HCC: Small: MobileAccessibility: Bridge to the World for Blind, Low-Vision, and Deaf-Blind People

全世界有超过1.6亿的盲人、低视力者和聋盲者没有意识到移动革命的全部潜力。这些群体中的人经常使用专用便携式设备来解决特定的可访问性问题，例如从条形码中获取产品信息，通过GPS查找位置信息，以及使用光学字符识别（OCR）访问打印文本。不幸的是，针对这些群体的设备专门用于一种或几种功能，通常没有联网，而且价格昂贵。设备还针对一种残疾，从而防止聋哑人使用为低视力人士设计的设备。能够负担得起的盲人、弱视和聋哑盲人必须携带多种具有不同接口的设备。尽管许多主流移动设备已经拥有必要的传感器，如摄像头、麦克风、GPS定位器、加速度计和指南针，可以在一个设备上提供所有这些功能。MobileAccessibility是PI为盲人、低视力和聋哑用户提供有用的移动可访问功能的方法。这种方法利用智能手机的传感器、多模式输出和对远程服务的访问来降低现有可访问性解决方案的成本，并使创建全新的解决方案成为可能。本项目将解决的这些用户组的一些关键用户交互问题包括：(i)盲人、低视力者或聋盲者如何有效地使用智能手机上的摄像头来实现无障碍目标；（ii）低视力者如何在智能手机的小屏幕上有效地导航放大的演示文稿；（iii）如何有效地利用振动向盲人或聋盲者传达信息；（iv）这些社区如何最好地利用有价值的网络服务。(v)如何在这些社区中有效地获取、储存和使用一个人对其环境的知识。这些应用程序的以用户为中心的设计将在整个开发过程中涉及盲人、低视力者和聋哑人。将为所有三个组构建为研究问题提供上下文的原型应用程序。输入将使用语音识别、触摸屏和键盘。输出将为盲人用户提供音频，为低视力用户提供放大，为聋哑人和盲人用户提供振动和盲文设备。所得到的界面将在实验室和现场进行评估。重点将放在确定可被多个应用程序使用的通用交互技术上。更广泛的影响：这项研究代表了移动辅助技术的新范式，其中单个可编程设备可以满足多种可访问性需求。可访问性解决方案可以下载到单个设备上，而不是使用不同的设备来满足不同的需求。研究的挑战是在这个新范例中设计、构建和评估新的可访问性解决方案。一个可以完成多种可访问性任务的移动电话有可能为目标社区提供比目前更多的独立性。此外，MobileAccessibility解决方案具有比现有的可访问性解决方案更便宜和更可持续的潜力。合格的残疾学生将被招募为研究人员，让他们有机会参与直接影响他们的工作。将创建基于MobileAccessibility的新项目导向课程。

More than 160 million blind, low-vision, and deaf-blind people worldwide have not realized the full potential of the mobile revolution. People in these groups often use special-purpose portable devices to solve specific accessibility problems, such as obtaining product information from bar codes, finding location information via GPS, and accessing printed text using optical character recognition (OCR). Unfortunately, devices targeted at these groups are specialized for one or few functions, usually not networked, and expensive. Devices also target one disability, thereby preventing a deaf-blind person from, for instance, using a device designed for a low-vision person. Blind, low-vision, and deaf-blind people who can afford it must carry multiple devices with varying interfaces. This is despite the fact that many mainstream mobile devices already have the necessary sensors, such as a camera, microphone, GPS locator, accelerometer, and compass, to provide all of these functions on one device. MobileAccessibility is the PI's approach to providing useful mobile accessible functionality to blind, low-vision, and deaf-blind users. This approach leverages a smart phone's sensors, multi-modal output, and access to remote services to reduce the cost of existing accessibility solutions and enable completely new ones to be created. Some key user interaction problems for these groups of users that will be addressed in this project include: (i) how can a blind, low-vision, or deaf-blind person effectively use the camera on a smart phone to achieve an accessibility goal, (ii) how can enlarged presentations be effectively navigated by a low-vision person on the small screen of a smart phone, (iii) how can vibration be effectively used to convey information to a blind or deaf-blind person, (iv) how can valuable network services be best utilized by these communities, (v) how can the knowledge of one person about their environment be effectively captured, stored, and used among these communities. The user-centered design of these applications will involve blind, low-vision, and deaf-blind people throughout their development. Prototype applications to provide context to the research questions will be built for all three groups. Input will use speech recognition, the touch screen, and the keyboard. Output will be audio for blind users, enlargement for low-vision users, and vibration and tethering to Braille devices for deaf-blind and blind users. The resulting interfaces will be evaluated both in the lab and in the field. There will a focus on identifying common interaction techniques that can be employed by multiple applications.Broader Impacts: This research represents a new paradigm in mobile assistive technologies where a single programmable device can serve a multitude of accessibility needs. Rather than using separate devices for different needs, accessibility solutions can be downloaded to a single device. The research challenge is to design, build, and evaluate novel accessibility solutions in this new paradigm. A mobile phone that can accomplish multiple accessibility tasks has the potential to provide the target communities with more independence than they have currently. Furthermore, the MobileAccessibility solution has the potential to be inexpensive and more sustainable than current accessibility solutions. Qualified students with disabilities will be recruited as researchers, giving them a chance to participate in work directly affecting them. New project-oriented curricula based on MobileAccessibility will be created.