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Studies using the sensory substitution devices reveal that perceptive activity itself is embodied in a living body capable of movement and possessing its own spatial dimensions. To study the conditions of a prosthetic perception, we developed a minimal device, Tactos, which carries out a coupling between the pen of a graphics tablet and tactile sensory stimulators. This system allows subjects to explore virtual tactile pictures and is intended to give to blind people an access to computer graphics. We will present here experimental results regarding the different aspects of perception using this device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In keeping with a user capability and product demand approach to product assessment, this paper examines the cognitive demands placed on users when interacting with consumer products. The eventual aim is to develop a set of cognitive capability scales that could be used in the analytical evaluation of product interfaces. We explore the dimensions of cognitive capability relevant to product interaction and describe how these may be used to evaluate a given design. Planned work addresses quantitative measurement of cognitive capabilities and predictive validation of capability scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the framework of a research target that aims at integration of sign language technologies to human-computer interaction applications, creation and annotation of the Greek Sign Language Corpus (GSLC) involve, on the one hand, data and analysis of the phonological structure of morphemes of Greek Sign Language (GSL) and, on the other hand, collection of sentence level language samples and assignment of their respective annotations. GSLC also entails free sign narrations fully annotated at least for sentence segmentation. Simple and complex sign morpheme formation is directly relevant to development of sign recognition prototypes. In this sense, a sign language corpus intended to support sign recognition by exploitation of a language model has to entail sufficient data from simple- to complex- morpheme level. Sentence level annotation, except for sentence boundaries, focuses on phrase boundary marking and grammar information often conveyed by multi-layer markers, as is the case of e.g. topicalisation, nominal phrase formation, temporal indicators, question formation and sentential negation in GSL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between user's knowledge of operation procedures for some electric appliances and their cognitive styles. First, questionnaires were given to the participants. The participants answered below questions about cognitive styles. Second, to investigate the participants' knowledge of operating procedures of the electric appliances, participants were asked to write free text description on how to use an appliance without actually operating it. We found certain kinds of knowledge about operation procedures were linked to user's cognitive style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Color is inaccessible for individuals who are blind or visually impaired, as it is a purely visual feature. Given that many everyday tasks rely on color including coordinating clothing, social interactions, etc., the inaccessibility of color has an adverse effect on daily life. We propose an interactive, wearable assistive device that can recognize and convey colors of scenes or objects. As computer vision is challenging in real world environments due to, e.g., illumination or pose changes, computer vision algorithms can be augmented with sub-systems that can provide information on working environments of a recognition algorithm, and how it affects the recognition accuracy. In this paper, we introduce a framework that incorporates such measures, herein called confidence measures, in wearable assistive devices. By communicating to the user a quantitative measure that signifies the difference between optimal working conditions and the real environment working conditions, we can convey the reliability of system-made decisions, which enables the user to take action to improve confidence.Given that color recognition is challenging in real world settings, our system is built within our proposed framework for confidence measures. Finally, we present user recognition accuracies, both with and without confidence measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of examining a scanning user interface implementation with command inputs in the form of head gestures for a rehabilitation robot using Fitts' law variations and comparing these with a servo eye tracking model are made. Calculations show that the movement time prediction is more accurate in this case using the servo eye model. The response from the linearised eye model predicts that there is a minimum scanning distance that can be used and minimum spacing between commands display. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An eye-tracking study of a prototype website was conducted with 10 younger adults (ages 20-39) and 10 older adults (ages 50-69) to determine if there are differences in how they scan webpages. They performed the same tasks on the website. On the average, the older adults spent 42% more time looking at the content of the pages than did the younger adults. They also spent 51% more time looking at the navigation areas. The pattern of fixations on almost all pages showed that the older adults looked at more parts of the page than did the younger adults. Implications for designing webpages that work well for older adults are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase of a "graying" society is apparent in recent decades and as such, the attention of marketing and product design is more and more focused on older users of technical devices. The study addresses the relevance of hardware and software design in human-computer interaction of older users. It was found that performance significantly increased (up to 3 times) with easier sensumotor transformation and easier task type. However, this was more prominent in middle-aged users than in younger users. Task difficulty revealed a rather unspecific impact on performance (43%), and was equally apparent in both age groups. Recommendations