Guidelines are aimed at team members and not just the manager or leader and focus on the two forms of interactions which are the focus of this investigation, face-to-face and e-mail communication. To assess the value of the proposed guidelines a validation exercise using a separate multidisciplinary team was performed

Metadata for user-centred, inclusive access to digital resources: realising the theory of AccessForAll Accessibility

To be inclusive, the Web needs published resources to be matched to individual users’ needs and preferences for their perception and control. In a decade, this has not been achieved and many cannot make use of resources despite having appropriate facilities. This thesis argues that the necessary management of resources can be achieved with well-designed metadata. Demonstration and explanation of the accessibility problems, efforts to solve them and the current state of inaccessibility of Web resources, any resource that is available through the World Wide Web, is fundamental to the research. The author relies heavily on Dublin Core metadata as it is relatively easy to use; is probably the most populous metadata; can be managed with free software systems, and for commercial reasons. The research investigated what makes DC metadata, so apparently simple, powerful enough to be the most popular metadata because there is very little available that explains this. The thesis then documents the scientific view of metadata upon which effective use of metadata can be based in the context of accessibility. It argues, at a practical level, that metadata is essential and integral to any shift to an on-going process approach to accessibility. It contributes to the science of metadata in as much as it analyses, synthesizes, and articulates the characteristics of an essential infrastructure for a new approach to accessibility. The author argues in favour of an on-going process approach to accessibility of resources that supports continuous improvement of any given resource, not necessarily by the author of the resource, and not necessarily by design or with knowledge of the original author, by contributors who may be distributed globally. The thesis argues that the current dependence on production guidelines and post-production evaluation of resources as either universally accessible or otherwise, does not adequately provide for either the accessibility necessary for individuals or the continuous or evolutionary approach possible within the current Web environment. It argues that a distributed, social-networking view of the Web as interactive, combined with a social model of disability, given the management tools of machine-readable, interoperable AccessForAll metadata, as developed, can achieve the desired goals. It raises issues regarding its implementation in the distributed environment of the Web

Digital Rights Management and Consumer Acceptability: A Multi-Disciplinary Discussion of Consumer Concerns and Expectations

The INDICARE project – the Informed Dialogue about Consumer Acceptability of DRM Solutions in Europe – has been set up to raise awareness about consumer and user issues of Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions. One of the main goals of the INDICARE project is to contribute to the consensus-building among multiple players with heterogeneous interests in the digital environment. To promote this process and to contribute to the creation of a common level of understanding is the aim of the present report. It provides an overview of consumer concerns and expectations regarding DRMs, and discusses the findings from a social, legal, technical and business perspective. A general overview of the existing EC initiatives shows that questions of consumer acceptability of DRM have only recently begun to draw wider attention. A review of the relevant statements, studies and reports confirms that awareness of consumer concerns is still at a low level. Five major categories of concerns have been distinguished so far: (1) fair conditions of use and access to digital content, (2) privacy, (3) interoperability, (4) transparency and (5) various aspects of consumer friendliness. From the legal point of view, many of the identified issues go beyond the scope of copyright law, i.e. the field of law where DRM was traditionally discussed. Often they are a matter of general or sector-specific consumer protection law. Furthermore, it is still unclear to what extent technology and an appropriate design of technical solutions can provide an answer to some of the concerns of consumers. One goal of the technical chapter was exactly to highlight some of these technical possibilities. Finally, it is shown that consumer acceptability of DRM is important for the economic success of different business models based on DRM. Fair and responsive DRM design can be a profitable strategy, however DRM-free alternatives do exist too.Digital Rights Management; consumers; Intellectual property; business models

Proceedings of the 5th international conference on disability, virtual reality and associated technologies (ICDVRAT 2004)

The proceedings of the conferenc