Modeling and predicting pointing errors in two dimensions

Recently, Wobbrock et al. (2008) derived a predictive model of pointing accuracy to complement Fitts ’ law’s predictive model of pointing speed. However, their model was based on one-dimensional (1-D) horizontal movement, while applications of such a model require two dimensions (2-D). In this paper, the pointing error model is investigated for 2-D pointing in a study of 21 participants performing a time-matching task on the ISO 9241-9 ring-of-circles layout. Results show that the pointing error model holds well in 2-D. If univariate endpoint deviation (SDx) is used, regressing on N=72 observed vs. predicted error rate points yields R 2 =.953. If bivariate endpoint deviation (SDx,y) is used, regression yields R 2 =.936. For both univariate and bivariate models, the magnitudes of observed and predicted error rates are comparable. Author Keywords: Pointing error model, Fitts ’ law, metronome, movement time, error prediction, error rates

Digital Accessibility in Iran: An Investigation Focusing on Iran\u27s National Policies on Accessibility and Disability Support

Digital accessibility has become an important topic in the field of HCI, but when looking at accessibility on a global scale, we find that the representation of accessibility research is mostly centered in the Global North with countries that are WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic). Our paper explores digital accessibility in Iran, focusing exclusively on its national policies on accessibility. Iran is a non-WEIRD country located in the Global South, with no reports on its digital accessibility status from the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict). We found that there is not enough focus on accessibility in Iran\u27s regulations and we conclude our paper by recommending directions for improving this situation such as HCI and disability organizations in Iran cooperating with G3ict

Exploring Accessibility Features and Plug-ins for Digital Prototyping Tools

Many digital systems are found to be inaccessible and a large part of the issue is that accessibility is not considered early enough in the design process. Digital prototyping tools are a powerful resource for designers to quickly explore both low and high fidelity design mockups during initial stages of product design and development. We evaluated 10 popular prototyping tools to understand their built-in and third-party accessibility features. We found that accessible design support is largely from third-party plug-ins rather than prototyping tools\u27 built-in features, and the availability of accessibility support varies from tool to tool. There is potential to improve accessible design by increasing the potential for accessibility to be consider earlier in the design process

Website Builders Still Contribute To Inaccessible Web Design

Website builders enable individuals without design or technical skills to create websites. However, it is unclear if modern websites created by website builders meet accessibility standards. We reviewed six popular website building platforms and found a lack of accessibility support. Wix provided the most comprehensive accessibility documentation and robust accessibility features. However, during an accessibility audit of 90 Wix webpages, we found many accessibility issues, raising concerns about how users are supported

Understanding Visual Arts Experiences of Blind People

Visual arts play an important role in cultural life and provide access to social heritage and self-enrichment, but most visual arts are inaccessible to blind people. Researchers have explored different ways to enhance blind people’s access to visual arts (e.g., audio descriptions, tactile graphics). However, how blind people adopt these methods remains unknown. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 blind visual arts patrons to understand how they engage with visual artwork and the factors that influence their adoption of visual arts access methods. We further examined interview insights in a follow-up survey (N=220). We present: 1) current practices and challenges of accessing visual artwork in-person and online (e.g., Zoom tour), 2) motivation and cognition of perceiving visual arts (e.g., imagination), and 3) implications for designing visual arts access methods. Overall, our findings provide a roadmap for technology-based support for blind people’s visual arts experiences. Skip Supplemental Material Sectio

Uncovering inclusivity gaps in design pedagogy through the digital design marginalization framework

Designers play a key role in the design of inclusive and socially conscious interfaces. Thus, it is imperative for designers to be thoughtful of the ethical and social implications of design. However, gaps in the foundational training that designers receive (e.g., as university students) can negatively impact their ability to consider the social implications of their design practice. This can result in consequences such as digital marginalization, which, as defined by the Digital Design Marginalization (DDM) framework, is the “pushing away”, whether intentional or not, of a defined group of users from a digital or online service or system, where the exclusion has additional, indirect, and long-lasting social consequences on that particular user group. Designers can contribute, even unintentionally, to digital marginalization through their design practices and the design choices they make. We argue that our role as educators includes ensuring not only that our design pedagogy is inclusive, but that the designers we train now are prepared to conduct their future design practice in a manner that is inclusive to all users. As such, we propose to use the Digital Design Marginalization as a lens to guide a reflection-based approach to identify gaps in our pedagogy that may lead to designers becoming ill-equipped to identify how their designs may lead to digital marginalization. Through seven case studies from our own teaching practice, we demonstrate the use of the DDM framework to guide marginalization-focused introspective reflections of curricula. These reflections through the DDM lens revealed gaps in our pedagogy with respect to providing future designers with training that enables them to consider the broader societal and individual implications of the design choices they will make in future practice. Based on our experience using the DDM framework, we then discuss in greater depth how reflection of social consequences of design pedagogy can be operationalized within institutions to reduce educational gaps that may be associated with design-mediated digital marginalization. Finally, we comment on avenues for further development of pedagogical reflection using DDM

