Studies in Health Technology and Informatics最新文献

Digital technology is now pervasive, however, not all groups have uniformly benefitted from technological changes and some groups have been left behind or digitally excluded. Comprehensive data from the 2017 Current Population Survey shows that older people and persons with disabilities still lag behind in computer and internet access. Furthermore unique ethical, privacy and safety implications exist for the use of technology for older persons and people with disabilities and careful reflection is required to incorporate these aspects, which are not always part of a traditional software lifecycle. In this paper we present the Inclusion4EU project that aims to co-design a new framework, guidelines and checklists for inclusive software design and development with end-users from excluded categories, academics with expertise in human-computer interaction and industry practitioners from software engineering.

In the framework of the LTA project, focusing on leisure reading for children with visual impairment, we present a prototype of multisensory illustration that will be used as a model for future accessible tactile interactive books. This multisensory illustration is based on two approaches to illustrate the storytelling. The first approach consists in embodying the character's legs with the index and middle fingers in order for the user to imitate actions such as walking. The second approach is to offer interactions feedback according to the readers actions. The main goal of this multisensory illustration prototype is to test and evaluate a selection of interactions and their associated sensors. These interactions help visually impaired readers to identify the environment of the story. They also help to understand actions behind the verbs. Readers are engaged to produce actions such as touching and imitating with their fingers. These interactions are developed according to hypotheses based on the literature. This multisensory illustration prototype was tested with a panel of children. The results comfort the idea that these interactions are useful for them.

An inclusive digital environment in education is considered a cornerstone for a modern society and particularly important for learners with disabilities. This paper delves into this topic and presents the findings from a one-week "Learning, Teaching and Training Activity" (LTTA) conducted as part of the Erasmus+ project on the "Digital Readiness of Vocational Educational Institutions in an Inclusive Environment." The LTTA involved discussions on the requirements, barriers, and applicable tools for digitalization in Vocational Educational Institutions (VET) with educators and self-representatives (learners with disabilities). The feedback from participants was analyzed and included evaluations of various tools in terms of their effectiveness and usefulness. These tools encompassed document accessibility, onboard Windows accessibility features, AI in the form of large language models (LLM) as assistive technology, and image recognition-based assistive technologies. Results, presented in this paper, indicate that especially learners with disabilities can benefit from participation in an inclusive digital environment.

This paper outlines the research activities undertaken to design and evaluate an accessible academic reading tool to support third-level students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This research project was conducted in three phases, using a User Centred design (UCD) approach. The initial research phases explored cognitive processing difficulties related to reading habits and user needs that are associated with ADHD. A series of interviews with 3 subject matter experts and 8 students with ADHD aimed to identify pain points and problems hindering users from carrying out academic reading efficiently and confidently. Phase two involved ideating solutions based on data collected in the first phase and applying universal design principles while focusing on developing an electronic reading tool. After the ideation activity, the resulting prototyped solution was evaluated by 10 users. The data gathered during this evaluation provides insight into the performance of the application and will aid in any subsequent design iteration. The output of the study is an accessible academic reading tool for third-level students with ADHD, using a user-centred design process. Future practical implications and limitations are discussed. Results will provide additional data to build on current study findings and existing theories.

With the increased penetration of screen reading software, effective audio rendering of equations can significantly assist in making many electronic mathematics documents accessible. However, linear syntactic rendering of equations not only creates a considerable cognitive load, even for relatively simple equations, but also becomes crucial in more advanced mathematical subjects where the precise and correct interpretation of symbols is essential. To overcome this challenge, we are working on a procedure to extract contextual semantics for mathematical expressions from the surrounding text. In this paper, we will present one of its modules: the Semantic Extractor. This module aids in extracting semantics from the concordance that contains valid mathematical definitions. This approach enables contextually aware audio rendering of complex mathematical expressions, rather than relying solely on syntactic rendering.

Motor disability includes the lack of sensation, movement, or coordination, and Assistive Technologies (AT) can help overcome these challenges. Motor-disabled students need different ATs and configurations depending on courses and individual needs, and some solutions can be expensive. Some affordable AT has roots in gaming but can also be used for other purposes. However, there is little research on how they can be combined to define a personalized setting. Therefore, we performed a literature review to identify challenges and solutions to support students with motor disabilities in using information systems. The result defines a framework for identifying personalized settings. The usability of the result was demonstrated by performing a self-experimentation study of the first author, who has a motor disability. The results show its utility while learning process mining using the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and code-based tools. We identified challenges in using different User Interface (UI) elements, which can be used as a guideline for designers of process mining tools as well as other information systems to support diversity.

Visually impaired children do Orientation and Mobility(O&M) training to acquire the abilities to walk alone with white cane. The abilities to walk alone are to discriminate sound sources, localize sound sources, recognizer sound motion or echoes, and form a mental map. A mental map is a map formed in the brain, and visually impaired people create a map mainly from sound information. Walking without sight is dangerous, so many assistants are needed during O&M training. However, due to the shortage of O&M specialists, the time which visually impaired children do O&M training is becoming shorter. Therefore, we developed an O&M training system on a map created in a Virtual Reality (VR) space to eliminate the danger and alarm which visually impaired children feel during O&M training, and to enable safe and secure O&M training with fewer assistants.

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) has attracted considerable interest due to its ability to facilitate automation in various application areas, including but not limited to smart homes, active assisted living, and security. At present, optical modalities such as RGB, depth, and thermal imaging are prevalent in the field due to the effectiveness of deep learning algorithms like Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and the abundance of publicly available image data. However, unconventional modalities such as radar, WiFi, seismic and environmental sensors are emerging as potential alternatives due to their capacity for contactless long-range sensing in spatially constrained environments and preservation of visual privacy. This work gives an overview of the HAR modalities landscape and discusses works that apply these emerging modalities in new and unconventional ways to inform researchers and practitioners about challenges and opportunities in the field of HAR.

Recent studies into the evaluation of automatic speech recognition for its quality of output in the form of text have shown that using word error rate to see how many mistakes exist in English does not necessarily help the developer of automatic transcriptions or captions. Confidence levels as to the type of errors being made remain low because mistranslations from speech to text are not always captured with a note that details the reason for the error. There have been situations in higher education where students requiring captions and transcriptions have found that some academic lecture results are littered with word errors which means that comprehension levels drop and those with cognitive, physical and sensory disabilities are particularly affected. Despite the incredible improvements in general understanding of conversational automatic speech recognition, academic situations tend to include numerous domain specific terms and the lecturers may be non-native speakers, coping with recording technology in noisy situations. This paper aims to discuss the way additional metrics are used to capture issues and feedback into the machine learning process to enable enhanced quality of output and more inclusive practices for those using virtual conferencing systems. The process goes beyond what is expressed and examines paralinguistic aspects such as timing, intonation, voice quality and speech understanding.

Increased physical activity has been demonstrated as a relevant treatment after a stroke, with positive effects on impairment recovery, activity limitation, social participation and quality of life. Furthermore, PA is now recommended as part of the stroke recovery pathway, starting during inpatient care and extending through rehabilitation and community integration. The purpose of this presentation is to describe how current technologies may facilitate a continuity of care for stroke survivors. We present a synthesis of 8 studies that we have conducted to date to assess and monitor the activity level of post-stroke patients at home. The results of these studies show that home rehabilitation of post-stroke patients requires the use of individualized monitoring criteria to optimize patient care. To encourage the patient to increase his level of moderate physical activity and reduce his sedentary time, it would be recommended to propose a regularly monitored and structured program.