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• Multiple View Perspectives: Improving Inclusiveness and Video Compression in Mainstream Classroom Recordings

  Raja S. Kushalnagar, Anna C. Cavender, Jehan-François Pâris · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper presents Multiple View Perspectives (MVP), a system that captures and presents multiple focused video views of a classroom for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students. DHH students in mainstream classrooms face a fundamental visual attention problem: they must…

  deaf and hard of hearing · lecture capture · video accessibility · classroom accessibility · sign language interpreting

• A Web-Based User Survey for Evaluating Power Saving Strategies for Deaf Users of MobileASL

  Jessica J. Tran, Tressa W. Johnson, Joy Kim, Rafael Rodriguez, Sheri Yin, Eve A. Riskin, Richard E. Ladner, Jacob O. Wobbrock · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper presents research on power-saving video compression algorithms for MobileASL, a project enabling real-time, two-way video communication on mobile phones so Deaf people can communicate in American Sign Language. Running video calls drains phone batteries rapidly — only…

  deaf and hard of hearing · sign language · American Sign Language · mobile technology · video compression

• Understanding the Challenges and Opportunities for Richer Descriptions of Stereotypical Behaviors of Children with ASD: A Concept Exploration and Validation

  Fnu Nazneen, Fatima A. Boujarwah, Shone Sadler, Amha Mogus, Gregory D. Abowd, Rosa I. Arriaga · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper from Georgia Institute of Technology explores the concept of a wearable sensor system that can tacitly collect contextual data — physiological state, environmental conditions, and location — and map it to occurrences of stereotypical behaviours in children with autism…

  autism spectrum disorder · stereotypical behavior · wearable sensors · physiological sensing · participatory design

• Are Synthesized Video Descriptions Acceptable?

  Masatomo Kobayashi, Trisha O'Connell, Bryan Gould, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper from IBM Research Tokyo and WGBH National Center for Accessible Media investigates whether text-to-speech (TTS) synthesised narrations are an acceptable alternative to human-narrated audio descriptions for online videos. While accessibility standards like WCAG 2.0,…

  audio description · video accessibility · text-to-speech · speech synthesis · web accessibility

• A Tactile Windowing System for Blind Users

  Denise Prescher, Gerhard Weber, Martin Spindler · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper from Technische Universität Dresden presents the Braille Window System (BWS), a windowing interface designed for a large planar tactile display — the BrailleDis9000, a touch-sensitive pin-matrix of 120 columns and 60 rows (7,200 pins). Standard screen readers…

  braille · tactile display · tactile graphics · gesture interaction · blindness

• Designing Auditory Cues to Enhance Spoken Mathematics for Visually Impaired Users

  Emma Murphy, Enda Bates, Dónal Fitzpatrick · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper presents a novel auditory math system designed to make spoken mathematical equations more accessible to visually impaired users. The core challenge addressed is that visual mathematical notation conveys structure — such as fractions, superscripts, subscripts, and…

  mathematical accessibility · auditory display · non-speech sound · spearcons · visual impairment

• Helping Older Adults Locate 'Lost' Cursors Using FieldMouse

  Nic Hollinworth · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This short paper describes FieldMouse, a modified standard optical mouse augmented with a touch sensor (Quantum QT110) embedded in its top surface to detect when a user grasps the mouse after releasing it. The motivation addresses a common problem among older adult computer…

  aging · mouse cursor · pointing devices · input devices · assistive technology

• ZigAlert: A ZigBee Alert for Toileting Training Children with Developmental Delay in a Public School Setting

  Yi-Chien Chen · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This short paper presents ZigAlert, a wireless sensor network system based on ZigBee technology designed to assist with toilet training for children with severe developmental delays in a public school setting. The system addresses a practical challenge: children with conditions…

  assistive technology · developmental disabilities · intellectual disability · wireless sensor network · special education

• Towards a Tool for Keystroke Level Modeling of Skilled Screen Reading

  Shari Trewin, Bonnie E. John, John Richards, Cal Swart, Jonathan Brezin, Rachel Bellamy, John Thomas · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper explores whether cognitive models of auditory interaction — specifically the Keystroke-Level Model (KLM) — can be adapted to predict task completion times for skilled screen reader users, with the goal of helping designers evaluate the usability of their interfaces…

  screen readers · cognitive modeling · usability · keyboard navigation · JAWS

• In-Situ Study of Blind Individuals Listening to Audio-Visual Contents

  Claude Chapdelaine · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper presents an in-situ observational study examining how ten legally blind individuals (WHO levels 3-5) listen to and comprehend audio-visual content such as films, television dramas, and science reports. The research aims to understand the type, quantity, and frequency…

  audio description · video description · visual impairment · blindness · residual vision

• Improving Public Transit Usability for Blind and Deaf-Blind People by Connecting a Braille Display to a Smartphone

  Shiri Azenkot, Emily Fortuna · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This short paper explores the public transit challenges faced by blind and deaf-blind people and presents MoBraille, a novel framework that connects any Wi-Fi-enabled Braille display to an Android smartphone. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with four blind and…

  deafblindness · blindness · braille display · public transit accessibility · mobile accessibility

• A System of Clothes Matching for Visually Impaired Persons

  Shuai Yuan · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This short paper presents a proof-of-concept computer vision system designed to help blind and visually impaired people determine whether two clothing items match in both color and pattern. The system addresses a common daily living challenge: selecting appropriate clothing…

  computer vision · blindness · visual impairment · daily living · independent living

• Participation of High School and Undergraduate Students who are Deaf in Research on American Sign Language Animation

  Matt Huenerfauth · 2010 · SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing, Issue 97

