Modeling educational software for people with disabilities

Abstract

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.

A Review on Higher Education for Hearing-Impaired Individuals

“…But if only one channel is utilized, that channel is burdened with both sources of information (Mayer, 2001). Baloian et al (2002) also conducted a research on the modeling educational software for people with disabilities, describing the similarities and differences of modeling the real world for applications tasks with people whom are visually-impaired or hearing-impaired. In their research, they examine two systems; AudioDoom, which let www.ccsenet.org/ass Asian Social Science Vol.…”

“…11, No. 24;2015 79 blind children explore and interact with virtual worlds created using spatial sound, and whisper, which implements a workplace for the hearing-impaired individuals to recognize speech errors, which are showed in a proper way to the learner (Baloian et al, 2002).…”

Visualization for the Mind’s Eye

“…This research and common multi-media software development for disabled (AudioDoom for blind people and Whisper to enhance proficiency in speaking for postlingually deaf people) are being carried out by the authors in a current German and Chilean project funded by the German ministry BMBF and the Universities of Duisburg and (Santiago de) Chile [4,14,21,24]. This cooperation gives us the opportunity to prove or disprove the notion that concept keyboards are useful for blind users.…”

Visualization Learning for Visually Impaired People

“…The perception of 3D shapes is crucial in Education [4]. Didactic material becomes more and more digitalized.…”