Accessibility barriers for users of screen readers in the Moodle learning content management system

In recent decades, the use of the Internet has spread rapidly into diverse social spheres including that of education. Currently, most educational centers make use of e-learning environments created through authoring tool applications like learning content management systems (LCMSs). However, most of these applications currently present accessibility barriers that make the creation of accessible e-learning environments difficult for teachers and administrators. In this paper, the accessibility of the Moodle authoring tool, one of the most frequently used LCMSs worldwide, is evaluated. More specifically, the evaluation is carried out from the perspective of two visually impaired users accessing content through screen readers, as well as a heuristic evaluation considering the World Wide Web Consortium’s Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines. The evaluation results demonstrate that Moodle presents barriers for screen reader users, limiting their ability to access the tool. One example of accessibility problems for visually impaired users is the frequent inability to publish learning contents without assistance. In light of these results, the paper offers recommendations that can be followed to reduce or eliminate these accessibility barriers.     

Non-visual access to mobile devices: A survey of touchscreen accessibility for users who are visually impaired

Accessibility revolves around building products, including electronic devices and digital content, so that diverse users can conveniently utilize them, irrespective of their capabilities. In recent years, the concept of touchscreen accessibility has gained a remarkable attention, especially within the considerable reliance on mobile touchscreen devices (MTDs) for information acquisition and dissemination as we witness nowadays. For users who are visually impaired, MTDs unlock different opportunities for independence and functioning. Thus, with the increasing ubiquity of MTDs and their potential extensive utility for all demographics, it becomes paramount to ensure that these devices and the content delivered on them are accessible. And while it might seem straightforward to achieve accessibility on MTDs, attaining this outcome is governed by an interplay between different elements. These involve platform (i.e., operating system) built-in support of accessibility features, content rendering modalities and structures pertaining to user needs and the peculiarities of MTDs as informed in standard accessibility guidelines, user studies uncovering preferences and best practices while interacting with MTDs, national legislations and policies, and the use of third-party devices such as assistive technologies. In this paper, mobile touchscreen accessibility for users who are visually impaired is surveyed with focus on three aspects: (1) the existing built-in accessibility features within popular mobile platforms; (2) the nature of non-visual interaction and how users who are visually impaired access, navigate, and create content on MTDs; and (3) the studies that tackled different issues pertaining to touchscreen accessibility, such as extraction of user needs and interaction preferences, identification of most critical accessibility problems encountered on MTDs, integrating mobile accessibility in standard accessibility guidelines, and investigation of existing guidelines in terms of sufficiency and appropriateness.     

Visually impaired people and the emerging connected TV: a comparative study of TV and Web applications’ accessibility

With the TV signal digitization and the current market growth of connected TVs, the authors envision the appearance of accessibility barriers to visually impaired persons. The paper addresses the following hypothesis: (1) visually impaired users want to extend their TV usage to explore new TV features; (2) TV applications are in less conformance with accessibility guidelines compared to their Desktop versions. Additionally, the authors wanted to assess whether guideline conformance reflected real TV accessibility problems experienced by users. The methods used for this study included surveys aimed at characterizing the interest of the visually impaired population regarding the use of TV, and specifically of Web applications on TV, an automated accessibility evaluation to compare TV and Desktop versions of the same Web application, to understand their conformance with accessibility guidelines, and a user study where participants with visual impairments were asked to perform some tasks on both versions. From the survey, we confirmed that people with visual disabilities are interested in extra features on their TV. Results from the automated accessibility evaluation show that TV applications are in a significantly better level of conformance with accessibility guidelines. The user study has illustrated that users were unable to complete any task using the TV versions of the applications. The results from these studies demonstrated that the new features that come with connected TVs still have a long way to go in order to be accessible by all. Furthermore, they lead us to concur with other works that automated evaluations are not enough to assess the accessibility of a Web page.     

Artificial intelligence for visually impaired

The eyes are an essential tool for human observation and perception of the world, helping people to perform their tasks. Visual impairment causes many inconveniences in the lives of visually impaired people. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the needs of the visually impaired community. Researchers work from different angles to help visually impaired people live normal lives. The advent of the digital age has profoundly changed the lives of the visually impaired community, making life more convenient. Deep learning, as a promising technology, is also expected to improve the lives of visually impaired people. It is increasingly being used in the diagnosis of eye diseases and the development of visual aids. The earlier accurate diagnosis of the eye disease by the doctor, the sooner the patient can receive the appropriate treatment and the better chances of a cure. This paper summarises recent research on the development of artificial intelligence-based eye disease diagnosis and visual aids. The research is divided according to the purpose of the study into deep learning methods applied in diagnosing eye diseases and smart devices to help visually impaired people in their daily lives. Finally, a summary is given of the directions in which artificial intelligence may be able to assist the visually impaired in the future. In addition, this overview provides some knowledge about deep learning for beginners. We hope this paper will inspire future work on the subjects..     

Municipal web sites accessibility and usability for blind users: preliminary results from a pilot study

Despite the existing regulations and standards at national and international level, web content is still difficult to use, if not completely unusable, for visually impaired people. This paper presents the evaluation results for three municipal web sites. A combined method, based on conformance review and expert review, was employed. Overall, the results reveal a low conformance to WCAG2 and many accessibility and usability problems. The content is not properly structured, and this reduces usability even for sighted user. The analysis of the evaluation data suggests that many accessibility barriers could be avoided by adopting a user-centered approach during web design.     