derived from this review show that older users will profit most from touch based or mouse operated interfaces. Additionally, easy icon and menu designs are often missed and will become more and more important for older users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important issue of the demographic change in the German population is the maintenance and promotion of the employability of aging workforces. However, there are hardly any suitable concepts or usable tools available to realize this goal. Possible approaches should push the individual strengths of the aging workers to the foreground and intercept the possible physical and cognitive losses in ability that occur with an increase in age. A model of age-differentiated adaptation of the human-computer interface, in which automatic adaptations are conducted based on individual user characteristics, is presented in this article. First connections between user characteristics and adaptation dimensions were analyzed in a study with 90 subjects ranging from 20 to 73 years of age. Results indicate a significant influence of graphical layout on memorization as well as interpretation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study comparing Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox 2 with 18 participants aged 60 years old and over. The participants performed six groups of tasks related to browsing, navigation, navigation enhancement, bookmark, information transfer, personalization and technical manipulation. The study covers their performance, problems, and comments. This study found that menu bar is an important feature for supporting browsing activity. The participants performed the navigation tasks well but less so for personalization and technical manipulation tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elderly adults face two serious challenges bridging the digital divide. First, many suffer from physical or cognitive disabilities, which inhibit computer use. Second, the "traditional" personal computer interface constitutes a foreign and forbidding paradigm. Consequently, elderly adults are less likely to access the Internet, and this lack of accessibility denies them increased social contact and access to information. This paper presents the design of a tangible user interface (TUI) for an email client that is suited to the physical, neurological, and cognitive needs of elderly users. A review of the TUI literature identifies radio frequency identification (RFID) tagged cards, integrated with standard personal computers, as a viable alternative to the mouse. These cards can represent interaction objects and actions, forming the basis for an interaction language. The email client interaction design illustrates many simple and advanced RFID card interaction techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older people provide much greater challenges to user-centred design than more traditional user groups. It is also very important to encourage (often young) designers to develop a relationship with, and an empathy for, older users. It is recommended that older users be fully integrated into the design process. Researchers, however, need to take care to be sensitive to the characteristics, sensory and cognitive capabilities, and the attitudes of older people to computers and to being included in research studies. The paper suggests strategies for doing this, together with the more radical approach of using professional actors as surrogates for real older users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important that the operation characteristic of the elderly have to clear for designing information equipment that was deeply considered about influences of aging. Visual search tasks were imposed on the elderly in this study and found strategy for searching target by analyzing their eye movements that gazing time, gazing position and locus in the search task. Experimental parameters of stimulus were the number of character strings, the letter types, and the number of stimulus represented on screen. Results showed that mean gazing times become long in accordance with the number of characters. When alphabetic letters was reproduced on screen, the elderly hesitated to search a target stimulus. By analysis of gazing position and locus of eye movement, the strategy of visual search of the elderly was categorized three patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital products with small-touch-screens are increasingly affecting daily life, and most especially that of the elderly population in Taiwan which, at present, is over 9.9%. As people age, they find it increasingly difficult to operate digital products with small-touch-screens. The main purpose of this study was to investigate and categorize these difficulties for three groups of adult users. The fifteen participants in the investigation were classified into three groups: young adults, middle-aged adults and elderly adults. All of the adults were requested to accomplish different tasks using three digital products with small-touch-screens and then to provide their opinions on the kinds of difficulties they had encountered. The experts classifying the results found that the elderly adults were the group confronted with the most difficulties in the operation of small-touch-screen digital devices. In the digital dictionary experiment, the greatest difficulty for the three groups centered on cognitive ability; the majority of problems were related to motion in the PDA. In fact, the most notable problems for each of the participants were related primarily to motion in the PDA and to cognition. The results also indicated the common operational problems with the three digital products with small-touch-screens, including the impact of space or position of handwriting and button size on motion ability; and the impact of the size and color of the fonts or icons and screen brightness on perception ability. Lastly, regarding the difficulties with cognition, most of the participants were confronted with complex information, inconsistent with the interfaces of the digital products. Results of this study were based on the opinions from the three adult groups and, could be used in future designs for small-touch-screen interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe