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• Accessible spaces: navigating through a marked environment with a camera phone

  Kee-Yip Chan, Roberto Manduchi, James Coughlan · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  This short Assets '07 demonstration paper from UC Santa Cruz and the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute describes a camera-phone-based wayfinding system for blind travellers. The core idea is to deploy small, cheap, pie-shaped colour markers in an environment — on walls,…

  wayfinding · navigation · blindness · visual impairment · computer vision

• Understanding mobile phone requirements for young adults with cognitive disabilities

  Melissa Dawe · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  Melissa Dawe's Assets '07 paper is a small, qualitative, ethnographically-informed study of how five Colorado families use mobile phones to support remote communication between parents and their young-adult children (ages 19-25) with cognitive disabilities. The paper is grounded…

  cognitive accessibility · mobile accessibility · ethnography · semi-structured interviews · caregivers

• WADER: a novel wayfinding system with deviation recovery for individuals with cognitive impairments

  Shih-Kai Tsai · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This short ASSETS 2007 poster paper from Shih-Kai Tsai at Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan presents WADER (Wayfinding system with DEviation Recovery), a prototype indoor wayfinding system aimed at individuals with cognitive impairments — explicitly named populations…

  wayfinding · indoor navigation · QR code · cognitive accessibility · cognitive disabilities

• Consolidating computer operation and wheelchair control

  Torsten Felzer, Rainer Nordmann · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This short ASSETS 2007 demo proposal from Torsten Felzer and Rainer Nordmann at Darmstadt University of Technology describes the integration of two previously separate assistive systems they had built for people with severe physical disabilities. The first, HaMCoS (HAnds-free…

  hands-free interaction · muscle contraction · electromyography · powered wheelchair · mouse emulation

• Simulation to predict performance of assistive interfaces

  Pradipta Biswas, Peter Robinson · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This short ASSETS 2007 poster from Pradipta Biswas and Peter Robinson at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory describes a simulator for predicting how disabled users will perform on a given assistive interface, intended to reduce the dependence on hard-to-recruit disabled…

  user simulation · usability evaluation · GOMS · Model Human Processor · scanning interface

• Barrier pointing: using physical edges to assist target acquisition on mobile device touch screens

  Jon Froehlich, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Shaun K. Kane · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  Froehlich, Wobbrock and Kane propose barrier pointing: a set of stylus-based target acquisition techniques that exploit the raised physical edge of a mobile touch screen to stabilise input for users with motor impairments. Standard touch-screen tapping requires a user to fly the…

  mobile accessibility · touchscreen accessibility · motor impairment · target acquisition · input techniques

• Analysis of Navigability of Web Applications for Improving Blind Usability

  Hironobu Takagi, Shin Saito, Kentarou Fukuda, Chieko Asakawa · 2007 · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Vol. 14, No. 3, Article 13

  This TOCHI article is a two-study investigation into why modern web applications — especially visually dense online shopping sites — remain slow and frustrating for blind users even when they pass automated accessibility checks. The authors argue that current usability theory,…

  web accessibility · screen readers · voice browser · navigation · usability testing

• Self-Adapting User Interfaces as Assistive Technology for Handheld Mobile Devices

  Robert Dodd · 2006 · Assets '06: Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper addresses a fundamental challenge in mobile device accessibility: the limitations of bolt-on assistive technology solutions for handheld devices. Published at Assets '06, the premier ACM conference on accessible computing, it proposes a paradigm shift from…

  mobile accessibility · self-adapting interfaces · assistive technology · user modeling · design space

• Dialog Generation for Voice Browsing

  Zan Sun, Amanda Stent, I. V. Ramakrishnan · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A): Building the Mobile Web: Rediscovering Accessibility?

  This paper presents HearSay, a voice browser system developed at Stony Brook University that provides speech-driven web access for people with visual disabilities. Unlike conventional screen readers that force users to arrow through a linearized, single-column presentation of…

  voice browsing · screen readers · visual impairment · web page segmentation · content summarization

• Opening up access to online documents using essentiality tracks

  Matthew T. Atkinson, Jatinder Dhiensa, Colin H. C. Machin · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from Loughborough University presents extensions to the "essentiality and proficiency" approach for improving document accessibility and usability. The core concept is that web page content has varying levels of importance for different users, and authors can assign…

  document accessibility · content filtering · XML · universal design · information overload

• The Personal Portable Profile Project

  Blaise W. Liffick, Gary Zoppetti, Shane Shearer · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper presents the Personal Portable Profile (P3) system, a hardware and software solution designed to let users with disabilities carry their computer accessibility settings between machines. The core problem addressed is that operating system user profiles — covering…

  assistive technology · user profile · personalization · portable accessibility · operating system settings

• DuckCall: Tackling the First Hundred Yards Problem

  Stephen Fickas, Craig Pataky, Zebin Chen · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper describes DuckCall, a TV-based reminder system designed to help people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) overcome the "first hundred yards problem" — the challenge of preparing for and getting to the first transit pick-up point for community travel. Background studies…

  cognitive disabilities · traumatic brain injury · social isolation · community navigation · transportation access