  This SIGACCESS newsletter article describes the educational-outreach component of a five-year NSF CAREER Award (#0746556) research project at the Linguistic and Assistive Technologies Laboratory (LATLab) at Queens College, CUNY. The scientific goal of the project is to advance…

  American Sign Language · ASL animation · deaf community · STEM education · research outreach

• Collecting a Motion-Capture Corpus of American Sign Language for Data-Driven Generation Research

  Pengfei Lu, Matt Huenerfauth · 2010 · Proceedings of the NAACL HLT 2010 Workshop on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies (SLPAT '10)

  This workshop paper describes the first year of a multi-year project at CUNY to build a motion-capture corpus of American Sign Language (ASL) specifically intended to support data-driven ASL animation and machine-translation research. The authors argue that current ASL animation…

  American Sign Language · ASL animation · motion capture · sign language corpus · deaf accessibility

• A Comparison of Features for Automatic Readability Assessment

  Lijun Feng, Martin Jansche, Matt Huenerfauth, Noémie Elhadad · 2010 · Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING '10), Posters

  Feng et al. (2010) is a computational-linguistics paper that compares a wide variety of text features for automatically predicting the grade level of reading material aimed at primary-school students. The motivation is both intrinsic — traditional readability formulas such as…

  readability · automatic readability assessment · text simplification · plain language · cognitive accessibility

• User Capability in an Adaptive World

  Robert Dodd, Steve Green, Elaine Pearson · 2009 · MSIADU '09: Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGMM International Workshop on Media Studies and Implementations that Help Improving Access to Disabled Users

  This paper presents a fundamental rethinking of how user profiles should be constructed for adaptive and accessible computing. Published at MSIADU '09 (co-located with ACM Multimedia), it critiques the dominant Access For All standard (ISO/IEC 24751) for conflating user…

  user profiling · capability modeling · adaptive interfaces · user modeling · accessibility standards

• About the relevance of accessibility barriers in the everyday interactions of older people with the web

  Sergio Sayago, Josep Blat · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper reports findings from a remarkable 3-year ethnographic study (2005-2008) of 388 older people (aged 65-80) using web and computer technologies in their daily lives at the Àgora adult centre in Barcelona. Unlike most accessibility research that relies on lab-based…

  aging · ethnography · web accessibility · cognitive accessibility · mouse interaction

• User requirement analysis for a railway ticketing portal with emphasis on semantic accessibility for older users

  Michael Leitner, Özge Subasi, Norman Höller, Arjan Geven, Manfred Tscheligi · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper investigates the user requirements of older adults using an online railway ticketing portal operated by a nationwide Austrian railway company. The researchers employed a mixed-methods approach combining a large-scale online questionnaire (1,200 valid responses),…

  older adults · semantic accessibility · user requirements · universal accessibility · e-commerce accessibility

• A framework for filtering web accessibility guidelines

  Rehema Baguma, Roger G. Stone, Jude T. Lugega, Th. P. van der Weide · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents a framework for organizing and filtering web accessibility guidelines such as WCAG according to four contexts of use, addressing the widely acknowledged problem that WCAG guidelines are difficult for their target audience to navigate and apply. The framework…

  accessibility guidelines · WCAG usability · context of use · guideline filtering · developer tools

• Hera-FFX: a Firefox add-on for semi-automatic web accessibility evaluation

  José L. Fuertes, Ricardo González, Emmanuelle Gutiérrez, Loïc Martínez · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents Hera-FFX, a Firefox browser add-on for semi-automatic web accessibility evaluation against WCAG 1.0, developed as a complete redesign of the earlier Hera online tool. The authors first establish a comprehensive list of 11 desirable features for accessibility…

  accessibility evaluation · evaluation tools · semi-automatic evaluation · browser extensions · WCAG 1.0

• Transition of Accessibility Evaluation Tools to New Standards

  Amaia Aizpurua, Myriam Arrue, Markel Vigo, Julio Abascal · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper addresses a practical challenge that faced the web accessibility community following the release of WCAG 2.0 in December 2008: how to update the large ecosystem of existing automated evaluation tools that were built around WCAG 1.0. The authors present EvalAccess, a…

  automated testing · web accessibility · WCAG transition · evaluation tools · accessibility guidelines

• Age and Web Access: The Next Generation

  Vicki L. Hanson · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper challenges the common assumption that technology difficulties experienced by older adults are a fixed characteristic of aging that will naturally disappear as tech-savvy younger generations grow old. Hanson argues that the relationship between age and web access is…

  aging · older adults · digital divide · cognitive accessibility · user experience

• Quantitative Evaluation for Web Accessibility with Respect to Disabled Groups

  Pornpat Sirithumgul, Atiwong Suchato, Proadpran Punyabukkana · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper proposes a methodology for evaluating web accessibility that goes beyond standard WCAG conformance levels to assess suitability for specific disability groups, particularly vision-impaired and hearing-impaired users. The authors argue that WCAG conformance levels (A,…

  accessibility metrics · web accessibility · barrier walkthrough · quantitative evaluation · visual impairment

• Web Presentation Layer Bootstrapping for Accessibility and Performance

  Clint Andrew Hall · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents the "Web Bootstrapper," a technique for delivering different presentation experiences ("skins") from a single semantic HTML codebase without altering source markup or running costly client-side detection code. The approach addresses a gap between graceful…

  progressive enhancement · web performance · responsive design · device detection · CSS

• A Survey of Technology Accessibility Problems Faced by Older Users in China

  Dengfeng Yao, Yunfeng Qiu, Zaixin Du, Jianqing Ma, Harry Huang · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents the broadest survey of web accessibility for older users conducted in China at the time, with 180 valid responses from participants across all 25 Chinese provinces. The web-based questionnaire was supplemented with in-person discussions at meetings with older…

  aging · older adults · digital divide · global accessibility · survey research