work directed at exploiting existing consumer electronics to present just-in-time reminder cues to assist ageing-in-place. We describe our methodology which first employed a series of structured interviews to gain insight into older people's opinions and expectations of consumer electronics and of the notion of autonomous and persuasive reminder systems. We then discuss our initial efforts to design and evaluate (using a Wizard-of-Oz methodology) a system which can make use of the existing programmable and wirelessly-networked, technology within the home, to provide a rich messaging service to older people as they conduct their everyday activities. Our research has the long-term aim of providing just-in-time, appropriate cues via multimodal displays to aid safer ageing-in-pace for the older population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the aged society and digital convergence have been progressed, 6most of elderly users are having difficulties in using mobile phone with complex functions. It is necessary to develop mobile phone with easy and convenient usability for universal users including elderly based on concept of universal design. We conducted qualitative & contextual research on elderly users' contextual experience and interaction difficulties in using mobile phone in everyday life. Based on elderly users' need figured out in this research, we tried to retrieve User Interface Design implication for universal design mobile phone, which can be used easily by anyone regardless of age and ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless broadband networks for home environment present us with many challenges unfamiliar in more public settings. At home, we encounter the end-users with little ICT experience. Probably among the most challenging members of the home network are the elderly, who may have demanding needs for ensuring accessibility. Either living in a joined community as in a home for the elderly or at home on their own, the possibility to have a remote connection to the homes of their extended family may become important by e.g. decreasing mobility. Interconnectivity between various heterogeneous networks across multiple homes means for example situations where the family shares a photo album or web server with various pieces located at different homes. In this paper, we identify usability challenges presented by internetworking multiple homes, with a special focus on universal accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the optimal button size and spacing for touch screen user interfaces intended for use by older adults. Current recommendations in the literature are aimed at general audiences and fail to consider the specific needs of older adults. Three independent variables, button size, button spacing, and manual dexterity were studied in two experiments that measured reaction time, accuracy and user preferences. Design recommendations for touch screen button size and spacing for older adults are stated based on these experiments. The paper also discusses the role of manual dexterity in designing appropriate touch screen interfaces for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the quality of life of elderly people is an emerging issue within our information society for both research and development. This paper addresses some issues on the development of applications for mobile devices, which have been designed to enhance the quality of life of the growing number of elderly people, and how they can be made more acceptable to the target population. We summarize some relevant issues in order to devise a research methodology to cover more than just the technological and physical aspects of user interfacing but also psychological and sociological aspects. One aspect of achieving this aim is to confront designers and developers with those problems that the elderly face daily and which are not easily understood - especially by younger designers and developers. Finally, we present some issues on how to simulate certain physical constraints of elderly by using the AgeSim, which is a simulation suit. However, not only physical but also cognitive impairment cause problems amongst elderly and result in fear, anxiety and consequently in rejection. The main goal of this paper is to raise awareness amongst developers on which problems are to be taken into considerations during design and development of mobile applications for the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older adults have difficulties in using unfamiliar IT appliances because they look poor to learn operations in trial-and-error fashion. To find a different way for older adults to learn operations effectively, an experiment like usability testing with Electronic Program Guide (EPG) system on a HDD/DVD recorder was executed. Unfocused general information was not helpful for learning new operations. Repeated practice of basic operations with timely help-guidance messages facilitated the acquisition of targeted elementary actions and made them easy to learn new elementary actions as well as new complicated operations. It was suggested that older adults could learn better from successful operations than from trial-and-errors, which may induce harmful error spiral. It is necessary to investigate how to avoid error spiral in self-learning environment in home use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on a study exploring the use of voice commands by older adults browsing the Web. We sought to develop an understanding of how such commands might make Web navigation and access to Web accessibility transformations easier. The results suggested a number of surprising difficulties in using spoken commands. Some were due to general confusions about how to use the browser. Some were due to mismatches between what was natural to say versus what was natural to do with a mouse. We review some of these difficulties and discuss possible underlying reasons. Finally, we suggest interface changes that would make an otherwise well-engineered user interface better suited for voice commands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging implies a general decrease of physical and mental fitness, which, however, largely depends on training. Additionally, individual impairments occur