- September 29
Speaker: Richard Ladner, Computer Science and Engineering
Topic 1: Introduction to Accessibility
Reading to be handed out in class:
- Assistive and Mainstream Technologies for People with Disabilities. Chapter 7 from The Future of Disability. Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. 2007. [PDF]
- E.P. Glinert, B. W. York. Computers and People with Disabilities.Communications of the ACM, Vol. 35, No. 5. 32-34, 1992. [PDF]
- R.E. Ladner. Access and Empowerment. Commentary on "Computers and People with Disabilities". Transaction on Accessible Computing, to appear. [PDF]
- A. Cavender, S. Trewin, V. Hanson. General Writing Guidelines for Technology and People with Disabilities. [PDF]
- R.E. Ladner. National Federation of the Blind Speech. [PDF]
Lecture: Introduction [PDF]
Description: This talk will give a general background to accessiblity. Topics will include the nature of disabilities and the people who have them, approaches to solving disability issues, and areas of accessiblity research.
Topic 2: Tactile Graphics
Reading to be handed out in class:
- C. Jayant, M. Renzelmann, D. Wen, S. Krisnandi, R.E. Ladner and D. Comden Automated Tactile Graphics Translation: In the Field. Ninth International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2007), 75-82. [PDF]
Lecture: Tactile Graphics [PDF]
Description: Tactile graphics is a way for blind students to access figures and diagrams in science and mathematics textbooks. It is not satisfactory for natural images like photographs. We will introduce techniques to automatically transform figures in text books into a tactile form. A major issue is the text found in figures because it has to be identified and translated to Braille. The techniques for doing this involve image processing, machine learning, and computational geometry.
- October 6
Speaker 1: Annuska Perkins, Microsoft
Topic: Driving End-User Needs in Accessible Technology
Reading:
- The impact of user research on product design case study: accessibility ecosystem for windows vista [PDF]
- Overview of accessibility developer documentation and projects [HTML]
Lecture: Accessibility User Experience: User Scenarios, USability, and Future Enhancements. Case Study: Windows Vista Accessibility [PDF]
Description: Customer research and design for Windows Vista accessibility features (Ease of Access; Speech Recognition).
Windows accessibility platform support for Assistive Technology aids and software applications.
Unmet user needs, especially in aging demographic and for people with cognitivie disabilities
Speaker 2: Cynthia Shelly, Microsoft
Topic: Web Accessibility
Reading:
Lecture: Accessibility on the Modern Web [PDF] (samples of the web issues accessible here)
Description: This talk will discuss Accessibility for People with Disabilities in the context of the modern Web environment. It will touch on regualtory, technology and user issues, and will include specific code examples and demos.
- October 13
Speaker: Krzysztof Gajos, Microsoft Research
Topic: Automatically Generating Ability-Based User Interfaces to Improve Performance of Users With Motor and Vision Impairments
Reading:
- Adapting to Motor and Vision Abilities. Chapter 5, Ph.D. Dissertation [PDF] (full dissertation available here)
- Video outlining the main ideas behind the project [HTML]
Lecture: Lecture slides [PDF]
Description: Criteria typically considered in user interface design (aesthetics, physical effort, mental effort, visual search). Modeling people's performance with Fitts' law and how well it works (or doesn't work) with people with unusual motor abilities. Basics of discrete constrained optimization and design as optimization. Actual Supple system, the Ability Modeler. Our participants, the study, and what we've learned. Other approaches for individualized interactions
- October 20
Speaker: Kate Deibel, Computer Science and Engineering
Topic 1: Access Technology for Reading Disabilities
Reading:
- Dyslexia basics [HTML]
- A. Dickinson, P. Gregor, and A.F. Newell. Ongoing investigation of the ways in which some of the problems encountered by some dyslexics can be alleviated using computer techniques. In Proceedings of the Fifth international ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (ASSETS 2002), 97-103, 2002. [PDF]
- J. Elkind, M.S. Black, and C. Murray. Computer-Based Compensation of Adult Reading Disabilities. Annals of Dyslexia, 46, 159-186, 1996. (NOTE: Feel free to skim. Pay attention mostly to Study 3 and the Discussion.) [PDF]
Lecture: Access Technology for Reading Disabilities and Access Technology Acceptance and Adoption [PDF]
Description:
Despite reading disabilities affecting 7-15% of the population, research in access technology for reading disabilities has been limited. This talk will give an overview of reading disabilities, the few technologies that have been developed, and their limitations. The factors that have influenced and limited the research and development of these technologies will be discussed.
