CAREER: Advancing Accessible Computing with Tools for Ability-Based Design

今天的商品软件对用户的运动能力一无所知。这使适应的负担落在了人的身上，而不是技术的身上，并迫使用户要么努力使用现成的输入设备，要么购买昂贵、难以获得、充满社会污名的专门辅助设备。最近的设计方法，如通用设计、包容性设计和面向所有人的设计都承认这个问题，但却提倡一种无法实现的“一刀切”的理想。通用的解决方案不是答案！相反，答案是相反的，也就是说，高度个性化的用户界面意识到并适应用户的运动能力。这样的界面可以让人们在控制桌面软件时使用便宜的、现成的日常输入设备，如鼠标、触控板和轨迹球。创建与用户能力相匹配的软件是PI基于能力的设计概念的重点，这项研究扩展了PI之前关于基于能力的设计的工作，使用新的软件工具来推进这种新兴的方法。这些工具将专注于测量和建模目标获取和文本输入，这是计算机输入的两个基础，需要精细的运动控制，使它们成为运动障碍患者的关键挑战。这项工作将分为多个阶段。PI将为运动障碍患者研究标准的和定制的精神运动模型。他将创建并验证一个鼠标干扰器工具，该工具将动态噪音注入未受损的运动流中，以模拟运动受损的表现，从而使基于能力的原型的早期测试更容易。他将创建一个输入观察者工具，可以严格量化用户“在野外”的表现，这需要在实验室任务之外推断用户的意图。然后，他将开发CAMA，一个使用现成输入设备的运动能力评估工具，以及TASK，一个从真实用户界面快速创建任务模型的工具。最后，他将把CAMA和TASK集成到辅助技术提供者的软件包中，以执行评估、预测和创建可访问的“代理目标”。项目成果将包括对运动障碍患者标准和定制精神运动模型的科学调查，发现如何在实验室外严格测量目标获取和文本输入行为，发明和验证运动障碍表现模拟工具，以及创建，验证和部署用于华盛顿大学辅助技术诊所的低成本计算机运动能力评估工具。更广泛的影响：这项研究将使某些类型的残疾人能够享受与他们的能力相匹配的更多可用的软件。它还将导致一种新的设计方法，该方法基于将焦点从残疾转移到能力，以及四个可下载的软件工具，用于改进实验室，现场和临床人类运动性能评估。作为这项研究的一个组成部分，PI计划组织一个本科生夏季研讨会，将信息学和计算机科学的学生与残疾计算机用户聚集在一起，集体集思广益，想出新的访问解决方案。他还将开发面向初高中科学课程的教育单元，让年轻学生体验模拟残疾，并了解科学家和工程师在创造无障碍社会中的作用。

Today's commodity software is ignorant of users' motor abilities. This places the burden of adaptation on people rather than on technology, and forces users either to struggle with off-the-shelf input devices or to procure specialized assistive devices that are expensive, hard to acquire, and infused with social stigmas. Recent approaches like universal design, inclusive design, and design for all acknowledge this problem, but promote an unachievable "one size fits all" ideal. Universal solutions are not the answer! Rather, the answer is the opposite, that is to say highly individualized user interfaces aware of and adapted to users' motor abilities. Such interfaces can enable people to use cheap readily-available everyday input devices like mice, touch pads, and trackballs when controlling desktop software. Creating software that matches users' abilities is the focus of the PI's concept of ability-based design, and this research extends the PI's prior work on ability-based design with new software tools for advancing this nascent methodology. These tools will focus on measuring and modeling target acquisition and text entry, two fundamentals of computer input that demand fine motor control, making them key challenges for people with motor impairments. The work will consist of multiple stages. The PI will investigate standard and custom psychomotor movement models for people with motor impairments. He will create and validate a Mouse Perturber tool that injects kinetic noise into an unimpaired movement stream to create simulated motor-impaired performance, making early-stage testing of ability-based prototypes easier. And he will create an Input Observer tool that can rigorously quantify users' performance "in the wild," which requires the inferring of intention outside directed laboratory tasks. He will then develop CAMA, a tool for motor-ability assessment that uses off-the-shelf input devices, and TASK, a tool for quickly creating task models from real user interfaces. Finally, he will integrate CAMA and TASK into a package for assistive technology providers to perform assessment, prediction, and the creation of accessible "proxy targets." Project outcomes will include a scientific investigation of standard and custom psychomotor movement models for people with motor disabilities, discovery of how to rigorously measure target acquisition and text entry behavior outside the lab, the invention and validation of a simulation tool for motor-impaired performance, and the creation, validation, and deployment of a low-cost computer-based motor-ability assessment tool for use in a University of Washington assistive technology clinic.Broader Impacts: This research will enable people with certain types of disabilities to enjoy more usable software matched to their abilities. It will also lead to a new design methodology predicated on a shift in focus from disability to ability, along with four downloadable software tools for improving laboratory, field, and clinical human motor performance evaluations. As an integral part of this research, the PI plans to organize an undergraduate summer workshop that brings informatics and computer science students together with computer users with disabilities to collectively brainstorm new access solutions. He will also develop an educational unit for middle and high school science classes that enables young students to experience simulated disabilities and learn about the roles of scientists and engineers in creating a barrier-free society.