more frequently with age. Three studies show that most elderly people struggle with the application of modern technologies, although physical communication is only slowed but not impaired and handling characteristics do not significantly differ from younger persons. Most usability problems originate from a lack of understanding the complex interaction of menu control. Former education and missing experience then tend to augment usability problems with time. Using the example of a mobile phone prototype it is shown that, despite the complex and inconsistent needs of elderly, the usability obstacles can be vanquished by considering the hierarchy of cause-effect relationships for design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of the potential for technological innovations to contribute to the prolongation of the independence of the elderly in the care context needs to be situated against a background of change which presents a set of challenges, opportunities and risks. The challenge is to ensure an optimal quality of life and equitable treatment for the growing elderly population. Technological innovations present significant opportunities for meeting these challenges. However, there are also some potential risks associated with the application of technology in this domain. Starting from this apprehension, the paper deals with physical environments and needs of elderly in relation to technical implications and ethical considerations. Two pilot projects in the field of "Ambient Assisted Living" are outlined, dealing with the development of an electronic user terminal and a safety assistant for the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two studies, we investigated the influences of some individual variables that are related to information search strategies and information access in general for old end-users, and we investigated experimentally the influences of metamemory on their performances and strategies. The first study investigated the Internet access, interests, and information search from the Internet among seniors, by using interviews with a semi-directed questionnaire performed with 47 old end-users (ages from 68 to 73 years). The second study investigated the impacts of a specific cognitive ability, i.e., metamemory abilities, on the information search activities performed by 50 old end-users. Results have shown that the World Wide Web emerged as a major information resource for them, their opinions are modulated by Web experience, locating relevant information among information provided by the search engines emerged as a major problem for the old end-users, and metamemory abilities do not seem to be implicated in the computerized information search activities: No significant result was obtained in the experiment conducted in the second study. Additional research with old end-users is needed to determine the generalisability of the results obtained in our two studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though the Web and those who use it have changed considerably in the last decade, a digital divide between older and younger users persists. Older users still use the Web less than younger users, and more commonly experience significant usability issues when they do. With the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies, we have the ability to close that divide and ensure the Web is universally usable for people of all ages. It requires taking what we know of "senior surfer" requirements and applying them to Web 2.0 interfaces. This paper examines the changing nature of the Web, the Senior Web user, and assesses how Web 2.0 technologies can - but do not yet - improve universal access for everyone. Pilot studies support these hypotheses; future studies are planned to further examine these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eighty percent of seniors have some type of functional impairment that impacts one or more activities of daily living. This paper focuses on the use of assistive technology devices to support elders with successful aging. A variety of assistive technology devices and their utilization by elders are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within ASK-IT project, an extensive survey of the needs of elderly and disabled travelers using infomobility services has been performed. More specifically, 39 past and on-going research projects have been reviewed, having a common aim to ASK-IT. The user needs that have emerged after the testing of the developed systems are highlighted in this document for the transport and tourism areas. Results do not refer only to the visual and acoustical HMI of systems and services for information provision while traveling, but also to the content and the design aspects of the HMI, in order to satisfy accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing number of rich content that includes audio and presentations. It is important to caption these contents to assure accessibility for hearing impaired persons and seniors. Initially, we conducted a survey and found that the combination of video with audio, captions, and presentation slides (hereafter "multimedia composite") is helpful in understanding the content. Also our investigation shows that the availability of captioning is still very low and therefore there is a strong need for an effective captioning system. Based on this preliminary survey and investigation, we would like to introduce a new method which integrates caption editing software with presentation software. Three major problems are identified: Content layout definition, editing focus linkage, and exporting to speaker notes. This paper will show how our Caption Editing System with Presentation Integration (CESPI) solves these problems. Experiments showed 37.6% improvement in total editing time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stroke is the biggest cause of severe disability in the UK. The National Service Framework for Older People recommends that rehabilitation should continue until maximum recovery has been achieved. However, due to cost factors inpatient length of stay is decreasing and outpatient rehabilitation facilities are limited. The level of therapy could be improved by providing assistive technology, in the form of tele-rehabilitation, within