• Designing Assistive Technology for Blind Users

  Kristen Shinohara · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper reports on an observational and interview case study of a congenitally blind college student (pseudonym Sara) conducted in her home to develop design insights for improving interactions between blind users and everyday technological artifacts. The researcher used…

  blindness · assistive technology · human-centered design · ethnography · case study

• A Demonstration of the iCARE Portable Reader

  Terri Hedgpeth, John A. Black, Jr., Sethuraman Panchanathan · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper presents the portable iCARE Reader, an assistive device developed at Arizona State University that allows people who are blind or visually impaired to read printed text more naturally and conveniently than existing flatbed scanner-based reading systems. The project…

  blindness · visual impairment · OCR · assistive technology · reading systems

• Hardware-Based Text-to-Braille Translator

  Xuan Zhang, Cesar Ortega-Sanchez, Iain Murray · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper describes the implementation of a text-to-Braille translator in hardware using Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), as an alternative to the software-based translators that dominate the market. The translator implements Paul Blenkhorn's algorithm for converting…

  braille · braille translation · FPGA · hardware · embedded systems

• Facetop Tablet: Note-Taking Assistance for Deaf Persons

  Dorian Miller, James Culp, David Stotts · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper presents Facetop Tablet, a system designed to assist deaf and hard of hearing people in taking notes during meetings, lectures, and group activities. The core problem is that deaf users who rely on sign language interpreters face a constant visual context-switching…

  deaf · hard of hearing · sign language · note-taking · meeting accommodation

• Wireless Headset Communications for Vision Impaired Persons in Multi-User Environments

  Iain Murray, Andrew Pasquale · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper addresses a practical workplace accessibility problem: vision impaired persons (VIPs) who work in call centres rely on screen reading software that outputs speech through headsets, but in multi-user environments with many wireless headsets, radio-based wireless…

  visual impairment · wireless headset · screen reader · call centre · workplace accessibility

• Improvements in Vision-based Pointer Control

  Rick Kjeldsen · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper presents the HeadTracking Pointer (HTP), a vision-based head tracking system developed at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center that uses a standard webcam to allow people with motor disabilities to control a computer pointer through head movements. The system addresses…

  head tracking · pointer control · computer vision · assistive technology · motor disabilities

• Loudmouth: Modifying Text-to-Speech Synthesis in Noise

  Rupal Patel, Michael Everett, Eldar Sadikov · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This short paper from Northeastern University presents Loudmouth, a modified text-to-speech synthesizer that emulates the Lombard effect — the natural way humans adjust their speech in noisy environments — to improve synthesized speech intelligibility in noise. Standard TTS…

  text-to-speech · speech synthesis · AAC · Lombard effect · speech intelligibility

• Interactive Tracking of Movable Objects for the Blind on the Basis of Environment Models and Perception-Oriented Object Recognition Methods

  Andreas Hub, Tim Hartter, Thomas Ertl · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper from the University of Stuttgart presents advances to an indoor navigation and object identification system for blind and deafblind users. The system combines a stereo camera and 3D inertial sensor mounted on a bicycle helmet with detailed 3D environment models of…

  indoor navigation · object recognition · blind users · computer vision · assistive technology

• Developing Steady Clicks: A Method of Cursor Assistance for People with Motor Impairments

  Shari Trewin, Simeon Keates, Karyn Moffatt · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper from IBM Research and the University of British Columbia presents Steady Clicks, a cursor assistance feature designed to reduce clicking errors for mouse users with motor impairments. The system addresses three specific error types identified in prior empirical…

  motor impairment · cursor assistance · mouse input · clicking errors · target acquisition

• Indoor Wayfinding: Developing a Functional Interface for Individuals with Cognitive Impairments

  Alan L. Liu, Harlan Hile, Henry Kautz, Gaetano Borriello, Pat A. Brown, Mark Harniss, Kurt Johnson · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper from the University of Washington describes the design and user evaluation of an indoor wayfinding system for individuals with cognitive impairments, including traumatic brain injury, Down syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder, and cerebral palsy. Rather than…

  cognitive impairment · wayfinding · indoor navigation · wizard of oz · multimodal interface

• Usability and Accessibility Issues in the Localization of Assistive Technology

  Ira Jhangiani · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This doctoral consortium paper from Virginia Polytechnic Institute examines the usability and accessibility challenges that arise when assistive technology software designed in one country is localized for users with disabilities in another. The research evaluates a portable…

  assistive technology · localization · internationalization · usability · low vision

• From Letters to Words: Efficient Stroke-based Word Completion for Trackball Text Entry

  Jacob O. Wobbrock, Brad A. Myers · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper presents a significant extension to Trackball EdgeWrite, a unistroke text entry method designed for people who use trackballs as their primary pointing device. The original Trackball EdgeWrite allowed users to enter text one character at a time by rolling a trackball…

  text entry · trackball · motor impairment · word prediction · word completion

• A Rollator-Mounted Wayfinding System for the Elderly: A Smart World Perspective

  Aliasgar Kutiyanawala, Vladimir Kulyukin, Edmund LoPresti · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper presents the iWalker, a rollator-mounted wayfinding system designed to help elderly individuals with cognitive and visual impairments navigate indoor environments independently. The system adopts a "smart world" perspective, where intelligence is distributed between…

  wayfinding · aging · assistive technology · robotics · cognitive impairment