SlidePacer

Abstract

Following multimedia lectures in mainstream classrooms is challenging for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students, even when provided with accessibility services. Due to multiple visual sources of information (e.g. teacher, slides, interpreter), these students struggle to divide their attention among several simultaneous sources, which may result in missing important parts of the lecture; as a result, access to information is limited in comparison to their hearing peers, having a negative effect in their academic achievements. In this paper we propose a novel approach to improve classroom accessibility, which focuses on improving the delivery of multimedia lectures. We introduce SlidePacer, a tool that promotes coordination between instructors and sign language interpreters, creating a single instructional unit and synchronizing verbal and visual information sources. We conducted a user study with 60 participants on the effects of SlidePacer in terms of learning performance and gaze behaviors. Results show that SlidePacer is effective in providing increased access to multimedia information; however, we did not find significant improvements in learning performance. We finish by discussing our results and limitations of our user study, and suggest future research avenues that build on these insights.

The Use of Smart Glasses for Lecture Comprehension by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students

“…The slides of both lectures contained text and figures. The video preparation followed the procedure adopted by Brandão et al [1], in which all materials were recorded in unison: the instructor, interpreter and the instructor's computer screen were simultaneously recorded / captured. At playback, all streams were synchronized to maintain the same time relationship as during recording.…”

“…Students talked about the challenge of trying to split their visual attention between the projection on the monocular display and the other information in the room. Other approaches to the problem of visual dispersion have included consolidating visual information sources onto one personal display [2], and controlling the pacing of classroom presentations to provide sufficient time for DHH to view both presentation and accommodation [1,8,9]. None of these options has, yet, demonstrated the comfort or comprehension improvement needed.…”