38 research outputs found
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
Modifying and designing computer terminals to allow access by handicapped individuals
In this paper, each of the three areas of handicap visual, physical and
cognitive will be explored, along with the different approaches which
have been used to provide access to textual information. Some of the
approaches are simple; others are complex. The following section of the
paper will then examine the practical constraints to be considered in
designing public access data processing terminals. These include considerations and constraints experienced by both the user and the manufacturer.
Finally, the paper will reexamine the various solution strategies presented
in the first section in light of these practical considerations and constraints.
Practical, low-cost, minimum modification approaches which best meet
the constraints of manufacturers and users will be identified.published or submitted for publicatio