Evaluating interface layout for visually impaired and mobility-impaired users through simulation

The authors have developed a simulator to help with the design and evaluation of assistive interfaces. The simulator can predict possible interaction patterns when undertaking a task using a variety of input devices and estimate the time to complete the task in the presence of different disabilities. This paper presents a study to evaluate the simulator by considering a representative application of searching icons, which was being used by able-bodied, visually impaired and mobility-impaired people. The simulator predicted task completion times for all three groups with statistically significant accuracy. The simulator also predicted the effects of different interface designs on task completion time accurately. The simulator is used to develop inclusive digital TV interfaces. A case study is presented to investigate accessibility requirements of a representative digital TV interface.     

FuzzyQoI model: A fuzzy logic-based modelling of users' quality of interaction with a learning management system under blended learning

Learning management systems (LMSs) in higher education institutions (HEIs) provide the potential for rich learning environments built on social constructivist theories under the concept of blended (b-)learning. An essential factor, however, in determining the efficacy of online teaching–learning is the users' quality of interaction (QoI) with LMSs; yet, in many cases, QoI has not been properly acquired, mainly, due to its inherent qualitative character. Stemming from the latter, this study introduces a new model, namely FuzzyQoI, that, by employing fuzzy logic constructs, it quantitatively estimates the users' (professors' and students') QoI with the LMS Moodle within a b-learning environment. In the FuzzyQoI model, a set of 110 LMS Moodle metrics is considered to form 12 codified inputs to a five-level fuzzy inference system equipped with 600 expert's fuzzy rules. The potential and effectiveness of the realisation of the FuzzyQoI in practice are evaluated from its trialling on LMS data drawn from a large users' database (75 professors and 1037 students), referring to a five-course b-learning process of 51 weeks at a HEI. Experimental results have shown that the proposed FuzzyQoI model efficiently identified (dis)similarities in LMS interaction trends, correlations, distributions and dependencies with the time-period of the LMS use, both for the user-dependent and user-independent (group-like) cases. Consequently, the proposed FuzzyQoI functions as a means for better understanding and explaining the nature of underlying aspects, which influence the users' interaction behaviour under the LMS-based b-learning approach.     

An Open Road Evaluation of a Self-Driving Vehicle Human–Machine Interface Designed for Visually Impaired Users

ABSTRACT

Fully autonomous or “self-driving” vehicles are an emerging technology that may hold tremendous mobility potential for individuals who are visually impaired who have been previously disadvantaged by an inability to operate conventional motor vehicles. Prior studies however, have suggested that these consumers have significant concerns regarding the accessibility of this technology and their ability to effectively interact with it. We present the results of a quasi-naturalistic study, conducted on public roads with 20 visually impaired users, designed to test a self-driving vehicle human–machine interface. This prototype system, ATLAS, was designed in participatory workshops in collaboration with visually impaired persons with the intent of satisfying the experiential needs of blind and low vision users. Our results show that following interaction with the prototype, participants expressed an increased trust in self-driving vehicle technology, an increased belief in its likely usability, an increased desire to purchase it and a reduced fear of operational failures. These findings suggest that interaction with even a simulated self-driving vehicle may be sufficient to ameliorate feelings of distrust regarding the technology and that existing technologies, properly combined, are promising solutions in addressing the experiential needs of visually impaired persons in similar contexts.     

Enhancing formal e‐learning with edutainment on social networks

This paper reports on the investigation of the possibilities of enhancing the formal e‐learning process by harnessing the potential of informal game‐based learning on social networks. The goal of the research is to improve the outcomes of the formal learning process through the design and implementation of an educational game on a social network and its integration with a learning management system (LMS) of an educational institution. As a proof of concept, a Facebook educational game that enables students to learn and test their knowledge was developed. Furthermore, the game was integrated with the Moodle LMS and the evaluation was performed within the e‐learning system at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade. The results show that the application of social network edutainment in an e‐learning ecosystem has a positive impact on both the students' results and their satisfaction with the learning process as a whole.     

Blind users’ expectations of touch interfaces: factors affecting interface accessibility of touchscreen-based smartphones for people with moderate visual impairment

Universal Access in the Information Society - Although current touchscreen-based smartphones are equipped with some accessibility functions for visually impaired people, these users still face...     

Computer vision-based object recognition for the visually impaired in an indoors environment: a survey

Though several electronic assistive devices have been developed for the visually impaired in the past few decades, however, relatively few solutions have been devised to aid them in recognizing generic objects in their environment, particularly indoors. Nevertheless, research in this area is gaining momentum. Among the various technologies being utilized for this purpose, computer vision based solutions are emerging as one of the most promising options mainly due to their affordability and accessibility. This paper provides an overview of the various technologies that have been developed in recent years to assist the visually impaired in recognizing generic objects in an indoors environment with a focus on approaches based on computer vision. It aims to introduce researchers to the latest trends in this area as well as to serve as a resource for developers who wish to incorporate such solutions into their own work.     

盲人数字图书馆设计策略的研究

从页面设计和功能设计两个模块来阐述,提出了盲人数字图书馆的设计策略,旨在通过提高盲人数字图书馆的易访问性来使盲人和视障用户便利地访问网站,获取自己所需要的信息。     

盲人数字图书馆设计策略的研究

从页面设计和功能设计两个模块来阐述,提出了盲人数字图书馆的设计策略,旨在通过提高盲人数字图书馆的易访问性来使盲人和视障用户便利地访问网站,获取自己所需要的信息。     

Development of an electronic book accessibility standard for physically challenged individuals and deduction of a production guideline

Unlike popular web-based internet and mobile applications, electronic books and similar products have lower distribution and less accessibility, making them difficult for vulnerable social groups to utilize. