CHS: Medium: Next Generation Content Production Tools for People with Vision Impairments

确保数字信息和计算工具的可获得性对于使视力障碍者能够参与社会的方方面面至关重要，从教育到职业前景再到个人成长。数以百万计的美国视力障碍者与视力正常的同龄人相比，就业或接受高等教育的可能性较小，收入水平也往往较低，这一事实突显了这一迫切需求。尽管在信息可获得性方面有了巨大的改进，但绝大多数研究都集中在使他人制作的内容可获得性上。然而，自己制作原创内容(如创造性写作、播客和音乐)为视力障碍者提供了宝贵的就业、自我表达和倡导形式。该项目将引入新的可访问工具来创建基于文本和音频的内容，这将支持盲人学生和专业人员的需求，无论他们是独立工作还是与有视力的合作者一起工作。将通过与五个为视力障碍者服务的社区组织建立伙伴关系，以及通过开放源码软件和附带的教学材料在网上开展这项工作的推广和传播。THAL将通过为本科生和研究生提供身临其境的学习体验，以及为社区残疾成员提供了解和参与研究的机会，将研究、教育和推广融为一体。该项目有可能通过将计算、工程和艺术联系起来，增加视力障碍者获得与STEM相关的教育经验和职业机会的机会。这项研究还将展示一种创新的无障碍和内容制作方法，可以扩展到其他领域和应用。先进的无障碍内容制作工具需要重新思考信息的处理、呈现和交互方式，这给人机交互、机器学习和协作研究的前沿带来了严峻的挑战。该项目将有助于：(1)无障碍内容创建工具的设计指南和分类；(2)处理基于文本和音频的内容的新算法，这使得能够以新的方式呈现信息，同时解决与机器学习、文本分析和音频处理相关的挑战；(3)无障碍交互技术，提高盲人用户理解、导航和编辑其工作的能力；(4)协作支持功能，将在协作系统中弥合差距，并为核心协作过程是否以及如何在混合能力团队的背景下运行提供经验和理论证据；以及(5)已开发的系统如何在自然使用过程中支持个人自我效能和协作的经验证据，从而更广泛地促进包容性在线工作和学习。项目成果将通过包含个人、团体和社会层面成果的综合评估战略进行评估。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Ensuring the accessibility of digital information and computational tools is crucial to enabling people with vision impairments to participate in all aspects of society, from education to career prospects to personal growth. This critical need is underscored by the fact that the millions of Americans with a visual disability are less likely to be employed or to pursue higher education than their sighted peers, and often have lower income levels as well. Although there has been tremendous improvement in information accessibility, the vast majority of research focuses on making content produced by others accessible. Yet, producing original content oneself (such as creative writing, podcasts, and music) provides valuable forms of employment, self-expression, and advocacy for people with vision impairments. This project will introduce novel accessible tools for creating text- and audio-based content, which will support the needs of blind students and professionals whether working independently or on teams with sighted collaborators. Outreach and dissemination of the work will take place through partnership with five community organizations for people with vision impairments, as well as online by means of open-source software and accompanying instructional materials. A "living laboratory for accessibility" will be created thal integrates research, education, and outreach through immersive learning experiences for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as opportunities for community members with disabilities to learn about and participate in research. The project has the potential to increase access to STEM-related educational experiences and career opportunities for people with vision impairments by bridging computation, engineering, and the arts. The research will also demonstrate an innovative approach to accessibility and content production that can be extended to other domains and applications.Advancing accessible content production tools requires rethinking the way information is processed, rendered, and interacted with, which brings critical challenges in human-computer interaction, machine learning, and collaboration to the forefront of research. This project will contribute: (1) design guidelines and a taxonomy for accessible content creation tools; (2) novel algorithms to process text- and audio-based content, which enable new ways of presenting information while solving challenges relevant to machine learning, text analytics, and audio processing; (3) accessible interaction techniques that advance the ability of blind users to understand, navigate, and edit their work; (4) collaboration support features that will bridge gaps in collaboration systems and provide empirical and theoretical evidence of whether and how core collaborative processes operate in the context of mixed-ability teams; and (5) empirical evidence of how the developed systems support individual self-efficacy and collaboration during naturalistic use, thereby advancing inclusive online work and learning more broadly. Project outcomes will be assessed through a comprehensive evaluation strategy that captures individual, group, and societal level outcomes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.