patients' homes. This paper presents the development of the SMART rehabilitation system, a home-based tele-rehabilitation system to argument upper limb rehabilitation, with the emphasis on the implementation of the system ICT platform and user interface design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a listed sign language system that combines written expressions in table form with sign language fragments. The system generates urgent video style messages that offer rapid, certain, and easy understanding for environments such as railway carriages. We developed a prototype of the system and conducted an evaluation experiment. The results show that the system improves the level of understanding urgent messages. Participants confirmed that the messages scored highly in terms of ease of understanding, high accuracy, rapid understanding, and sense of security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper described an assessment system which embedded expert system based on theidea of neural network. Authors developed a computerized assessment tool for mouse operating proficiency and applied into clinical service. The result indicated that the objective tool had great contribution for selecting suitable pointing device for the client. However, clinical also found that comparing the effectiveness between different device and operation environment by some parameters was labor consuming. Expert system may be an available solution for clinical professional to select suitable pointing and selecting device more efficiently. Therefore, this study aimed to develop an embedding expert system into a computerized assessment tool for mouse operating proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard QWERTY keyboards are considered as a major source of reluctance towards computer usage by Japanese elderly, because of their limited experience with Western typewriters and the high cognitive demand involved in typing Japanese characters with them. This paper discusses the difficulty in typing Japanese characters using QWERTY keyboards, and then introduces two alternative approaches. The first approach makes use of touchscreen and software keyboards. Touchscreen enables users to enter Japanese characters more directly and is expected to moderate their resistance. As the second approach, a trial to develop a mechanical keyboard that is able to change its key layout dynamically is introduced. The proposed keyboard is also capable to change colors of keys, to flash keys to attract users' attention, and to hide unnecessary keys to avoid errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposed that the viewing conditions for printed matters and projected images are quite different for three major reasons. Therefore, the brightness perception phenomenon and brightness perception theory generated from the printed matters should be revised and modified when applied to the projected images. The purposes of the present research were to examine the effects of brightness illusions while viewing the projected images, to understand the brightness perception process in projection environment, and thus to generate design implications for better usage of the projectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supportive technology is expected to facilitate life at home for people with cognitive impairment. To study the usability of a number of support-installations in ordinary homes a three-year project was launched in Sweden. Three sites, each planned to comprise some twenty participants about sixty years of age and upwards, suffering either from a cognitive impairment such as an acquired brain injury or other forms of cognitive impairments, have been engaged. One goal was to acquire knowledge and experience about technical support, their appropriateness and adaptability to the users and to the organisation supporting them. Another goal was to develop and test supportive technology and a third goal was to explore ways to the market for Design for All products which are necessary for some but useful to most of tenants. The housing companies played an important role for the development of the project and the way to the market, as many technical aids basically are parts of the physical building structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our research indicates that acquisition of phonetic skills in voiced and voiceless speech sounds was improved by using Computer Aided Articulatory Tutor (CAAT). The interface of CAAT displays the place of articulation and relevant image objects for articulatory training simultaneously. The place of articulation was presented by using three dimensional articulatory tutor. Suitable computer graphics and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques were used to develop inner articulatory movements of the animated tutor. Ten hearing impaired children between the ages 4 and 7 were selected and trained for 30 hours across four weeks on 50 words under 10 lessons. The words were selected from the categories of voiced and voiceless stops namely Bilabial, Dental, Alveolar, Retroflex and Velar. The articulatory performance of HI children was investigated to find out their speech intelligibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an exploratory study of the web navigation experiences of dyslexic users. Findings indicate that dyslexics exhibit distinctive web navigation behaviour and preferences. We believe that the outcomes of this study add to our understanding of the particular needs of this web user population and have implications for the design of effective navigation structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing body of evidence that key components of human cognition can be used to identify important aspects of accessibility design for universal access in the information society, through user modelling. However, there is an equal growth in an appreciation of the contexts within which any interactive system must function, including the vocational and social contexts. If so, there is an important need is to extend cognitive user models to respond to and make predictions about the vocational and social contexts that make up the information society. Whilst many aspects of social intelligence can, it seems, be subsumed under current cognitive