renderings, offering richer interactions than traditional screen readers and text descriptions. The paper discusses the architecture’s support for various multi-modal processing pipelines, showcases initial and extended use cases, and shares insights from the development
{"title":"Introduction to the Special Issue on W4A’22","authors":"Maria Rauschenberger, Sukru Eraslan","doi":"10.1145/3676149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3676149","url":null,"abstract":"renderings, offering richer interactions than traditional screen readers and text descriptions. The paper discusses the architecture’s support for various multi-modal processing pipelines, showcases initial and extended use cases, and shares insights from the development","PeriodicalId":54128,"journal":{"name":"ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141682290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Telepresence robots, designed to bridge physical distances, have unique capabilities and inherent limitations when deployed in classroom environments. This study examines these aspects, focusing on how telepresence robots facilitate or hinder classroom accessibility and inclusivity. Based on field study results from participatory observations, surveys and interviews with 22 participants, we present and catalogue the operational capabilities of telepresence robots, such as mobility and interaction potential, alongside their limitations in areas like sensory perception and social presence. Our findings reveal a nuanced landscape where telepresence robots act as both enablers and barriers in the classroom. This duality raises the question of whether these robots can be considered “disabled” in certain contexts and how this perceived disability impacts remote students’ inclusion in classroom dynamics. Finally, we present use recommendations to improve classroom experience and telepresence design.
{"title":"Navigating the Cyborg Classroom: Telepresence Robots, Accessibility Challenges, and Inclusivity in the Classroom","authors":"Houda Elmimouni, Selma Šabanović, Jennifer Rode","doi":"10.1145/3672569","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3672569","url":null,"abstract":"Telepresence robots, designed to bridge physical distances, have unique capabilities and inherent limitations when deployed in classroom environments. This study examines these aspects, focusing on how telepresence robots facilitate or hinder classroom accessibility and inclusivity. Based on field study results from participatory observations, surveys and interviews with 22 participants, we present and catalogue the operational capabilities of telepresence robots, such as mobility and interaction potential, alongside their limitations in areas like sensory perception and social presence. Our findings reveal a nuanced landscape where telepresence robots act as both enablers and barriers in the classroom. This duality raises the question of whether these robots can be considered “disabled” in certain contexts and how this perceived disability impacts remote students’ inclusion in classroom dynamics. Finally, we present use recommendations to improve classroom experience and telepresence design.","PeriodicalId":54128,"journal":{"name":"ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141340014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Students with disabilities often use assistive technology to gain equal access to educational content. However, using this technology can lead to security and privacy concerns, including the possibility of disclosing a disability. In this work, we explore that and other privacy risks happening through the use of assistive technology in educational settings. We conducted interviews with eight students who use assistive technology, exploring the risks around in-person and online classes and how they changed as students moved to remote courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that students were aware of in-person risks, but generally had not thought of the potential risks of online disclosure. Students were concerned about their disability being disclosed, especially without their explicit consent, but they considered trade-offs, including increased accessibility for themselves and others, that might make them more accepting of disclosure. Building on the interviews, we did an analysis of the privacy policies of the assistive technology that the students used, examining how potential privacy and security vulnerabilities were communicated. We found that, although there are identified vulnerabilities for many of the assistive technologies, the policies varied widely in whether or how much information they gave the user about the risks.
