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Computing and the Visually Impaired: Accessible Information for those Without Sight |
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Chris Power Ph. D. Candidate Computer Science University of Western Ontario London, ON |
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Modern society has advanced very quickly in terms of its need for information and in the way information is delivered. With the advent of cell phones, personal digital assistants and ultra-thin laptop computers, a great deal of consideration has gone into how to deliver information to all of these different devices. Despite this rapid advancement, the technology and techniques for presenting information to visually impaired people remain predominantly unchanged, with the majority of solutions presenting a limited view of information sources through either screen reading technology or single line, refreshable Braille displays.
In this talk we will review the information needs of the visually impaired community, focusing on the multi-modal requirements for information presentation, and we will review how the current technology has difficulty meeting those needs. We will also discuss the newest generation of devices recently introduced and the potential that they hold for delivering accessible information to this unique set of users.
With these devices in mind, we will discuss an application framework designed for translation of documents to tactile formats, allowing for the use of new technology as it becomes available to the visually impaired audience.
Chris Power is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Western Ontario under the supervision of Dr. Helmut Jürgensen. Chris' thesis revolves around providing new interaction techniques and interfaces for visually impaired users, with emphasis on document translation and wayfinding in unknown environments. Chris' other research interests include haptic interfaces, health informatics and pervasive/ubiquitous computing.
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