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• User Interface of a Home Page Reader

  Chieko Asakawa, Takashi Itoh · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from IBM Japan's Tokyo Research Laboratory describes the design and evaluation of Home Page Reader, one of the earliest dedicated web browsers for blind users, which became an IBM Japan product in October 1997. The paper opens by framing the information access problem…

  screen readers · web accessibility · blindness · text-to-speech · nonvisual web access

• Auditory Navigation in Hyperspace: Design and Evaluation of a Non-Visual Hypermedia System for Blind Users

  Sarah Morley, Helen Petrie, Anne-Marie O'Neill, Peter McNally · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from the University of Hertfordshire's Sensory Disabilities Research Unit presents the design and rigorous evaluation of DAHNI (Demonstrator of the ACCESS media Non-Visual Interface), a hypermedia system built specifically for blind users as part of the EU-funded…

  auditory interface · blindness · non-speech sounds · hypermedia · nonvisual navigation

• A Web Navigation Tool for the Blind

  Mary Zajicek, Chris Powell, Chris Reeves · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This short paper from Oxford Brookes University and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) presents BrookesTalk, a prototype speech-output web browser designed to help blind users make rapid decisions about whether a web page is useful to them. The authors identified…

  web accessibility · blindness · information retrieval · screen readers · text summarization

• Reading and Writing Mathematics: The MAVIS Project

  A. I. Karshmer, G. Gupta, S. Geiiger, C. Weaver · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from New Mexico State University presents the MAVIS (Mathematics Accessible to Visually Impaired Students) project, an NSF-funded effort to develop comprehensive tools for bidirectional communication of mathematics between blind students and sighted instructors. The…

  mathematical accessibility · STEM accessibility · Nemeth code · LaTeX · blindness

• Dual Level Intraframe Coding for Increased Video Telecommunication Bandwidth

  David M. Saxe, Richard A. Foulds, Arthur W. Joyce · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from the Applied Science and Engineering Laboratories at the University of Delaware presents a dual-level video compression approach designed to make sign language transmission viable over bandwidth-limited telephone networks. The authors identify a fundamental…

  sign language · deafness · video conferencing · video compression · telecommunications

• Factors Leading to the Successful Use of Voice Recognition Technology

  Tanya Goette · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from Georgia College & State University presents results from a field study investigating why voice recognition technology (VRT) succeeds for some individuals with disabilities and fails for others. Drawing on expectancy theory and innovation-diffusion theory, the…

  speech recognition · assistive technology · technology abandonment · motor impairment · user studies

• Modeling and Generating Sign Language as Animated Line Drawings

  Frank Godenschweger, Thomas Strothotte · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg introduces a system for generating sign language as animated line drawings rather than photorealistic 3D renderings. The authors argue that the prevailing approach of creating increasingly realistic virtual humans for…

  sign language · sign language animation · deafness · computer graphics · non-photorealistic rendering

• Augmenting Home and Office Environments

  Elizabeth Mynatt, Douglas Blattner, Meera M. Blattner, Blair MacIntyre, Jennifer Mankoff · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This panel paper brings together five researchers from Xerox PARC, CommunityVision Inc., UC Davis/Lawrence Livermore, Columbia University, and Georgia Tech to discuss how augmented environments — homes and offices enhanced with sensors, computing, and multimodal interfaces — can…

  home automation · augmented reality · ubiquitous computing · smart environments · multimodal interface

• Programming for Usability in Nonvisual User Interfaces

  Gerhard Weber · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This short paper from Harz University addresses a fundamental problem in accessible software development: sighted developers working in visual programming environments must create interfaces that are usable nonvisually, but standard software engineering methods provide no tools…

  accessibility API · screen readers · software engineering · nonvisual interface · usability

• Lessons from Developing Audio HTML Interfaces

  Frankie James · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper presents the AHA (Audio HTML Access) framework, a set of principles for choosing sounds to use in audio-based HTML interfaces designed for blind and visually impaired users. The research builds on earlier work at Stanford University exploring how web content can be…

  audio interfaces · non-visual web access · sonification · speech synthesis · blind users

• Making VRML Accessible for People with Disabilities

  Sandy Ressler, Qiming Wang · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) presents a taxonomy of techniques for making Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) environments accessible to people with disabilities. Written at a time when VRML was emerging as a…

  virtual reality · VRML · virtual environments · audio feedback · spatialized audio

• Adaptation of a Cash Dispenser to the Needs of Blind and Visually Impaired People

  Jens M. Manzke · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from ETH Zurich describes the software adaptation of an Olivetti cash dispenser (ATM) to make it accessible to blind and visually impaired people, conducted as part of Switzerland's Walk-up-and-use Technology initiative. The key constraint was that no hardware…

  ATM accessibility · self-service terminals · blind users · low vision · speech output

• SUITEKeys: A Speech Understanding Interface for the Motor-Control Challenged

  Bill Manaris, Alan Harkreader · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from the University of Southwestern Louisiana presents SUITEKeys, a continuous speech understanding interface that provides complete computer access to users with motor-control impairments by modelling all interaction at the physical keyboard and mouse level. Unlike…

  speech recognition · motor disabilities · voice input · alternative input · natural language interface