{"title":"I Don’t Want to Sound Rude, but it’s None of their Business: Exploring Security and Privacy Concerns Around Assistive Technology Use in Educational Settings","authors":"Abigail Marsh, Lauren R. Milne","doi":"10.1145/3670690","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3670690","url":null,"abstract":"Students with disabilities often use assistive technology to gain equal access to educational content. However, using this technology can lead to security and privacy concerns, including the possibility of disclosing a disability. In this work, we explore that and other privacy risks happening through the use of assistive technology in educational settings. We conducted interviews with eight students who use assistive technology, exploring the risks around in-person and online classes and how they changed as students moved to remote courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that students were aware of in-person risks, but generally had not thought of the potential risks of online disclosure. Students were concerned about their disability being disclosed, especially without their explicit consent, but they considered trade-offs, including increased accessibility for themselves and others, that might make them more accepting of disclosure. Building on the interviews, we did an analysis of the privacy policies of the assistive technology that the students used, examining how potential privacy and security vulnerabilities were communicated. We found that, although there are identified vulnerabilities for many of the assistive technologies, the policies varied widely in whether or how much information they gave the user about the risks.","PeriodicalId":54128,"journal":{"name":"ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141384623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Regimbal, Jeffrey R. Blum, Cyan Kuo, J. Cooperstock
For accessibility practitioners, creating and deploying novel multimedia interactions for people with disabilities is a nontrivial task. As a result, many projects aiming to support such accessibility needs come and go, or never make it to a public release. To reduce the overhead involved in deploying and maintaining a system that transforms web content into multimodal renderings, we created an open-source, modular microservices architecture as part of the IMAGE project. This project aims to design richer means of interacting with web graphics than is afforded by a screen reader and text descriptions alone. To benefit the community of accessibility software developers, we discuss this architecture and explain how it provides support for several multimodal processing pipelines. Beyond illustrating the initial use case that motivated this effort, we further describe two use cases outside the scope of our project in order to explain how a team could use the architecture to develop and deploy accessible solutions for their own work. We then discuss our team’s experience working with the IMAGE architecture, informed by discussions with six project members, and provide recommendations to other practitioners considering applying the framework to their own accessibility projects.
{"title":"IMAGE: An Open-Source, Extensible Framework for Deploying Accessible Audio and Haptic Renderings of Web Graphics","authors":"J. Regimbal, Jeffrey R. Blum, Cyan Kuo, J. Cooperstock","doi":"10.1145/3665223","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3665223","url":null,"abstract":"For accessibility practitioners, creating and deploying novel multimedia interactions for people with disabilities is a nontrivial task. As a result, many projects aiming to support such accessibility needs come and go, or never make it to a public release. To reduce the overhead involved in deploying and maintaining a system that transforms web content into multimodal renderings, we created an open-source, modular microservices architecture as part of the IMAGE project. This project aims to design richer means of interacting with web graphics than is afforded by a screen reader and text descriptions alone. To benefit the community of accessibility software developers, we discuss this architecture and explain how it provides support for several multimodal processing pipelines. Beyond illustrating the initial use case that motivated this effort, we further describe two use cases outside the scope of our project in order to explain how a team could use the architecture to develop and deploy accessible solutions for their own work. We then discuss our team’s experience working with the IMAGE architecture, informed by discussions with six project members, and provide recommendations to other practitioners considering applying the framework to their own accessibility projects.","PeriodicalId":54128,"journal":{"name":"ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141104519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Current computing device authentication often presents accessibility barriers for people with upper extremity impairments (UEI). In this paper, we present a framework called Accessible image-Association-based Authentication for Computing-devices (A3C) , a novel recognition-based graphical authentication framework specifically designed for people with UEI to authenticate to their computing devices. A3C requires users to provide a set of primary images that the user knows that are recognizable to them and subsequently associate each primary image with a secondary image. To evaluate the efficacy of the A3C framework, we instantiated the framework by implementing a version of A3C called A3C-FA , which uses images of faces of people the user knows as the primary image and animal images as the secondary image. We then performed three studies to evaluate A3C-FA: a shoulder-surfing attack study ( N=319 ), a close-adversary attack study ( N=268 ), and a usability study with people with UEI ( N=14 ). We found that A3C was robust against both shoulder-surfing and close-adversary attacks. We also performed a detailed study to evaluate the accessibility of A3C-FA. Our participants reported that A3C-FA was more usable and more secure than the authentication approaches with which they were familiar. Based on these findings, we suggest four areas of future research to further improve the design of A3C framework.