Supporting Self-Regulation of Children with ADHD Using Wearables: Tensions and Design Challenges

The design of wearable applications supporting children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) requires a deep understanding not only of what is possible from a clinical standpoint but also how the children might understand and orient towards wearable technologies, such as a smartwatch. Through a series of participatory design workshops with children with ADHD and their caregivers, we identified tensions and challenges in designing wearable applications supporting the self-regulation of children with ADHD. In this paper, we describe the specific challenges of smartwatches for this population, the balance between self-regulation and co-regulation, and tensions when receiving notifications on a smartwatch in various contexts. These results indicate key considerations—from both the child and caregiver viewpoints—for designing technological interventions supporting children with ADHD

The Social Network: How People with Visual Impairment use Mobile Phones in Kibera, Kenya

Living in an informal settlement with a visual impairment can be very challenging resulting in social exclusion. Mobile phones have been shown to be hugely beneficial to people with sight loss in formal and high-income settings. However, little is known about whether these results hold true for people with visual impairment (VIPs) in informal settlements. We present the findings of a case study of mobile technology use by VIPs in Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi. We used contextual interviews, ethnographic observations and a co-design workshop to explore how VIPs use mobile phones in their daily lives, and how this use influences the social infrastructure of VIPs. Our findings suggest that mobile technology supports and shapes the creation of social infrastructure. However, this is only made possible through the existing support networks of the VIPs, which are mediated through four types of interaction: direct, supported, dependent and restricted

The Care Work of Access

Current approaches to AI and Assistive Technology (AT) often foreground task completion over other encounters such as expressions of care. Our paper challenges and complements such task-completion approaches by attending to the care work of access—the continual affective and emotional adjustments that people make by noticing and attending to one another. We explore how this work impacts encounters among people with and without vision impairments who complete tasks together. We find that bound up in attempts to get things done are concerns for one another and how well people are doing together. Reading this work through emerging disability studies and feminist STS scholarship, we account for two important forms of work that give rise to access: (1) mundane attunements and (2) noninnocent authorizations. Together these processes work as sensitizing concepts to help HCI scholars account for the ways that intelligent ATs both produce access while sometimes subverting people with disabilities

Design for Social Accessibility: Incorporating Social Factors in the Design of Accessible Technologies

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2017-06Assistive technologies are intended to help people with disabilities accomplish everyday tasks. Yet, such technologies are traditionally designed mainly with functionality in mind, not with consideration for social situations of use. As a result, assistive technologies can be awkward-looking and socially awkward to use, leading to misperceptions about these technologies and their users. These misperceptions can impact users’ sense of self-efficacy and self-confidence, leading assistive technology users to feel self-conscious when using devices in public or social settings, ultimately limiting access. Furthermore, most technology design approaches either assume accessibility is “someone else’s job” or that functional accessibility is the only focus, promoting an inclination to overlook accessibility in design overall and preventing designers from fully considering social aspects of accessibility. In this dissertation, I present original empirical studies that investigate the social implications of assistive technology use. I conceptualize “socially accessible design,” and examine how to effectively incorporate social factors into user-centered design techniques. To address the negative and stigmatizing social perceptions associated with assistive technologies, I define Social Accessibility as a new property of accessible technologies extending our understanding of accessibility to include considerations of both functional usability and social situations of use. I present Design for Social Accessibility as a guiding perspective and a set of design tools and techniques emphasizing social factors in technology design. Through a series of design workshops, I demonstrate how designers can use Design for Social Accessibility by: focusing on functional usability and social situations of use; increasing awareness for how design can engender, rather than impede, access for people with visual impairments, particularly within social contexts; and working with users with and without visual impairments in assessing when design influences self-confidence and self-consciousness. In this dissertation, I: (1) define social accessibility as a new property of technology artifacts that extends accessibility to include functional and social factors; (2) demonstrate that Design for Social Accessibility can help improve the design of technologies usable by people with visual impairments when applied to design methods by bringing awareness to designers about how design engenders or impedes access in functional and social factors of use; and (3) develop and verify a tool that can help designers assess the social accessibility of technology design. The contributions of this dissertation are conceptual—motivating the need for, and defining social accessibility and how it relates to functional accessibility; and empirical and methodological—showing how social factors influence assistive technology use and access, and applying findings to increase awareness, change perspectives, and improve tools and techniques for the design of socially accessible technologies. The thesis of this dissertation is: Design for Social Accessibility produces technology designs judged by people with and without visual impairments to be functionally and socially accessible, addressing feelings of self-consciousness and self-confidence in technology use