SGER: Collaborating with Children with Severe Disabilities in the Design of Eye-Controlled Software

对于那些有严重身体残疾但仍能控制眼睛的人来说，眼动追踪可能不仅提供了一种辅助交流的手段，而且还提供了一种强大而非侵入性的创造性表达机会。然而，很少有人尝试让有严重运动障碍的人作为参与式设计项目的合作伙伴来开发支持创造性表达的眼控软件，而且计算机眼控的设计空间仍然很大程度上未被探索，因此，目前大多数眼控软件仅限于用户用眼睛移动鼠标光标，看着按钮点击它们。PI认为需要其他控制和反馈技术来支持一系列创造性活动。由于严重的身体缺陷，年幼的儿童被排除在创造性、社交和情感发展的关键活动之外，这种情况可以说是最严重的，然而，针对残疾儿童的眼控软件的探索和评估工作相对较少。在这个项目中，PI将探索如何将参与式设计技术扩展到主要通过眼球运动进行交流的儿童身上。他将寻求将这些孩子作为用户、测试人员、信息提供者和设计合作伙伴纳入设计过程的方法，并将确定过程中可以为其他应用程序和其他严重残疾的用户组重用的方面。PI将开发、部署和评估眼控软件系统，使患有严重运动障碍的儿童能够参与目前无法接触到的创造性活动。该项目将特别关注儿童的音乐创作活动。PI将通过定量和定性分析确认创造性机会是否成功提供。更广泛的影响：这项跨学科的研究将丰富科学基础，并发明创造性表达和用眼睛控制计算机的新技术，特别强调有严重运动障碍的儿童的需求，该项目将为他们确定新的可访问性机会，并通过参与合作，团队为基础的设计项目提供创造性表达。该项目最终将为患有严重运动障碍的所有年龄段的人提供一种从事艺术、教育和交流追求的手段，这些追求目前是遥不可及的。

For people who have severe physical disabilities but retain control of their eyes, eye tracking may provide not merely a means to afford augmentative communication, but also a powerful and noninvasive opportunity for creative expression. Yet there have been few if any attempts to involve people with severe motor impairments as partners in participatory design projects to develop eye-controlled software to support creative expression, and the design space for eye-control of computers remains largely unexplored, so that most current eye-controlled software is limited to the user moving the mouse cursor with the eyes and looking at buttons to click on them. The PI believes other control and feedback techniques are needed to support a range of creative activities. The situation is arguably most acute with respect to young children who, because of severe physical impairments, are locked out of activities that are critical for creative, social, and emotional development, yet relatively little work has been done to explore and evaluate eye-controlled software for children with disabilities. In this project, the PI will explore how participatory design techniques can be extended to children who communicate primarily through their eye movements. He will seek ways to incorporate these children into the design process as users, testers, informants, and design partners, and will identify aspects of the process that can be reused for other applications and other user groups with severe disabilities. The PI will develop, deploy, and evaluate eye-controlled software systems that enable children with severe motor impairments to participate in creative activities that are currently not accessible to them. The project will specifically focus on the childhood activity of music making. The PI will confirm that the creative opportunities are successfully provided through quantitative and qualitative analyses. Broader Impacts: This interdisciplinary research will enrich the scientific underpinnings and invent new techniques for creative expression and computer-control with the eyes, with special emphasis on the needs of children with severe motor impairments, for whom the project will identify new accessibility opportunities and provide creative expression through participation in collaborative, team based design projects. This project will ultimately provide people of all ages with severe motor impairments with a means of engaging in artistic, educational, and communication pursuits that are currently out of reach.