architectures of the user, there is the practical danger that the contribution of social intelligence may be underestimated when considered as a subset of the knowledge domains or skills sets of human cognition. To counter this practical development problem, the concept of the social intelligence interface is introduced as a developmental construct to inform the inclusive design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical devices and software applications with an increasing number of functions are appearing on the market. With an aging population, there is a growing need to consider less experienced users. Integrating training applications in technical devices is a promising approach to close the knowledge gap of these users. But how should a training application be designed? We developed a training program which teaches the use of a mobile phone in a task oriented manner. Training versions were designed which differ in their degree of interactivity: The learner trained either with an improved paper-based manual or with an interactive e-learning application, which integrates guided exercises in the learning process. These training versions are compared experimentally. Preliminary results show that both groups learned successfully to use a mobile phone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GUI builder tools are widely used in practice to develop the user interface of software systems. Typically they are visual programming tools that support direct-manipulative assembling of the user interface components. We have developed the tool GuiBuilder which follows a model-driven approach to the development of graphical (multimedia) user interfaces. This allows a meta-design approach where user interface developers as well as prospective users of the system are supported in modelling the desired functionality of the GUI on a high level of abstraction that is easy to understand for all involved stakeholders. The model consists of compositional presentation diagrams to model the structure of the user interface and hierarchical statechart diagrams to model its behaviour. GuiBuilder then supports the transformation of the model to Java, i.e., the generation of a working user interface and the simulation of the modelled behaviour. Interactive sessions with the user interface can be recorded and replayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing large bandwidth of resistant force to trainees is an important requirement of a knee joint rehabilitation robot. Although large resistant force can be achieved by using big motor, difficulty will arise to achieve small resistant force because of the influence of friction, gravity and inertia of the heavy robot. This paper presents a force bandwidth control method based on admittance-control paradigm, which combines theoretical model under active mode and experimental data under passive mode to compensate the influence of the friction, gravity and inertia force upon the torque sensor signal. This method avoids the necessity to establish complex mathematic model of the friction forces. Furthermore, a digital filter method is proposed to reduce computational error of angular acceleration resulted from differentiating encoder values. An optimal filtering parameter range is chosen by Matlab simulation. Experiment results based on a physical prototype prove the enlarged resistant force bandwidth after force compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve users with a range of ages between 20 and 70, were assessed for their cognitive capabilities and degree of experience with microwave cooker features and then trialled with two microwaves, one with a dials interface and the other with a buttons interface. The users were provided with a set of tasks to complete with each microwave. It was hypothesised that all users would perform better with the dials model but that the difference in performance between dials and buttons would become more pronounced as age increased. This was found to be the case in comparing the performance from the trials, with the strongest correlation occurring between the users age and the time taken to complete the tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible design for World Wide Web content has been a significant focus for many years. Guidelines, such as the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), give designers a list of checkpoints to be used to help ensure that web content will be accessible to users with deficits. Of these deficits, however, far less attention has been paid to designing for users with cognitive deficits. In order to address this, we present an orthogonal set of cognitive ability dimensions based in modern neuroscience, the SCEMA model, which designers may use to characterize an individual user and help better inform accessible design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the years 2001-2004 STAKES implemented a national development project VETURI - networking interpreter services -. Its objective was to improve the preconditions for the availability and quality of interpreter services. The starting point for this development work was to provide a service with a sufficiently large population base, in the form of regionally co-ordinated network co-operation of a variety of stakeholders. A part of the service in the project was given as remote videophone service. Remote interpreting made an interpreter's work easier because she did not need to travel and was able to work from a familiar work location. New ways to produce services enabled the growth of remote interpretation service. Larger population base and service resources made it possible to bring service also there where it has not been earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many respects, cognitive difficulties and learning impairments are the poor relation of Universal Access (UA) research. Research into emotional impairments is even less common. A simple review of almost any general UA or Assistive Technology conference proceedings will typically show a strong bias towards sensory (vision and hearing) impairment, with a strong minority addressing motor impairment issues. This is an improvement on the situation a few years ago where the vast majority of the papers would be based solely on