Auto-personalization: Theory, practice and cross-platform implementation

In an increasing digital society, access to information and communication technologies (ICT) is no longer just helpful but has become a necessity. However, the human interfaces appearing on these ICT (and increasingly, even common household products) are beyond of the abilities of many people with disability, digital literacy, or aging related limitations. Access to these ICT is essential to these individuals yet it is not possible to create an interface that is usable by all. This paper introduces a new approach to auto-personalization that is based on the development of the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII). The GPII is a new international collaborative effort between users, developers and industry to build a sustainable infrastructure to make access to all digital technologies technically and economically possible, including access by users who are unable to use or understand today�s technologies. Based on a one-size-fits-one approach, the GPII uses auto-adapting mainstream interfaces, and ubiquitous access to assistive technologies when mainstream interfaces cannot adapt enough, to provide each user with the interface they need. The GPII has three main components: a mechanism to allow individuals to easily discover which interface variations they need and then store it in a secure way on a token or in the cloud; a mechanism to allow them to use these stored needs and preferences to automatically adapt the interfaces on the digital technologies they encounter, anywhere and anytime; and a resource for developers (mainstream and assistive technology) providing the information and tools required to develop, disseminate, and support new access solutions more simply, more quickly, and at lower cost

StateLens: A Reverse Engineering Solution for Making Existing Dynamic Touchscreens Accessible

Blind people frequently encounter inaccessible dynamic touchscreens in their everyday lives that are difficult, frustrating, and often impossible to use independently. Touchscreens are often the only way to control everything from coffee machines and payment terminals, to subway ticket machines and in-flight entertainment systems. Interacting with dynamic touchscreens is difficult non-visually because the visual user interfaces change, interactions often occur over multiple different screens, and it is easy to accidentally trigger interface actions while exploring the screen. To solve these problems, we introduce StateLens - a three-part reverse engineering solution that makes existing dynamic touchscreens accessible. First, StateLens reverse engineers the underlying state diagrams of existing interfaces using point-of-view videos found online or taken by users using a hybrid crowd-computer vision pipeline. Second, using the state diagrams, StateLens automatically generates conversational agents to guide blind users through specifying the tasks that the interface can perform, allowing the StateLens iOS application to provide interactive guidance and feedback so that blind users can access the interface. Finally, a set of 3D-printed accessories enable blind people to explore capacitive touchscreens without the risk of triggering accidental touches on the interface. Our technical evaluation shows that StateLens can accurately reconstruct interfaces from stationary, hand-held, and web videos; and, a user study of the complete system demonstrates that StateLens successfully enables blind users to access otherwise inaccessible dynamic touchscreens.Comment: ACM UIST 201

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

Comments of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Telecommunications Access Submitted to the Federal Communications Commission on February 22, 2006 in the Matter of Telecommunications Relay Services and Speech-to-Speech Services for Individuals with Hearing and Speech Disabilities

Comments to the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on access to emergency services through telecommunications relay services. Recommendations to ensure access to 9-1-1 emergency calling for users of VRS and IP text relay services. As the number of TTY/landline subscribers decreases their access to 9-1-1 emergency calling services is endangered.Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Telecommunications Access; National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation and Research; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Gallaudet Universit

Computerized Decision Support for People with Disabilities: Review and Outlook

29th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference Scientific/Research Proceedings, San Diego, 2014.People with disabilities often need professional support and advice in daily life decisions such as choosing a job, a health care plan, or an access product that best fits their needs. However many people face barriers to professional support due a large part to lack of funding and lack of adequately trained providers. Recent years have seen many applications of computerized decision support, showing great potential to aid decision-making with populations as diverse as people with disabilities. In this paper, we review the state of the art technology and research on decision support systems for people with disabilities, and point out problems, potentials, and research needs