{"title":"A3C: An Image-Association-Based Computing Device Authentication Framework for People with Upper Extremity Impairments","authors":"Brittany Lewis, Piriyankan Kirupaharan, Tina-Marie Ranalli, Krishna Venkatasubramanian","doi":"10.1145/3652522","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3652522","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Current computing device authentication often presents accessibility barriers for people with upper extremity impairments (UEI). In this paper, we present a framework called\u0000 Accessible image-Association-based Authentication for Computing-devices (A3C)\u0000 , a novel recognition-based graphical authentication framework specifically designed for people with UEI to authenticate to their computing devices. A3C requires users to provide a set of primary images that the user knows that are recognizable to them and subsequently associate each primary image with a secondary image. To evaluate the efficacy of the A3C framework, we instantiated the framework by implementing a version of A3C called\u0000 A3C-FA\u0000 , which uses images of faces of people the user knows as the primary image and animal images as the secondary image. We then performed three studies to evaluate A3C-FA: a shoulder-surfing attack study (\u0000 N=319\u0000 ), a close-adversary attack study (\u0000 N=268\u0000 ), and a usability study with people with UEI (\u0000 N=14\u0000 ). We found that A3C was robust against both shoulder-surfing and close-adversary attacks. We also performed a detailed study to evaluate the accessibility of A3C-FA. Our participants reported that A3C-FA was more usable and more secure than the authentication approaches with which they were familiar. Based on these findings, we suggest four areas of future research to further improve the design of A3C framework.\u0000","PeriodicalId":54128,"journal":{"name":"ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140229507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The social model of disability, accessibility legislation, and the digital transformation spurred by COVID-19 expose a lack of accessibility capacity in the workforce, indicating persistent gaps in academic and professional education. We adopt a socio-cultural lens to examine how the context of education and training influences teaching and learning in university and workplace sectors, and how expert educators manage and negotiate these contextual factors to build accessibility capacity. This paper reports qualitative research with 55 experienced educators using expert panel method and focus groups. Analysis highlights the important disconnects and contextual challenges that educators must navigate and negotiate to affect and embed cultural change. We find that faculty and workplace cultures frequently perpetuate precarity in accessibility education, individualising the responsibility to ‘heroes’ or ‘champions’, while disciplinary and role-based silos limit the scope for raising awareness and developing widescale competency. Conversely, centres of excellence and communities of practice can cultivate and sustain links between education and research, engage expert users, and promote interdisciplinary and cross-role learning environments, where accessibility is increasingly recognised as a shared endeavour. We conclude that greater collaboration between academia and industry can enhance pedagogical understanding, to transform accessibility educational practices and build and sustain capacity for the future.
