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• The Information-Theoretic Analysis of Unimodal Interfaces and their Multimodal Counterparts

  Melanie Baljko · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper applies Shannon Information Theory to formally analyse and quantify the hypothesised benefits of multimodal interfaces over unimodal ones, with particular focus on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices such as Voice Output Communication Aids…

  multimodal interfaces · AAC · information theory · voice output communication aids · speech generating devices

• SmartColor: Disambiguation Framework for the Colorblind

  Ken Wakita, Kenta Shimamura · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper presents SmartColor, a framework that automatically repaints coloured documents so that people with colour vision deficiencies can perceive the same colour effects — such as contrast, shared colour grouping, and distinguishability — that the original author intended…

  color blindness · color accessibility · color contrast · data visualization · constraint systems

• Programmer-Focused Website Accessibility Evaluations

  Chris Law, Julie Jacko, Paula Edwards · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper argues that accessibility evaluation and reporting processes have historically focused on the needs of end-users with disabilities while overlooking the actual audience for evaluation reports: the programmers who must implement the fixes. The authors observe that the…

  accessibility evaluation · web accessibility · accessibility reporting · developer tools · organizational accessibility

• User Modeling for Individuals with Disabilities: A Pilot Study of Word Prediction

  Abhishek Agarwal, Richard Simpson · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This short paper describes the development of user models that predict how word prediction (WP) systems affect text entry performance for individuals with disabilities. The research addresses a practical clinical problem: clinicians who assess assistive technology for clients…

  word prediction · user modeling · assistive technology · text entry · eye tracking

• Emerging Issues, Solutions & Challenges from the Top 20 Issues Affecting Web Application Accessibility

  David Hoffman, Lisa Battle · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This poster paper presents the results of a second in-depth analysis of hundreds of accessibility issues documented across real web application projects at the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), compared with findings from a prior study of over 1,000 accessibility issues…

  web accessibility · accessibility evaluation · accessibility barriers · design patterns · web applications

• MathPlayer: Web-Based Math Accessibility

  Neil Soiffer · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This poster paper presents MathPlayer, a free plug-in for Microsoft Internet Explorer developed by Design Science Inc. that renders MathML (Mathematical Markup Language) visually in web pages and makes mathematical expressions accessible to people with print-related disabilities…

  mathematical accessibility · MathML · screen readers · print disability · learning disabilities

• How to Operate a PC Without Using the Hands

  Torsten Felzer, Rainer Nordmann · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This demo paper presents HaMCoS (Hands-free Mouse Control System), a biosignal interface developed at Darmstadt University of Technology that enables people with severe physical disabilities to operate a Windows PC using intentional contractions of a single muscle of choice —…

  biosignal interface · EMG · hands-free operation · mouse emulation · motor disability

• Research-Derived Web Design Guidelines for Older People

  Sri Kurniawan, Panayiotis Zaphiris · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper develops and validates a set of research-derived, ageing-centred web design guidelines through a rigorous multi-stage process. The authors began with an extensive literature review of HCI and ageing research, producing an initial set of 52 guidelines backed by…

  older adults · web design guidelines · aging · usability · accessibility evaluation

• A Wearable Face Recognition System for Individuals with Visual Impairments

  Sreekar Krishna, Greg Little, John Black, Sethuraman Panchanathan · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper presents the iCare Interaction Assistant, a wearable face recognition system developed at Arizona State University's Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) to help people who are visually impaired identify individuals during social interactions. The system…

  face recognition · wearable computing · blindness · computer vision · social interaction

• Representing Coordination and Non-Coordination in an American Sign Language Animation

  Matt Huenerfauth · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper introduces the Partition/Constitute (P/C) Formalism, a new computational representation for encoding the multichannel structure of American Sign Language (ASL) performances to support English-to-ASL machine translation and animation. ASL is a full natural language…

  American Sign Language · sign language animation · machine translation · natural language processing · deaf accessibility

• Universal Designs versus Assistive Technologies: Research Agendas and Practical Applications

  Chris Law, Julie Jacko, Bill Peterson, Jim Tobias · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This panel paper frames the tensions between Universal Design (UD) and Assistive Technology (AT) approaches to making Information and Computing Technologies (ICT) accessible. The panel brought together perspectives from academia (Julie Jacko, Chris Law), government (Bill…

  universal design · assistive technology · accessibility policy · inclusive design · ICT accessibility

• Proposing New Metrics to Evaluate Web Usability for the Blind

  Kentarou Fukuda, Shin Saito, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2005 · CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This four-page CHI '05 extended abstract argues that existing automated accessibility checkers — in 2005 typified by Bobby — had plateaued: they verified the presence of ALT attributes, labels, and markup conformance, yet real blind users still found many 'compliant' web pages…

  web accessibility · accessibility evaluation · accessibility metrics · screen readers · voice browser

• American Sign Language Generation: Multimodal NLG with Multiple Linguistic Channels

  Matt Huenerfauth · 2005 · Proceedings of the ACL Student Research Workshop (ACLstudent '05)