Topic 2: Access Technology Acceptance
Reading:
- M. Dawe. Desperately Seeking Simplicity: How Young Adults with Cognitive Disabilities and Their Families Adopt Assistive Technologies. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2006), 1143-1152. [PDF]
- M.L. Riemer-Reiss and R.R. Wacker. Factors Associated with Assistive Technology Discontinuance Among Individuals with Disabilities. The Journal of Rehabilitation, 66(3), 44-50, 2000. [PDF]
Lecture:
Description:
For any access technology to truly be helpful and beneficial, the technology itself must be adopted into regular use. However, a third to one half of all assistive technologies are abandoned after purchase. Abandonment is a waste of funds, time, research, and opportunities. This talk will discuss the issues that lead to abandonment and approaches that work towards promoting access technology adoption.
- October 27
Speaker 1: Kurt Johnson, Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
Topic: Disability Policy and Law
Reading: Bobby Silverstein. Emerging Disability Policy Framework [PDF]
Lecture: See above
Speaker 2: Debbie Cook, Director, Washington Assistive Technology Alliance
Topic: Current Accessibilty Solutions
Reading: Accessible futures report produced by the National council on Disability [HTML]
Lecture:
- November 3
Speaker 1: Susumu Harada, Computer Science and Engineering
Topic: Voice-driven control of computer interfaces: harnessing the expressiveness of human voice to enable rich hands-free interactive experience
Reading:
- Susumu Harada, James A. Landay, Jonathan Malkin, Xiao Li and Jeff Bilmes. The Vocal Joystick: Evaluation of Voice-based Cursor Control Techniques. ASSETS 2006. [PDF]
- Susumu Harada, Jacob O. Wobbrock and James A. Landay. VoiceDraw: Hands-Free Voice-Driven Drawing Program for People With Motor Impairments. ASSETS 2007. [PDF]
Lecture: Voice-driven interaction [PDF]
Description: This talk will present the use of the human voice as a means for controlling computer interfaces, going beyond the traditional speech recognition approach. Traditional use of speech as computer input has been restricted to dictation or command-and-control-based discrete input. I will present our work in attempting to harness the non-speech vocal parameters of human voice to enable more fluid, continuous control of computer interfaces.
Speaker 2: Matthai Philipose, Intel Research
Topic: Technology for Long-Term Care: Elder Care for the Next Billion
Reading:
- M. Philipose. Large-Scale Human Activity Recognition Using Ultra-Dense Sensing. The Bridge, vol. 35, no. 4, National Academy of Engineering, Winter 2005. [PDF]
- Sunny Consolvo, Peter Roessler, Brett Shelton. The CareNet Display: Lessons Learned from an In Home Evaluation of an Ambient Display. UbiComp 2004. [PDF]
- S. Vurgun, M. Philipose, M. Pavel. A Statistical Reasoning System for Medication Prompting. In Proceedings of Ubicomp 2007. Innsbruck, Austria, September 2007. [PDF]
Lecture: Technology for Long-Term Care [PDF]
Description: Long-term care of the elderly is labor intensive: care giving relies overwhelmingly on the "high touch" presence of caregivers. The cost of high touch is unsustainable given current demographic trends worldwide. Without dramatic breakthroughs in the cost of care, over half of all elders are expected to be without adequate care within a generation.
In this talk, I will describe a series of project showing how to use technology to scale the practice of care. I will describe changes both in technology and the process of connecting technology to peoples' needs. Using examples from projects under way, I will describe how technology can help in three main ways: helping elders function independently via cognitive orthotics, reducing burden on caregivers via remote monitoring and notification, and improving interactions with clinicians via clinically valid behavioral metrics. Technology is only a piece of the puzzle. I will explain why clinicians, service providers, state workers and technologists need to coordinate towards this goal. Using some recent developments as examples, I will discuss what form the coordination may take, and what the opportunities are.
- November 10
Speaker 1 Wendy Chisholm
Topic 1: Accessibility of Dynamic Web Content
Reading:
Lecture:
Description:New accessibility problems have come to the forefront as the web has evolved from a collection of static documents to a platform for web-based applications. This talk will overview new standards that have been developed to make it possible to make dynamic content accessible and design approaches for making web applications usable.
Speaker 2: Jeff Bigham, Computer Science and Engineering
Topic: Social Approaches to Web Accessibility
Reading:
- Jeffrey P. Bigham and Richard E. Ladner.
Accessmonkey: A Collaborative Scripting Framework for Web Users and Developers. W4A 2007.
[PDF]
- AxsJAX [HTML]
-
Hironobu Takagi, Takashi Itoh, Shinya Kawanaka, Masatomo Kobayashi and Chieko Asakawa.
Social Accessibility: Achieving Accessibility through Collaborative Metadata Authoring. ASSETS 2008.
[PDF]
Lecture: Social Accessibility [PDF]
Description:Web users are currently largely reliant on the creators and developers of web content to make it accessible and usable. This talk will (i) overview a number of projects designed to enable users to modify content in order to make it more accessible without involving its creator and (ii) highlight approaches that enable collaborative accessibility improvement by a community.