{"title":"Digital Accessibility Education in Context: Expert Perspectives on Building Capacity in Academia and the Workplace","authors":"A. Coverdale, S. Lewthwaite, Sarah Horton","doi":"10.1145/3649508","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3649508","url":null,"abstract":"The social model of disability, accessibility legislation, and the digital transformation spurred by COVID-19 expose a lack of accessibility capacity in the workforce, indicating persistent gaps in academic and professional education. We adopt a socio-cultural lens to examine how the context of education and training influences teaching and learning in university and workplace sectors, and how expert educators manage and negotiate these contextual factors to build accessibility capacity. This paper reports qualitative research with 55 experienced educators using expert panel method and focus groups. Analysis highlights the important disconnects and contextual challenges that educators must navigate and negotiate to affect and embed cultural change. We find that faculty and workplace cultures frequently perpetuate precarity in accessibility education, individualising the responsibility to ‘heroes’ or ‘champions’, while disciplinary and role-based silos limit the scope for raising awareness and developing widescale competency. Conversely, centres of excellence and communities of practice can cultivate and sustain links between education and research, engage expert users, and promote interdisciplinary and cross-role learning environments, where accessibility is increasingly recognised as a shared endeavour. We conclude that greater collaboration between academia and industry can enhance pedagogical understanding, to transform accessibility educational practices and build and sustain capacity for the future.","PeriodicalId":54128,"journal":{"name":"ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140248337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jorge Sassaki Resende Silva, P. C. F. Cardoso, Raphael Winckler De Bettio, Daniela Cardoso Tavares, Carlos Alberto Silva, Willian M. Watanabe, André Pimenta Freire
Navigation aids such as headers and internal links provide vital support for screen-reader users on web documents to grasp a document’s structure. However, when such navigation aids are unavailable or not appropriately marked up, this situation can cause serious difficulties. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a tool for automatically generating navigation aids with headers and internal links for screen readers with topicalisation and labelling algorithms. The proposed tool uses natural language processing techniques to divide a web document into topic segments and label each segment in two cycles based on its content. We conducted an initial user study in the first cycle with eight blind and partially-sighted screen reader users. The evaluation involved tasks with questions answered by participants with information from texts with and without automatically generated headers. The results in the first cycle provided preliminary indicators of performance improvement and cognitive load reduction. The second cycle involved co-designing an improved version with two blind experts in web accessibility, resulting in a browser extension which injects automatically generated headers and in-page navigation with internal links, along with improvements in the generation of labels using OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The browser extension was evaluated by seven blind participants using the same four texts used to evaluate the preliminary prototype developed in the first cycle. With the two development cycles, the study provided important insights into the design of navigation aids for screen-reader users using natural language processing techniques, including the potential use of generative artificial intelligence for assistive technologies and limitations that need to be explored in future research.
{"title":"In-Page Navigation Aids for Screen-Reader Users with Automatic Topicalisation and Labelling","authors":"Jorge Sassaki Resende Silva, P. C. F. Cardoso, Raphael Winckler De Bettio, Daniela Cardoso Tavares, Carlos Alberto Silva, Willian M. Watanabe, André Pimenta Freire","doi":"10.1145/3649223","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3649223","url":null,"abstract":"Navigation aids such as headers and internal links provide vital support for screen-reader users on web documents to grasp a document’s structure. However, when such navigation aids are unavailable or not appropriately marked up, this situation can cause serious difficulties. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a tool for automatically generating navigation aids with headers and internal links for screen readers with topicalisation and labelling algorithms. The proposed tool uses natural language processing techniques to divide a web document into topic segments and label each segment in two cycles based on its content. We conducted an initial user study in the first cycle with eight blind and partially-sighted screen reader users. The evaluation involved tasks with questions answered by participants with information from texts with and without automatically generated headers. The results in the first cycle provided preliminary indicators of performance improvement and cognitive load reduction. The second cycle involved co-designing an improved version with two blind experts in web accessibility, resulting in a browser extension which injects automatically generated headers and in-page navigation with internal links, along with improvements in the generation of labels using OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The browser extension was evaluated by seven blind participants using the same four texts used to evaluate the preliminary prototype developed in the first cycle. With the two development cycles, the study provided important insights into the design of navigation aids for screen-reader users using natural language processing techniques, including the potential use of generative artificial intelligence for assistive technologies and limitations that need to be explored in future research.","PeriodicalId":54128,"journal":{"name":"ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140421375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Charlotte Tang, Imrul K. Shuva, Matthew Thelen, Linda Zhu, Nathaniel S. Miller
Self-tracking has great potential in empowering individuals with a chronic illness in managing their condition. Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease that affects millions of people worldwide. PD presents a broad range of motor and non-motor symptoms that are unique to each person with PD, thus requiring unique intervention needs for people with PD. Self-tracking can aid treatment for people with PD, by recording their experiences and responses to intervention. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 people with PD (PwPD), 6 caregivers (CGs), and 3 healthcare providers (HPs) to acquire a better understanding of their experiences with the strategies and challenges of self-tracking. Five tracking strategies were identified: mental tracking, analog tracking, tracking with general-purpose technology, specialized technology tracking, and tracking by proxy. We also uncovered challenges experienced during self-tracking, such as symptoms not always distinctive or easy to describe, inaccuracy of tracking, lack of perceived usefulness of tracked data, interaction barriers with technology, and lack of proper tracking tools. Our findings contribute to existing literature and yield insights to guide the inclusive design of self-tracking tools for PD.
