HCC-Small: The End of Pointing and Clicking: Improving Computer Access with Goal Crossing

尽管无障碍研究做出了认真的努力，但许多有运动障碍的人仍然很难使用台式电脑。文献继续表明，由于成本、复杂性、配置、维护、不可获得性和培训的需要，专门的辅助技术经常被放弃或从未获得。相反，像日常鼠标和轨迹球这样的商品设备被许多有运动障碍的人广泛使用，但目前的图形用户界面并不能很好地与这些用户的能力相匹配。在这个项目中，PI的目标不是尝试让特殊用户适应标准的点击界面，而是通过消除运动障碍患者成功的人机交互的两个主要障碍，从根本上改变用户界面，使其更适合用户：需要指向受限区域，需要在受限区域内点击。PI将通过目标交叉来实现这些目标，这是一种交互技术，在这种技术中，人们只需要将鼠标移动到一个阈值上，而不需要获得一个区域或执行稳定的点击。虽然目标交叉已经被研究并应用于基于笔的界面，但它还没有应用于基于鼠标的界面或用于改善计算机访问。在基于鼠标的界面中，由于遮挡问题，目标交叉是具有挑战性的，因为不想要的目标位于想要的目标前面（尽管鼠标按钮可以用来消除歧义，但运动障碍的人无法可靠地拖动）。然而，PI进行的一项初步研究发现，对于有运动障碍的人来说，目标穿越具有更高的吞吐量，速度更快，并且表现出比指向区域更高的路径和亚运动准确性。PI将在当前项目中利用这些性能发现，创建可访问的目标交叉用户界面。他将通过以下四个步骤来做到这一点：交叉部件的开发和评估（这一步将采用高度迭代的过程来创建交互式原型并与运动障碍患者进行测试）；创建和评估示例交叉应用程序（这一步将构建三个示例应用程序，用于文本编辑，绘图和照片，将探索交叉小部件布局，分组和交互）；开发用于交叉小部件的程序员工具箱（这一步将创建和部署一个交叉小部件工具箱，使开发人员能够创建基于交叉的应用程序）；创建supply - x自动用户界面生成器（基于suppli++的自动用户界面生成器，能够通过测量用户的功能能力来创建基于能力的目标交叉界面）。这项研究将由华盛顿大学信息学院、计算机科学与工程系和康复医学系合作进行。更广泛的影响：这项工作将使人们更加了解如何定制软件以满足运动障碍用户的需求，并为这一用户群体增加对信息技术的可访问性。这项研究将建立一个可访问计算的新范例，可以转移到其他平台，如移动触摸屏、信息亭和持续的基于语音的鼠标控制。项目成果将包括可免费下载的已部署应用程序和编程工具。

Many people with motor impairments still find it difficult to use desktop computers despite earnest efforts in accessibility research. The literature continues to show that specialized assistive technologies are often abandoned or never acquired due to cost, complexity, configuration, maintenance, unavailability, and the need for training. Instead, commodity devices like everyday mice and trackballs are widely used by many people with motor impairments, but current graphical user interfaces are not well matched to the abilities of these users. In this project, rather than attempting the tired approach of adapting special users to standard point-and-click interfaces, the PI's goal is to radically change user interfaces to be better suited to users, by removing the two major obstacles to successful human-computer interaction for people with motor impairments: the need to point to confined areas, and the need to click within them. The PI will accomplish these objectives with goal crossing, an interaction technique in which people only need to move their mouse across a threshold without acquiring an area or executing a stable click. Although goal crossing has been studied and employed in pen-based interfaces, it has not been employed in mouse-based interfaces or for improving computer access. Goal crossing in mouse-based interfaces is challenging because of the occlusion problem, where an unwanted goal lies in front of a desired one (although the mouse button could be used to disambiguate, people with motor impairments cannot reliably drag). Nevertheless, a preliminary study conducted by the PI found that goal crossing has higher throughput, is faster, and exhibits more path and submovement accuracy than area pointing for people with motor impairments. The PI will leverage these performance findings in the current project, in the creation of accessible goal crossing user interfaces. He will do this through the following four steps: Development and evaluation of crossing widgets (this step will employ a highly iterative process to create interactive prototypes and testing them with people with motor impairments); Creation and evaluation of exemplar crossing applications (this step will build three exemplar applications for text editing, drawing, and photos that will explore crossing widget layout, grouping, and interaction); Development of a programmers' toolbox for crossing widgets (this step will create and deploy a crossing widget toolbox to enable developers to create crossing-based applications); Creation of the SUPPLE-X automatic user interface generator (an automatic user interface generator based on SUPPLE++ that is capable of creating ability-based goal crossing interfaces by measuring users' functional capabilities). This research will be conducted as a collaboration between the Information School, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington. Broader Impacts: This work will lead to greater awareness of how software can be tailored to meet the needs of users with motor impairments, and to increased accessibility to information technology for this user community. The research will establish a new paradigm of accessible computing that may be transferable to other platforms, such as mobile touch screens, information kiosks, and continuous voice-based mouse control. Project outcomes will include deployed applications and programming tools that can be downloaded free of charge.