Audemes at work: Investigating features of non-speech sounds to maximize content recognition

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

Zenuni

et al. 2015

Self Cite

Massive volumes of information shared on the web together with linked open data initiatives and exabytes of data generated through social networks frequently disorientates and confuses web users in their everyday interaction. Additionally, web users constitute a highly heterogeneous entities with different needs and requirements. Considering this, user adaptive software systems have been developed as a new application approach to ease the interaction between users and web information with the intent to bridge the gap between such presentation and navigational pitfalls. The user adaptive interaction is especially useful when considering a marginalized group such as blind and visually impaired users. This paper attempts at providing an overview of a state-of-the-art survey concerning adaptive interaction between users and web information space with special emphasis on exploiting methods and techniques for adaptive web accessibility for blind and visually impaired people. Likewise, the exploration of possibilities of new methods and techniques for user adapted interaction for blind and visually impaired is highly required in order to alleviate the accessibility according to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Recent studies indicate that even when the guidelines are implemented on web information systems, there is little indication that people with disabilities will gain better accessibility. To address these issues, we introduce various visual and auditory approaches to extend such adaptive methods and techniques for blind and visually impaired.

Section: Canned Multimedia Presentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methods and Techniques of Adaptive Web Accessibility for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Raufi

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

Zenuni

et al. 2015

Self Cite

“…Audemes provide a novel category of non-speech sounds that can be used to represent complex content. They were initially invented and tested with blind and visually impaired users to convey thematic content [37]. They are similar to auditory icons, but are semantically more flexible than other non-speech sounds.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, audemes for content navigation were tested on a touch-screen interface and they were found to be easy to learn, memorable and navigable for visually impaired teenagers [40,41]. In terms of information retaining, audemes were found helpful in reducing memory erosion and even after five months, the content was better remembered with audemes than without them [37,38]. Audemes were found to have potential in scientific applications including gaming and productivity as well as in education as a tool for better memory retention [42].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using non-speech sounds to increase web image accessibility for screen-reader users

Thapa

Proceedings of the 35th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication

2017

Self Cite

Screen-reader users access images on the Web using alternative text delivered via synthetic speech. However, research shows that this is a tedious and unsatisfying experience for blind users, because text-to-speech applications lack expressiveness. This paper, poses an alternative approach using an experiment that compares audemes, a type of non-speech sounds, with alternative text delivered using synthetic speech. In a pilot study with fourteen sighted users, findings show that audemes perform better across many areas. Specifically, audemes required lower mental and temporal demands and led to less effort and frustration and better task performance. Moreover, participants recognized audemes with higher accuracy and lower errors. Audemes were also perceived as more engaging compared to alternative text delivered using synthetic speech. Additionally, audemes were found to be richer in delivering information. This study suggests that non-speech sounds could substitute or complement alternative text when describing images on the Web.

“…In the process of auralizing content and deliver it in a non-visual form, we have successfully developed and evaluated audemes as a novel non-speech sounds to deliver educational content in experiments conducted with K12 students in a visually impaired school in U.S. [5]. Audemes are brief non-speech sounds created of music and sound effect sound snippets referring to natural, artificial or abstract sounds, even popular music.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Modality adaptation approach involves alternative content representation (often non-visual) that facilitate the content accessibility using voice narrators and other non-speech sounds [4,5,11]. These adaptation approaches can be instantiated with a number of techniques especially by utilizing advances in the web technologies in order to increase accessibility of web content.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Web Accessibility for Visually Impaired People: Requirements and Design Issues

Usability- And Accessibility-Focused Requirements Engineering

Vogel

Kurti

et al. 2016

Self Cite

Abstract. Access to web content continues to be a challenge for the visually impaired, as the needs of such community are very diverse. The access is further hindered by the fact that designers continue to build websites noncompliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). To better understand the needs of the visually impaired community, three workshops were organized with various stakeholders coming from three different countries. The results from the workshops suggest that one-solution-fits-all model is inadequate without considering the levels of visual impairment when providing customized web experience. A set of requirements devised from the workshops guided the process of building a middleware prototype. Using eight adaptation techniques, the prototype provides the required user experience based on users level of visual impairment. Preliminary evaluation of the middleware suggests that several adaptation techniques perform better with non-WCAG compliant websites compared to those being compliant.