Making VRML accessible for people with disabilities

Ressler, Sandy; Wang, Qiming

doi:10.1145/274497.274525

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Sound provides a rich set of resources that complement visual access to a virtual world. The four types of audio examined by Ressler and Wang (1998) are ambient background music, jingles, spoken descriptions, and speech synthesis. Ambient music can play and vary as the user moves from one room to another, providing an intuitive location cue.…”

Section: Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A model to design interactive learning environments for children with visual disabilities

Sánchez

2007

Educ Inf Technol

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Current interactive learning environments cannot be accessed by learners with disabilities, in particular for students with vision disabilities. Modeling techniques are necessary to map real-world experiences to virtual worlds by using 3D auditory representations of objects for blind people. In this paper, a model to design multimedia software for blind learners is presented. The model was validated with existing educational software for these users. We describe the modeling of the real world including cognitive usability testing tasks by considering not only the representation of the real world but also modeling the learner's knowledge of the virtual world. The software architecture is also described by using this model, displaying the components needed to impact learning. Finally, we analyze critical issues in designing software for learners with visual disabilities and propose some recommendations and guidelines.

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Section: Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A model to design interactive learning environments for children with visual disabilities

Sánchez

2007

Educ Inf Technol

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“…Sound provides a rich set of resources which complement visual access to a virtual world. The four types of audio examined by Ressler and Wang [11] are ambient background music, jingles, spoken descriptions, and speech synthesis. Ambient music can play and vary as the user moves from one room to another, providing an intuitive location cue.…”

Section: The Implementation Design -Icons and Earconsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We believe that in many cases it is more appropriate to model the interface first and then try to represent this as a logic structure using auditory or haptic resources. This idea was first proposed by Savidis et al [21] and Ressler and Wang [11], who developed a methodology for making synthetic virtual worlds accessible to the visually and physically impaired.…”

Section: Software Architecture and Tools For Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling educational software for people with disabilities

Baloian¹,

Luther²,

Sánchez

2002

Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies

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Interactive multimedia learning systems are not suitable for people with disabilities. They tend to propose interfaces which are not accessible for learners with vision or auditory disabilities. Modeling techniques are necessary to map real world experiences to virtual worlds by using 3D auditory representations of objects for blind people and visual representations for deaf people. In this paper we describe common aspects and differences in the process of modeling the real world for applications involving tests and evaluations of cognitive tasks with people with reduced visual or auditory cues. To validate our concepts, we examine two existing systems using them as examples: AudioDoom and Whisper. AudioDoom allows blind children to explore and interact with virtual worlds created with spatial sound. Whisper implements a workplace to help people with impaired auditory abilities to recognize speech errors. The new common model considers not only the representation of the real world as proposed by the system but also the modeling of the learner's knowledge about the virtual world. This can be used by the tutoring system to enable the learner to receive relevant feedback. Finally, we analyze the most important characteristics in developing systems by comparing and evaluating them and proposing some recommendations and guidelines.

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