blindness, despite that particularly impairment constituting only 14% of people with a vision impairment and 2% of the overall prevalence of functional impairment in the general population [7]. This paper discusses the reasons why such a disparity exists and summarises the outcome of an International Symposium, hosted by the IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center, to establish the state-of-the-art in research and best practices for supporting access for users with cognitive difficulties and learning impairments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the context of mobile computing within facilities maintenance activities on the basis of an analysis of cursor movement and point and click disruptions that may occur when a number of perturbations are induced by the computing environment. An analysis based on context-aware computing distinguishes between situational induced impairments and disabilities (SIID) whose properties are related to Health Induced Impairments and Disabilities (HIID) such as motion impairment, tremor or spasm. A number of technology solutions based on Assistive Technology interventions for motion impaired cursor movement stabilization are possible approaches to counter SIID in Mobile computing for maintenance environments. A software based cursor movement smoothing method based on statistical state space filtering is presented as an example of a new development of one such approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents activities and challenges when implementing information processing technologies for people with hearing and visual impairments. Other than keyboard based input and monitor based for output modalities should be employed for this category of users. More important is that these modalities are crucial element for successful implementation of complex systems designed for disabled people. Some activities carried on in Lithuania implementing applications oriented for disabled people or using speech technologies and targeted to impaired people are presented too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of ongoing research on methods for evaluating the accessibility conformance level of software and especially operating systems. Our approach is based on recommendations from software accessibility standards, and defines techniques for evaluating each of those recommendations. The proposed method has been applied to evaluate the accessibility features of one closed-source and one open-source desktop operating system, Microsoft Windows XP and the Ubuntu Linux distribution, respectively. Specifically, the functionality we have evaluated was task management and file system management. From the point of view of the evaluation process, we conclude that more work is needed on the development of support tools and techniques. And from the point of view of the specific comparison, we conclude that, taking into account the analysed functionality, the current version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution is slightly more accessible than the current Windows release, though neither of the systems fully conform to the accessibility standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an emergency such as an earthquake, it is important to give information in different formats that permit everyone to realize rapid assimilation. In public spaces, information is presented to the hearing impaired in text as well as sign language movies. In this case, it is considered that the readout time and impression of the information depend on the layout of sign language movies and text used. However, there are no comprehensive guidelines on the proper layout of sign language movies and text. This paper focuses on optimizing the layout of text and sign language movies to decrease the readout time of the hearing impaired and the normal hearing. Tests show that the optimal spatial separation between the text and its accompanying sign language movie depends on their relative position. They also indicate that the readout time depends on the separation between the line head of text and the center line of the translator in the sign language movie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a study conducted to develop a set of interface design principles and guidelines that can be used to develop and improve universal access systems for the visually impaired, such as Haptic Audio Virtual Environments (HAVEs). Over the last few decades, user interface systems have advanced to allowing users to interact with computational systems physically, perceptively, and conceptually. However, this process has also left blind and partially blind users unable to access such new technologies. It is also true that there are currently only limited methods for presenting information non-visually and these do not provide an equivalent speed and ease of use to their graphical counterparts. Comprehensible design principles and guidelines addressing the needs of blind users should be helpful when developing universal access systems, such as haptic audio virtual environments that use multiple sensory modalities to present information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User-testing is a critical activity in software development. However, eliciting appropriate test-users can be difficult. Recent work showed that (during user-testing of educational software) dyslexic final-year students identified a larger number of subtle (yet significant) issues in more detail than other students. However, final year students were not the target users of the software (designed to teach fundamental programming concepts). This paper presents preliminary results of work replicating the previous study, but with participants from the target user group (first year students). The first year students identified fewer issues and gave less detail than the final year students. The dyslexic students identified more issues in greater detail than the other students. This highlights a distinction between the perceived target user group (first year students) and the actual target user group (students who don't understand programming concepts). Dyslexia may push people deeper into the actual target user group for educational software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]