Review of quantitative empirical evaluations of technology for people with visual impairments

Addressing the needs of visually impaired people is of continued interest in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research. Yet, one of the major challenges facing researchers in this field continues to be how to design adequate quantitative empirical evaluation for these users in HCI. In this paper, we analyse a corpus of 178 papers on technologies designed for people with visual impairments, published since 1988, and including at least one quantitative empirical evaluation (243 evaluations in total). To inform future research in this area, we provide an overview, historic trends and a unified terminology to design and report quantitative empirical evaluations. We identify open issues and propose a set of guidelines to address them. Our analysis aims to facilitate and stimulate future research on this topic

Measuring the effect of user experience and engagement on learning using interactive simulations

Previous studies have explored the best methods to measure emotional, cognitive, and physical engagement, but these methods have not been applied to fully understand the impact of multimodal interactive simulations on student learning. Technologies like Virtual Reality can provide a novel means for supporting interactive simulations for student learning. However, the full impact of these new systems and modalities on learning and engagement is unclear. This study investigated different versions of interactive simulations for astronomy education. The dissertation included the design and evaluation of the sonification model for the solar system, which was then embedded within two different simulation versions. It evaluated a variety of tools for measuring and comparing user experience, engagement, affect, and learning, and compared qualitative differences between learner interaction in the four conditions. Other factors investigated included science anxiety, motivation, and technology experience, and their effect on a student’s ease of use and comfort in using newer technologies for education. The study found significant differences between the virtual reality (VR) and PC conditions and between the audio and no-audio conditions, with the VR and audio supporting better learning opportunities than the PC or no-audio conditions.Ph.D

Solar System Sonification: Exploring Earth and its Neighbors Through Sound

Informal learning environments (ILEs) like museums incorporate multi-modal displays into their exhibits as a way to engage a wider group of visitors, often relying on tactile, audio, and visual means to accomplish this. Planetariums, however, represent one type of ILE where a single, highly visual presentation modality is used to entertain, inform, and engage a large group of users in a passive viewing experience. Recently, auditory displays have been used as a supplement or even an alternative to visual presentation of astronomy concepts, though there has been little evaluation of those displays. Here, we designed an auditory model of the solar system and created a planetarium show, which was later presented at a local science center. Attendees evaluated the performance on helpfulness, interest, pleasantness, understandability, and relatability of the sounds mappings. Overall, attendees rated the solar system and planetary details very highly, in addition to providing open-ended responses about their entire experience

Mwangaza Trip Report Spring 2014

This document summarizes the notes from the research trip to Kenya completed in March 2014

What's the Weather: Making Weather Data Accessible for Visually Impaired Students

We determined during a collaboration project in Kenya that students with visual impairments were interested in learning about weather data as part of their Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. Unfortunately much of this data is not accessible to the students due to lack of integration with assistive technologies, as well as limited access to landline internet. Therefore we created the Accessible Weather App to run on Android and integrate with the TalkBack accessibility feature that is already available on the operating system. This paper discusses the process for determining what features the users’ would require, and our methodology for evaluating the beta version of the app. User feedback was positive and suggestions have helped advance the interface design. The overall goal of our project is to develop, evaluate, and integrate the Accessible Weather App into weather and meteorology learning activities for students with visual impairments