Collaborative adaptive accessibility and human capabilities

This thesis discusses the challenges and opportunities facing the field of accessibility, particularly as computing becomes ubiquitous. It is argued that a new approach is needed that centres around adaptations (specific, atomic changes) to user interfaces and content in order to improve their accessibility for a wider range of people than targeted by present Assistive Technologies (ATs). Further, the approach must take into consideration the capabilities of people at the human level and facilitate collaboration, in planned and ad-hoc environments. There are two main areas of focus: (1) helping people experiencing minor-to-moderate, transient and potentially-overlapping impairments, as may be brought about by the ageing process and (2) supporting collaboration between people by reasoning about the consequences, from different users perspectives, of the adaptations they may require. A theoretical basis for describing these problems and a reasoning process for the semi-automatic application of adaptations is developed. Impairments caused by the environment in which a device is being used are considered. Adaptations are drawn from other research and industry artefacts. Mechanical testing is carried out on key areas of the reasoning process, demonstrating fitness for purpose. Several fundamental techniques to extend the reasoning process in order to take temporal factors (such as fluctuating user and device capabilities) into account are broadly described. These are proposed to be feasible, though inherently bring compromises (which are defined) in interaction stability and the needs of different actors (user, device, target level of accessibility). This technical work forms the basis of the contribution of one work-package of the Sustaining ICT use to promote autonomy (Sus-IT) project, under the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) programme of research in the UK. Test designs for larger-scale assessment of the system with real-world participants are given. The wider Sus-IT project provides social motivations and informed design decisions for this work and is carrying out longitudinal acceptance testing of the processes developed here

Towards ubiquitous accessibility: capability-based profiles and adaptations, delivered via the semantic web

The continuing proliferation of mobile devices, content and applications presents barriers to the mainstreaming of Assistive Technologies (ATs), despite their potential utility for users in demanding situations or with minor-to-moderate impairments. We have previously proposed that user profiling based on human rather than machine-oriented capabilities, coupled with a shift from conspicuous ATs to considering a broader range of adaptations presents opportunities for platform and AT vendors to support many more users. However there has not been a standard, consistent and, most importantly, straightforward way to deliver these benefits. We propose that this delivery gap can be bridged by using the semantic web and related technologies, so the potential benefits of the capability-based approach may be realised

Modelling of users' capabilities

Modern computer systems present great barriers to potential users who are too far away from being the “average user” for which they were designed. This means users that have unusual or limited devices (such as small-screen PDAs) and users with disabilities are quite likely to encounter great difficulty when trying to use certain mainstream systems. This paper presents a technique for incorporating personalisation into information retrieval systems in a low-level way. The technique—Modelling of Users’ Capabilities—is described, as is a proof-of-concept test that was carried out. Conclusions are drawn from this test and ongoing work is discussed

Proof-of-concept 3D level creation tool for blind gamers

We present a prototype tool that allows blind gamers to create 3D levels for a mainstream first-person action game for the sighted. The system is designed to abstract many of the details of level design so that, for example, aesthetics or precise coordinates of objects need not be specified by the user. Though the system has been created with accessibility as the primary goal, it also brings about the possibility for the computer to dynamically generate game environments

Accessibility: a case of "us and them"?

Why bother researching into enabling better access for disabled people to computer systems, especially the increasingly important area of virtual worlds? What benefits could this research possibly give to wider society? This paper presents an overview of our past and ongoing research in the areas of accessibility and usability, in an effort to explain how such work can benefit us all. It then discusses game and virtual world accessibility in more depth and brings the other strands of our work into this context

Improving library services to people with print disabilities: the role of technology in public libraries

Traditionally, the term “library” refers to a collection of books and journals. However the ready availability of books, journals, papers, maps, artwork and other formats in libraries today allows the user to access a vast amount of information. This is further increased by electronic technologies that enable information to be stored in a range of formats. In this respect, the library is a tremendous source of information. Public libraries are the primary source for information queries from users with disabilities. To ensure that they can continue to provide this function, librarians must constantly address both the barriers that people with disabilities face when accessing information and the tools available to help people overcome these barriers

Improving library services to people with print disabilities: the role of technology in public libraries

Traditionally, the term “library” refers to a collection of books and journals. However the ready availability of books, journals, papers, maps, artwork and other formats in libraries today allows the user to access a vast amount of information. This is further increased by electronic technologies that enable information to be stored in a range of formats. In this respect, the library is a tremendous source of information. Public libraries are the primary source for information queries from users with disabilities. To ensure that they can continue to provide this function, librarians must constantly address both the barriers that people with disabilities face when accessing information and the tools available to help people overcome these barriers

Opening up access to online documents using essentiality tracks

This paper discusses extensions to the previously developed “essentiality and proficiency” approach to increasing usability and accessibility of websites. The existing approach is introduced, as is a new application in the processing of Doc- Book XML documents. The current principles are extended to make them more appropriate for increasing the usability of long documents. Techniques for allowing organisations to efficiently disseminate information based on the proposed application are discussed – increasing productivity for both non-disabled and disabled users

Making accessibility accessible

In recent years, the need for adaptive design in information systems has come to the fore. Both industry and academia have begun to respond to these problems. There now exist recognised baseline standards for content accessibility and assistive technologies (ATs) are available on many platforms. Many exemplary research projects have found powerful and sometimes highly adaptive solutions to a range of accessibility problems. However, there are signicant difficulties with the current state of accessibility as a whole. For current ATs to be of most use, there is a responsibility on the user to be aware of their access limitations and implement the most appropriate accessibility solution for these needs- indeed, many accessible design guidelines for ICT developers are predicated on the user having the most appropriate access solution for their needs. However, it cannot be assumed that a user will have the most appropriate access technology, or even be aware that they need one, given the gradual rate of acquisition of an impairment, the dynamic nature of the impact of the impairment, or-more likely-impairments, allied with a lack of awareness of available technical solutions. Other issues include: content and software developers seeing accessibility as a niche and, therefore, prohibitively expensive to implement given the expected gain in market share. Also, most research projects- though providing technically adept solutions to these problems- may not be possible for developers to use due to the wide variety of technical requirements of these disparate solutions. In this paper, we discuss these problems in the context of current literature and make high-level proposals as to how these problems may be addressed

Making the mainstream accessible: what’s in a game?

Though accessible gaming is a well-established phenomenon, few mainstream applications of it exist. We present some of the work of the AGRIP project – an effort to develop techniques to render modern first-person shooter games accessible to the blind and vision-impaired. We discuss some of the low-level accessibility infrastructure employed in the game AudioQuake and compare it to other contemporary research. The project’s ultimate goals of generalisation and use of the technology in educational settings are also introduced