• A Tool for Creating Eye-Aware Applications that Adapt to Changes in User Behavior

  Greg Edwards · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from Stanford University's Archimedes Project presents the Black Squirrel Eye Interpretation Engine, a development tool for creating eye-aware software applications that adapt in real-time to changes in a user's natural eye-movement behaviours and intentions. The work…

  eye tracking · gaze interaction · eye-controlled interface · adaptive interface · ALS

• Conversational Gestures for Direct Manipulation on the Audio Desktop

  T. V. Raman · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper by T. V. Raman of Adobe Systems' Advanced Technology Group presents a systematic methodology for designing auditory interfaces by decomposing visual interaction into "conversational gestures" — the atomic building blocks of human-computer dialogue. Rather than…

  auditory interface · audio desktop · speech-enabling · conversational gestures · direct manipulation

• Toward the Use of Speech and Natural Language Technology in Intervention for a Language-Disordered Population

  Jill Fain Lehman · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from Carnegie Mellon University describes the design of Simone Says, an interactive software environment for language remediation in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The system brings together speech recognition, natural language processing, and…

  autism spectrum disorder · language remediation · speech recognition · natural language processing · computer-aided instruction

• V-Lynx: Bringing the World Wide Web to Sight Impaired Users

  Mitchell Krell, Davor Cubranic · 1996 · Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This 1996 paper from the University of Southern Mississippi presents V-Lynx, one of the earliest voice-enabled web browsers designed to make the World Wide Web accessible to sight-impaired users. At this time, WWW traffic had only recently become significant — comprising just…

  web accessibility · screen reader · speech synthesis · web browser · blind users

• Touching and Hearing GUIs: Design Issues for the PC-Access System

  Christophe Ramstein, Odile Martial, Aude Dufresne, Michel Carignan, Patrick Chassé, Philippe Mabilleau · 1996 · Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This 1996 paper from Canada's Centre for Information Technology Innovation presents PC-Access, a pioneering multimodal system that combines haptic (touch) and auditory feedback to make Microsoft Windows graphical user interfaces accessible to visually impaired users. The core…

  haptic technology · force feedback · multimodal interface · GUI accessibility · blind users

• A Gesture Recognition Architecture for Sign Language

  Annelies Braffort · 1996 · Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This paper from LIMSI-CNRS in France presents a gesture recognition architecture specifically designed for sign languages, grounded in a detailed linguistic analysis of French Sign Language (LSF). The key insight is that sign languages differ fundamentally from oral languages in…

  sign language · gesture recognition · French Sign Language · data glove · sign language recognition

• An Approach to the Evaluation of Assistive Technology

  Robert D. Stevens, Alistair D. N. Edwards · 1996 · Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This University of York paper addresses a fundamental challenge in assistive technology research: the difficulty of conducting rigorous evaluations using conventional controlled testing paradigms. The authors identify several obstacles specific to assistive technology…

  assistive technology evaluation · mathematical accessibility · blind users · earcon · auditory interface

• Designing the World Wide Web for People with Disabilities: A User Centered Design Approach

  Lila F. Laux, Peter R. McNally, Michael G. Paciello, Gregg C. Vanderheiden · 1996 · Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This 1996 panel paper brings together four perspectives on making the early World Wide Web accessible to people with disabilities. Lila Laux frames the problem by identifying special user populations — elderly people, those with low incomes, rural and inner-city residents, and…

  web accessibility · user-centered design · assistive technology · universal design · presentation independence

• Designing Interface Toolkit with Dynamic Selectable Modality

  Shiro Kawai, Hitoshi Aida, Tadao Saito · 1996 · Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This paper presents the Fruit (Flexible and Rearrangeable User Interface Toolkit) system, an architecture for building user interfaces that allow dynamic switching between interaction modalities at runtime. The authors argue that the rigid coupling between applications and…

  multimodal interaction · user interface design · assistive technology · abstract widgets · toolkit design

• Computer Generated 3-Dimensional Models of Manual Alphabet Handshapes for the World Wide Web

  Sarah Geitz, Timothy Hanson, Stephen Maher · 1996 · Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This paper from Gallaudet University and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center presents a web-based teaching tool for learning American Sign Language (ASL) fingerspelling through interactive 3D computer models. The authors created VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language)…

  sign language · deaf accessibility · fingerspelling · virtual reality · VRML

• Multimodal Input for Computer Access and Augmentative Communication

  Alice Smith, John Dunaway, Patrick Demasco, Denise Peischl · 1996 · Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This paper from the University of Delaware describes a research project exploring the integration of speech recognition with head-pointing as a multimodal input method for people with physical disabilities who cannot use standard keyboards and mice. The authors frame the problem…

  multimodal interaction · speech recognition · head pointing · augmentative and alternative communication · assistive technology

• EVA, an Early Vocalization Analyzer: An Empirical Validity Study of Computer Categorization

  Harriet J. Fell, Linda J. Ferrier, Zehra Mooraj, Etienne Benson, Dale Schneider · 1996 · Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This paper from Northeastern University presents EVA (Early Vocalization Analyzer), a Macintosh-based software tool that automatically analyzes digitized recordings of infant vocalizations to support early identification of speech and language delays. The research is grounded in…

  early intervention · speech and language · acoustic analysis · infant vocalization · babbling