NSF Convergence Accelerator Track H: Bridging the Fragmentation of Information Access - An Integrated, Multimodal System for Inclusive Content Creation, Conversion, and Delivery

当今，残疾人面临的最紧迫的挑战之一是无法以现成的、可更新的格式获取信息。考虑在COVID-19大流行期间共享的各种数据表示，以便向公众通报人口传播情况；美国教室里充斥着科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教科书的无数图表、图表和方程式；或者是在专业、社交或新闻媒体上进行的密集的视觉演示。通过今天的技术提供的大部分信息是视觉的，这扩大了本已存在的信息获取差距，这种差距不包括依赖非视觉获取的个人，如失明或视力障碍（BVI）者。从英属维尔京群岛的独立、教育和就业统计数据可以明显看出，信息获取问题的后果：30%的英属维尔京群岛居民没有出过家，只有11%的英属维尔京群岛人口拥有学士学位，而英属维尔京群岛劳动年龄人口的失业率在60-70%之间徘徊了几十年。这些令人无法接受的统计数据不仅限于英属维尔京群岛社区，而且在美国大约有6100万成年人的残疾人社区也很普遍。虽然有许多促成因素，但其中之一是碎片化的可访问性模型，该模型仅在特定情况下使用特定（通常是昂贵的）方法提供对特定信息的零星访问。该项目打破了现有的可访问性孤岛，融合了各种想法、方法和技术，创建了AIMS（自动化、集成、多模式软件）系统，该系统在各种平台和文件格式的统一集成框架中提供包含内容的创建、转换和交付。该项目通过推进信息获取的包容性方法，并确保将残疾人纳入教育和专业环境中内容的快速数字化转型，为国家利益服务。这项工作的社会影响支持残疾人士在高度代表性不足的STEM领域成为独立和积极的贡献者。该项目汇集了一个独一无二的团队，从头到尾将信息访问作为一个统一的倡议，包括可访问信息领域的领先学术研究人员，多感官信息访问的前沿创业公司，触觉图形行业领先的硬件制造商，领先的出版和评估公司，以及来自世界上最大的私人非营利教育测试和评估组织的顾问。在第一阶段，该团队将以合作伙伴的创新为基础，创建一个统一的编写无障碍材料的框架；将不可获取的材料转化为可获取的等效材料；并以一种与底层任务、上下文、平台和形态无关的包容性方法交付可访问的材料。利用这一综合框架，该团队将开发一个概念验证AIMS系统，重点关注第一阶段的BVI患者。AIMS系统的输出将生成数字、多模态渲染和物理、压纹渲染，这些渲染可以打印在已经部署在全球教育和职业环境中的商用压纹机上。这一概念验证将与教育利益相关者进行迭代评估，并将在第二阶段的合作伙伴中进行扩展，以开发一个跨任务、环境、硬件和模式的访问生态系统，并从BVI患者扩展到更广泛的PWD社区。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Lack of access to information in a readily available, refreshable format is one of the most pressing challenges faced by persons with disabilities (PWDs) today. Consider the various data representations that were shared during the COVID-19 pandemic to inform the public on population spread; the numerous charts, graphs, and equations that flood Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) textbooks in U.S. classrooms; or the barrage of visual presentations that are given in professional, social, or news media outlets. Much of the information presented through today’s technologies is visual, widening an already persistent information access gap that is not inclusive to individuals relying on nonvisual access, such as those with blindness or visual impairments (BVI). The fall-out of the information-access problem is starkly evident from the independence, education, and employment statistics of this community: 30% of individuals with BVI do not travel independently outside of their home, only around 11% of the BVI population have earned a bachelor’s degree, and the under/unemployment rate of working age BVI individuals has hovered between 60-70% for decades. These unacceptable statistics are not limited to the BVI community but are widespread across the PWD community, which encompasses approximately 61 million adults in the United States. While there are many contributing factors, one of them is a fragmented accessibility model that has only provided sporadic access to specific information, in specific situations, using specific (and often expensive) approaches. This project breaks down existing accessibility silos, converging across ideas, approaches, and technologies, to create the AIMS (Automated, Integrated, Multimodal Software) system that provides inclusive content creation, conversion, and delivery in a unified, integrated framework across various platforms and file formats. This project serves national interests by advancing inclusive approaches to information access and ensuring the inclusion of PWDs in the rapid digital transformation of content across educational and professional settings. The societal impacts of this work support PWDs in being independent and active contributors in highly underrepresented STEM domains.This project brings together a first-of-its-kind team to address information access as a consolidated initiative from beginning to end, including leading academic researchers in the accessible information domain, cutting-edge startup companies in multisensory information access, an industry-leading hardware manufacturer of tactile graphics, a leading publishing and assessment company, and consultants from the world's largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization. In Phase I, the team will build on partner innovations to create a unified framework for authoring accessible materials; converting inaccessible materials into accessible equivalents; and delivering the accessible materials in an inclusive method that is agnostic to underlying tasks, contexts, platforms, and modality. Using this integrated framework, the team will develop a proof-of-concept AIMS system with a focus on individualswith BVI in Phase I. The output of the AIMS system will generate both a digital, multimodal rendering and a physical, embossed rendering which can be printed on commercially available embossers already deployed within educational and vocational settings worldwide. This proof-of-concept will be iteratively evaluated with educational stakeholders and will be scaled across partners in Phase II toward developing an access ecosystem that works across tasks, contexts, hardware, and modalities and extends beyond individuals with BVI to the broader PWD community.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.