{"title":"Exploring the Strategies People with Parkinson's Disease Use to Self-track Symptoms and Medications","authors":"Charlotte Tang, Imrul K. Shuva, Matthew Thelen, Linda Zhu, Nathaniel S. Miller","doi":"10.1145/3649454","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3649454","url":null,"abstract":"Self-tracking has great potential in empowering individuals with a chronic illness in managing their condition. Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease that affects millions of people worldwide. PD presents a broad range of motor and non-motor symptoms that are unique to each person with PD, thus requiring unique intervention needs for people with PD. Self-tracking can aid treatment for people with PD, by recording their experiences and responses to intervention. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 people with PD (PwPD), 6 caregivers (CGs), and 3 healthcare providers (HPs) to acquire a better understanding of their experiences with the strategies and challenges of self-tracking. Five tracking strategies were identified: mental tracking, analog tracking, tracking with general-purpose technology, specialized technology tracking, and tracking by proxy. We also uncovered challenges experienced during self-tracking, such as symptoms not always distinctive or easy to describe, inaccuracy of tracking, lack of perceived usefulness of tracked data, interaction barriers with technology, and lack of proper tracking tools. Our findings contribute to existing literature and yield insights to guide the inclusive design of self-tracking tools for PD.","PeriodicalId":54128,"journal":{"name":"ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140427815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As health management becomes more intertwined with data, an individual’s ability to read, interpret, and engage with personal health information in data visualizations is increasingly critical to one’s quality of care. People with Down Syndrome already experience greater health disparities than their typically developing peers. Inaccessible health information and technologies have the potential to magnify inequities further. Inaccessible health data can be an additional barrier to people with Down Syndrome’s ability to adopt and use health systems or devices, make informed decisions about their bodies, and advocate for themselves in health contexts. By examining their underlying data visualization literacy skills, our exploratory study involving ten young adults with Down Syndrome identifies several design opportunities to improve the accessibility of health data visualizations (HDVs) by addressing the cascade of negative effects caused by inference-making barriers in HDVs.
{"title":"Health Data Visualization Literacy Skills of Young Adults with Down Syndrome and the Barriers to Inference-making","authors":"Rachel E. Wood, Jinjuan Feng, Jonathan Lazar","doi":"10.1145/3648621","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3648621","url":null,"abstract":"As health management becomes more intertwined with data, an individual’s ability to read, interpret, and engage with personal health information in data visualizations is increasingly critical to one’s quality of care. People with Down Syndrome already experience greater health disparities than their typically developing peers. Inaccessible health information and technologies have the potential to magnify inequities further. Inaccessible health data can be an additional barrier to people with Down Syndrome’s ability to adopt and use health systems or devices, make informed decisions about their bodies, and advocate for themselves in health contexts. By examining their underlying data visualization literacy skills, our exploratory study involving ten young adults with Down Syndrome identifies several design opportunities to improve the accessibility of health data visualizations (HDVs) by addressing the cascade of negative effects caused by inference-making barriers in HDVs.","PeriodicalId":54128,"journal":{"name":"ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140434030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Atieh Taheri, Carlos Gilberto Gomez-Monroy, Vicente Borja, Misha Sra
Assistive technology (AT) design is critical in enabling functionality for people with disabilities, blending essential elements of both practical utility and user experience. Traditionally, AT has successfully addressed core functional needs, such as enabling cursor movement and clicking actions with devices like computer mice. However, a comprehensive approach to AT design also necessitates a thorough consideration of sensory feedback, including tactile sensations, ergonomics, and auditory cues like button click sounds. These aspects are not merely supplementary but are integral to the device’s functionality, enhancing user interaction and long-term comfort, especially for individuals with motor impairments. In this work, we present MouseClicker, a mechatronic AT to surrogate physical agency over a computer mouse and to foster the haptic sensory experience of clicking on it tailored specifically for an individual with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) who faces challenges in using a standard mouse due to severe hand motor impairments. Our design aims to replicate the holistic experience of clicking a mouse, from its functional mechanical actions to its nuanced tactile and auditory feedback. This work details the MouseClicker’s design and reports on an exploratory user study aimed at identifying optimal vibrotactile feedback parameters — such as location, and intensity — that represent mouse button clicks. MouseClicker presents a step forward in AT design by integrating the functionality, sensory feedback, and the overall experience of taking control over non-AT devices.
