TactualPlot: Spatializing Data as Sound using Sensory Substitution for Touchscreen Accessibility.

Tactile graphics are one of the best ways for a blind person to perceive a chart using touch, but their fabrication is often costly, time-consuming, and does not lend itself to dynamic exploration. Refreshable haptic displays tend to be expensive and thus unavailable to most blind individuals. We propose TACTUALPLOT, an approach to sensory substitution where touch interaction yields auditory (sonified) feedback. The technique relies on embodied cognition for spatial awareness-i.e., individuals can perceive 2D touch locations of their fingers with reference to other 2D locations such as the relative locations of other fingers or chart characteristics that are visualized on touchscreens. Combining touch and sound in this way yields a scalable data exploration method for scatterplots where the data density under the user's fingertips is sampled. The sample regions can optionally be scaled based on how quickly the user moves their hand. Our development of TactualPlot was informed by formative design sessions with a blind collaborator, whose practice while using tactile scatterplots caused us to expand the technique for multiple fingers. We present results from an evaluation comparing our TactualPlot interaction technique to tactile graphics printed on swell touch paper.

"Creatures of habit": influential factors to the adoption of computer personalization and accessibility settings.

Purpose: Customizing the accessibility and ease-of-use settings of a computer can improve the overall user experience for people with and without disabilities. However, the adoption of such settings remains poor. This study investigates why various factors may influence people as they personalize and when they choose to integrate those changes into everyday use. Methods: To better understand how these factors may impact people's personalization process, we conducted a series of interviews involving 15 people with and without disabilities across several months in 2020 when computer usage became required due to the COVID-19 lockdown. We used grounded theory to analyze 49 semi-structured interviews with participants. During these interviews, people reflected upon: past attempts at personalization using built-in accessibility or ease-of-use features of their Operating System (OS) or other assistive technologies (AT), current customization activities using the personalization software, Morphic, and future opportunities for personalization systems and features. Results: We identified several barriers, facilitators, and perpetuating factors that can influence why and when people choose to adopt and integrate their personalization changes. We also outline the overall personalization lifecycle, which illustrates when various factors may impact computer personalization. Conclusion: Personalization activities are complex and easily affected by an ecosystem of influential factors that surround them. When paired with the three design considerations and ten lessons learned from this qualitative study, the overall personalization lifecycle may be useful during the design and development of future personalization systems or features for people with and without disabilities.

Are accessible software accountable?: A commentary.

Accessible software is increasingly important as the incidence of disability continues to increase and the population ages globally, ensuring people are not left behind in the digital revolution. Likewise, there is increased interest in ensuring software is accountable such that it is clear about the information it uses and the actions that it takes. While there have been some agreed-upon definitions for accessible, interpretable, and transparent software, accountable software lacks a universal definition and methodology. We argue that for a software to be accountable, it must also be accessible, interpretable, and transparent, and provide a methodology for developing accountable software.

Managing digital accessibility at universities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students, faculty and staff with disabilities at universities have faced many digital accessibility barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the legal requirements for digital accessibility at universities are clear, the mechanisms for managing digital accessibility are not yet well established. This study reports on a longitudinal series of 18 interviews throughout 2020 involving directors of digital accessibility, starting before the COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020. These interviews took place with directors of digital accessibility at a small-, medium-, and large-sized university in the USA, respectively, as well as the director of digital accessibility at a comparative US state government agency. Patterns throughout the year, common challenges, and emerging best practices are all discussed, as well as implications for managing digital accessibility during non-pandemic times.

Towards Understanding Sensory Substitution for Accessible Visualization: An Interview Study.

For all its potential in supporting data analysis, particularly in exploratory situations, visualization also creates barriers: accessibility for blind and visually impaired individuals. Regardless of how effective a visualization is, providing equal access for blind users requires a paradigm shift for the visualization research community. To enact such a shift, it is not sufficient to treat visualization accessibility as merely another technical problem to overcome. Instead, supporting the millions of blind and visually impaired users around the world who have equally valid needs for data analysis as sighted individuals requires a respectful, equitable, and holistic approach that includes all users from the onset. In this paper, we draw on accessibility research methodologies to make inroads towards such an approach. We first identify the people who have specific insight into how blind people perceive the world: orientation and mobility (O&M) experts, who are instructors that teach blind individuals how to navigate the physical world using non-visual senses. We interview 10 O&M experts-all of them blind-to understand how best to use sensory substitution other than the visual sense for conveying spatial layouts. Finally, we investigate our qualitative findings using thematic analysis. While blind people in general tend to use both sound and touch to understand their surroundings, we focused on auditory affordances and how they can be used to make data visualizations accessible-using sonification and auralization. However, our experts recommended supporting a combination of senses-sound and touch-to make charts accessible as blind individuals may be more familiar with exploring tactile charts. We report results on both sound and touch affordances, and conclude by discussing implications for accessible visualization for blind individuals.

Investigating Best Practices for Remote Summative Usability Testing with People with Mild to Moderate Dementia.

People with dementia may miss out on the benefits of using technology, because they often find it difficult to use. Usability testing is one method to identify barriers and areas for improvement in technology. Unfortunately, usability testing is often not conducted with people with dementia, independent of their caregivers. Difficulty recruiting local participants with dementia who regularly use technology further compounds the problem. Remote methods have been proposed as one approach to recruiting hard-to-reach populations. Currently, it is unclear how to effectively conduct remote summative usability testing with people with dementia. We recruited 15 participants. Five took part in the pilot study and 10 participated in the main study. We identify best practices and make suggestions for remote summative usability tests with people who have mild to moderate dementia, independent of caregivers. We discuss our findings in three sections: (1) logistics for planning remote summative usability testing, (2) approaches for conducting remote summative usability testing, including modifications of research methods, and (3) considerations when evaluating findings from remote summative usability sessions. We also present modified usability testing methods we developed to meet the unique needs of users with mild to moderate dementia, and summarize lessons learned and new directions for research on this topic.

Using Modules to Teach Accessibility in a User-Centered Design Course.

Courses in user-centered design, where students learn about centering design on the needs of individuals, is one natural point in which accessibility content can be injected into the curriculum. We describe the approach we have taken with sections in the undergraduate User-Centered Design Course at the University of Maryland, College Park. We initially introduced disability and accessibility in four modules: 1) websites and design portfolios, 2) introduction to understanding user needs, 3) prototyping, and 4) UX evaluation. We present a description of this content that was taught as an extended version in one Fall 2018 section and as an abbreviated version in all sections in Spring 2019. Survey results indicate that students' understanding of accessibility and assistive technology increased with the introduction of these modules.