  This short student-research-workshop paper presents the design rationale for Huenerfauth's English-to-ASL machine translation system, framing American Sign Language generation as a form of multimodal natural language generation (NLG) with multiple parallel linguistic channels.…

  American Sign Language · natural language generation · sign language machine translation · multimodal NLG · classifier predicates

• American Sign Language natural language generation and machine translation

  Matt Huenerfauth · 2005 · SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing

  Matt Huenerfauth's 2005 paper describes a research programme to build an English-to-American Sign Language (ASL) machine translation (MT) system that generates animations of a 3D virtual-reality signing character. The author frames the project against a stark literacy gap: most…

  ASL · American Sign Language · deaf accessibility · sign language · sign language animation

• Web Accessibility Highlights and Trends

  Judy Brewer · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  Written by Judy Brewer, Director of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, this paper provides an authoritative overview of the state of web accessibility standards and their implementation as of 2004. Brewer describes the three complementary WAI guidelines — WCAG 1.0 (for web…

  WCAG · WAI · W3C · standards harmonization · accessibility policy

• Designing Search Engine User Interfaces for the Visually Impaired

  Barbara Leporini, Patrizia Andronico, Marina Buzzi · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper examines the fundamental differences between visual and aural perception of search engine interfaces and proposes specific design guidelines to improve usability for blind and visually impaired users interacting via screen readers. The authors from the Italian…

  visual impairment · screen readers · search engines · user interface design · web navigation

• The User Experience: Designs and Adaptations

  Vicki L. Hanson · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This keynote-style paper from IBM's Watson Research Center by Vicki Hanson argues that web accessibility standards and guidelines, while necessary, do not guarantee a usable or satisfying experience for people with disabilities. The paper distinguishes between accessibility…

  low vision · aging · cognitive accessibility · user experience · personalization

• Tension, what tension?: Website accessibility and visual design

  Helen Petrie, Fraser Hamilton, Neil King · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from City University London directly challenges the widespread belief among web designers that accessible websites must be visually plain and boring. The researchers conducted a large-scale evaluation of 100 websites, starting with automated WAI guideline testing of…

  visual design · user testing · web accessibility · usability · disability

• A no-frills approach for accessible Web-based learning material

  Valeria Mirabella, Stephen Kimani, Tiziana Catarci · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from Sapienza University of Rome proposes a methodology for creating accessible web-based learning materials that centres the role of the "didactical expert" (instructional designer/subject matter expert) rather than relying solely on technical accessibility…

  e-learning · accessible education · learning objects · alternative content · XML

• Proving the validity and accessibility of dynamic web-pages

  R. G. Stone, J. Dhiensa · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from Loughborough University proposes a formal verification approach to proving that dynamically generated web pages will always produce valid and accessible output, regardless of which code path executes at runtime. The authors draw a direct analogy to program…

  automated testing · dynamic web pages · formal verification · PHP · server-side scripting

• The semantic web, web accessibility, and device independence

  Lisa Seeman · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  Written by Lisa Seeman of UB Access, this paper argues that Semantic Web technologies — particularly RDF (Resource Description Framework) annotations — can dramatically improve web accessibility beyond what WCAG guidelines alone can achieve, especially for people with learning…

  semantic web · RDF · cognitive accessibility · learning disabilities · personalization

• Accessibility and design: a failure of the imagination

  Bob Regan · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  Written by Bob Regan of Macromedia (makers of Flash), this paper argues that the poor state of web accessibility represents a "failure of the imagination" — a failure by both the design community to engage with accessibility and by accessibility advocates to inspire designers.…

  visual design · accessible design · Flash accessibility · CSS · web standards

• An accessible method of hiding HTML content

  Paul Ryan Bohman, Shane Anderson · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from WebAIM researchers at Utah State University presents a CSS technique for visually hiding HTML content while keeping it accessible to screen readers — an early formalization of what became the widely adopted "sr-only" or "visually-hidden" pattern. The authors…

  CSS · screen readers · visually hidden text · web development · skip navigation

• Text Entry from Power Wheelchairs: EdgeWrite for Joysticks and Touchpads

  Jacob O. Wobbrock, Brad A. Myers, Htet Htet Aung, Edmund F. LoPresti · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)

  This paper presents two adaptations of EdgeWrite, a gestural text entry method originally designed as a stylus-based unistroke technique for people with tremor, reconfigured for use with power wheelchair joysticks and touchpads. The research addresses a significant gap in…

  text entry · motor accessibility · power wheelchair · joystick · touchpad

• Speech-Based Cursor Control: A Study of Grid-Based Solutions

  Liwei Dai, Rich Goldman, Andrew Sears, Jeremy Lozier · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)

  This paper investigates grid-based approaches to speech-controlled cursor positioning, addressing a well-documented weakness of speech recognition technology: while dictation-based text entry has improved dramatically, using speech for precise cursor control remains slow and…

  speech recognition · cursor control · motor accessibility · voice interaction · input methods