Tactile colour pictogram to improve artwork appreciation of people with visual impairments

A recent development in tactile technology enables an improvement in the appreciation of the visual arts for people with visual impairment (PVI). The tactile sense, in conjunction with, or a possibly as an alternative to, the auditory sense, would allow PVIs to approach artwork in a more self‐driven and engaging way that would be difficult to achieve with just an auditory stimulus. Tactile colour pictograms (TCPs), which are raised geometric patterns, are ideographic characters that are designed to enable PVIs to identify colours and interpret information by touch. In this article, three TCPs are introduced to code colours in the Munsell colour system. Each colour pattern consists of a basic cell size of 10 mm × 10 mm to represent the patterns consistently in terms of regular shape. Each TCP consists of basic geometric patterns that are combined to create primary, secondary, and tertiary colour pictograms of shapes indicating colour hue, intensity and lightness. Each TCP represents 29 colours including six hues; they were then further expanded to represent 53 colours. Two of them did not increase the cell size, the other increased the cell size 1.5 times for some colours, such as yellow‐orange, yellow, blue, and blue‐purple. Our proposed TCPs use a slightly larger cell size compared to most tactile patterns currently used to indicate colour, but code for more colours. With user experience and identification tests, conducted with 23 visually impaired adults, the effectiveness of the TCPs suggests that they were helpful for the participants.     

Investigating the Social Dimensions of Transport Disadvantage II: From Concepts to Methods through an Empirical Case Study

This article is the second of two papers that review the field of spatially sensitive social scientific research into the links between social status and transport disadvantage. The first paper undertook a comprehensive review of the social scientific and transport planning literature to mark the level of development in the field and identify conceptual and methodological issues and constraints in this field of inquiry. The present article supports the advancement of socially and geographically sensitive transport research by opportunities for the development of more sophisticated spatial analytical methodologies. The approach we present is able to account for factors not previously addressed in either social or transport planning research, in particular the temporal dimensions of transport service accessibility. The article articulates the methodology through an empirical case study of socio-spatial transport disadvantage within the Gold Coast City. The article demonstrates that there are important theoretical and practical lessons to be gained for researchers and policy makers in addressing the social dimensions of transport and infrastructure provision. Further, the article argues that an attentiveness to new ways of combining and representing social and transport data-sets can promote policy relevant empirical social inquiry. The article also contributes in a productive way to the empirical knowledge of Australia's sixth-largest metropolitan area, which is often overlooked by urban scholars.     

Website accessibility: a survey of local e-government websites and legislation in Northern Ireland

The provision of accessible websites is a legal requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which applies throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Equality (disability, etc.) (Northern Ireland) Order 2000. A survey of local e-government websites indicated that few local councils in the devolved administration of Northern Ireland offered websites which were adequately usable by people with a disability, yet most citizen-government transactions occur at the local level. Design for all has obvious commercial benefits, but it has also become a legal obligation, and application of accessible design principles should improve the online experience of all users.     

Contact with out-group friends as a predictor of meta-attitudinal strength and accessibility of attitudes toward gay men.

Two studies examined the effects of cross-group friendships on heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men. In Study 1, the authors tested the effects of cross-group friendships with gay men on out-group attitudes, meta-attitudinal strength, and attitude accessibility. The authors simultaneously explored mediational effects of intergroup anxiety. Path analysis showed that cross-group friendships were associated with meta-attitudinally stronger and more accessible out-group attitudes, and the effects on all 3 criterion variables were mediated by intergroup anxiety. In Study 2, the authors sought to replicate the basic results of Study 1, while additionally exploring mediational effects of closeness of cross-group friendship and moderational effects of perceived group typicality. Structural equation modeling showed that cross-group friendships were associated with meta-attitudinally stronger and more accessible out-group attitudes; friendships had indirect effects on all 3 criterion variables, via closeness of friendship and intergroup anxiety. Closeness of friendship only predicted lower intergroup anxiety, however, when the out-group friend was perceived as highly typical. The authors emphasize the importance of considering the nature of out-group attitudes more completely when evaluating the effectiveness of intergroup contact in reducing prejudice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

特种车辆维修空间可达性评价方法研究

可达性作为维修性的定性指标,缺少定量评价的方法。传统方法只针对装备的整体进行定性评价,不能对不同的等级维修和单个维修动作进行评价。通过对维修性设计中的结构性因素进行分析,得到了空间可达性的主要影响因素。在虚拟维修仿真平台的基础上对工具旋转角度和作业空间比进行了量化评分,给出了针对维修作业过程中单个零部件拆卸的空间可达性评价方法。单个动作评价方法为等级维修的整体空间可达性评价提供了数据基础,并为新型特种车辆的维修方案论证和研制的空间可达性评价提供了手段。     

考虑出行方向的广州出租车时空可达性研究

出行方向是可达性研究中的一个关键要素, 因此, 提出一种考虑出行方向的出租车时空可达性分析方法。根据出租车经验路径分方向构建经验等级路网, 采用基于分层路网的Dijkstra算法计算得到各OD对之间的行程时间, 作为可达性评价指标, 并采用网格法和反距离加权插值法绘制得到广州市中心商业区等时线及其渲染图, 分方向、分时段对其时空可达性进行分析。结果证明了不同出行方向下, 特别是处于高峰时段, 可达性有较大的不同。     

Irish Archaeological Data: Toward a Framework

The EU co-funded project Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Dataset Networking in Europe (ARIADNE) aims to integrate data and services across Europe for the archaeological research community. The Discovery Programme has investigated data holdings and management practices in Irish archaeology, focusing on what information is available in physical and digital forms, approaches to preservation and accessibility, and the challenges and opportunities around dataset networking with Irish archaeological data. While significant work will be required to enable the accessibility expected by researchers now and in future, there is also an opportunity to approach the challenges of digital preservation as a community.     

The Art of the Accessibility Statement

ABSTRACT

Many libraries recognize the need to create Web sites accessible to users with disabilities, as legislated in U.S. Code Section 508, but Section 508 compliance defines a minimum legal level of accessibility. The same technology that can make a Web site available to users with disabilities can also make the site available to users with wireless devices, such as PDAs and cell phones, with Internet access. To bring about “maximum accessibility,” library Web designers need to implement Web standards. This article argues the place to begin implementing these standards is with an accessibility statement which serves as both a contract and a navigational aid.     

Taking control of web browsing

Adherence to accessibility guidelines for Web pages does not necessarily guarantee a usable or satisfying Web experience for all persons with disabilities. The needs of many of these individuals fall outside the guidelines for accessible content that most Web authors take into consideration. Many of these users wish, for example, that they simply could ‘enlarge’ what is on a Web page. They also express the wish that pages would be ‘less confusing’. To meet these needs, Web browsers and various software applications provide for a variety of ways in which page presentations can be altered. The effects of these alterations often have unexpected consequences. Some designs accommodate these alterations better than others. This article discusses one such application that allows users to control features of Web page presentation and explores design features that facilitate such control.