辅助技术（AT）的设计对于实现残疾人的功能至关重要，它融合了实用功能和用户体验的基本要素。传统上，辅助技术已经成功地满足了核心功能需求，例如通过电脑鼠标等设备实现光标移动和点击操作。然而，要全面地设计辅助工具，还必须充分考虑感官反馈，包括触觉、人体工程学和听觉提示（如按钮点击声）。这些方面不仅是辅助性的，而且是设备功能不可或缺的一部分，可以增强用户互动和长期舒适度，尤其是对有运动障碍的人而言。在这项工作中，我们展示了 MouseClicker，这是一种机电一体化自动机械装置，用于代理对电脑鼠标的物理操作，并促进点击鼠标时的触觉体验，它是专门为脊髓性肌肉萎缩症（SMA）患者量身定制的，该患者因严重的手部运动障碍而在使用标准鼠标时面临挑战。我们的设计旨在复制点击鼠标的整体体验，从功能性机械动作到细微的触觉和听觉反馈。本作品详细介绍了 MouseClicker 的设计，并报告了一项探索性用户研究，该研究旨在确定代表鼠标按键点击的最佳振动触觉反馈参数（如位置和强度）。MouseClicker 将功能、感官反馈和控制非 AT 设备的整体体验融为一体，在 AT 设计方面向前迈出了一步。
{"title":"MouseClicker: Exploring Tactile Feedback and Physical Agency for People with Hand Motor Impairments","authors":"Atieh Taheri, Carlos Gilberto Gomez-Monroy, Vicente Borja, Misha Sra","doi":"10.1145/3648685","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3648685","url":null,"abstract":"Assistive technology (AT) design is critical in enabling functionality for people with disabilities, blending essential elements of both practical utility and user experience. Traditionally, AT has successfully addressed core functional needs, such as enabling cursor movement and clicking actions with devices like computer mice. However, a comprehensive approach to AT design also necessitates a thorough consideration of sensory feedback, including tactile sensations, ergonomics, and auditory cues like button click sounds. These aspects are not merely supplementary but are integral to the device’s functionality, enhancing user interaction and long-term comfort, especially for individuals with motor impairments. In this work, we present MouseClicker, a mechatronic AT to surrogate physical agency over a computer mouse and to foster the haptic sensory experience of clicking on it tailored specifically for an individual with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) who faces challenges in using a standard mouse due to severe hand motor impairments. Our design aims to replicate the holistic experience of clicking a mouse, from its functional mechanical actions to its nuanced tactile and auditory feedback. This work details the MouseClicker’s design and reports on an exploratory user study aimed at identifying optimal vibrotactile feedback parameters — such as location, and intensity — that represent mouse button clicks. MouseClicker presents a step forward in AT design by integrating the functionality, sensory feedback, and the overall experience of taking control over non-AT devices.","PeriodicalId":54128,"journal":{"name":"ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139958898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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