- November 17
Speaker 1: Julie Kientz, Technical Communication and the Information School
Topic: Tools for Supporting Individuals with Autism and other Cognitive Disabilities
Reading:
- Kientz, J.A., G.R. Hayes, T.L. Westeyn, T. Starner, and G.D. Abowd. Pervasive Computing and Autism: Assisting Caregivers of Children with Special Needs. IEEE Pervasive Computing. Special Issue on Pervasive Healthcare. January 2007. pp. 28-35. [PDF]
- Dawe, M. 2006. Desperately seeking simplicity: how young adults with cognitive disabilities and their families adopt assistive technologies. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (MontrÃl, QuÃec, Canada, April 22 - 27, 2006). CHI '06. ACM, New York, NY, pp. 1143-1152. [PDF]
Lecture: Tools for supporting individuals with autism and other cognitive disabilities [PDF]
Description: Discussion and demonstration of Abaris, a computing application developed to support therapists working with children with autism, and CareLog, a capture system for identifying the cause of problem behaviors in the classroom. In addition, discussions will take place about additional tools for individuals with cognitive disabilities, such as picture schedules, picture communication systems, and personal reminder systems.
Speaker 2: Anna Cavender, Computer Science and Engineering
Topic: Deaf and Hard of Hearing Cyber Community
Reading:
- Anna C. Cavender. *Using Networked Multimedia to Improve Educational Access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students.* //Doctoral Consortium of ASSETS 2007. [PDF]
- Jeffrey P. Bigham, Daniel Otero, Jessica N. DeWitt, Anna C. Cavender and Richard E. Ladner. *ASL-STEM Forum: A Bottom-Up Approach to Enabling American Sign Language to Grow in STEM Fields.* ICWSM 2008. [PDF]
Lecture: Technology and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community [PDF]
Description: Technology has had big impact on the lives of deaf and hard of hearing people, but barriers persist. Many communication mediums remain difficult or inconvenient to access, for example mainstream classrooms and the cell phone network. This talk will present technology trends in the deaf and hard of hearing communities and highlight new research in technology that facilitates communication, language growth, access to the classroom, and other areas of related research.
- November 24
Speaker: Student presentations
Topic:
Reading:
Lecture:
- December 1
Speaker 1: Jake Wobbrock, Information School
Topic: Flipping the Burden: Making Computers Accessible with Everyday Input Devices
Reading:
- Wobbrock, J.O., Myers, B.A. and Kembel, J.A. (2003) EdgeWrite: A stylus-based text entry method designed for high accuracy and stability of motion. Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '03). Vancouver, British Columbia (November 2-5, 2003). New York: ACM Press, pp. 61-70. [PDF]
- Wobbrock, J.O. and Myers, B.A. (2006) Trackball text entry for people with motor impairments. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '06). MontrÃl, QuÃec (April 22-27, 2006). New York: ACM Press, pp. 479-488. [PDF]
Lecture:
Description: Despite more than 20 years of research in computer access, user interfaces still pose accessibility challenges for people with motor and visual impairments. The approach of augmenting or adapting users to standard software through specialized assistive technologies has numerous drawbacks, including the cost, complexity, configuration, and maintenance of specialized devices. As a result, less than 60% of people who indicate a need for a specialized assistive technologies actually try one, and abandonment rates are high. This talk will cover projects that approach accessibility differently. Rather than adapting people to computers using specialized devices, we will see how to adapt software to people using everyday devices like mice, trackballs, styli, and microphones, lowering the aforementioned barriers to access. In this lecture, I will show how my recent research has developed into a theme I call "ability-based design," and how we can improve accessibility using it.
Speaker 2: Shaun Kane, Information School
Topic: Mobile Accessibility
Reading:
- Kane, S.K., Bigham, J.P. and Wobbrock, J.O. (2008) Slide Rule: Making
mobile touch screens accessible to blind people using multi-touch
interaction techniques. Proceedings of the ACM SIGACCESS Conference
on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '08). Halifax, Nova Scotia
(October 13-15, 2008). New York: ACM Press, pp. 73-80. [PDF]
- Kane, S.K., Wobbrock, J.O. and Smith, I.E. (2008) Getting off the
treadmill: Evaluating walking user interfaces for mobile devices in
public spaces. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human-Computer
Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI '08).
Amsterdam, The Netherlands (September 18-20, 2008). New York: ACM
Press, pp. 109-118. [PDF]
Lecture: Mobile accessibility [PDF]
Description:
As mobile devices become more capable and more complex, they
present new accessibility barriers for people with disabilities, as
well as for people without disabilities who are using devices in
distracting or disabling environments, such as while walking down the
street or riding the bus. At the same time, new advances in mobile
technology are enabling devices to sense and adapt to the user based
on their location, activity and ability. In this talk I'll describe
our recent work to increase the accessibility of mobile devices for
all users, and discuss new techniques for increasing mobile device
accessibility.
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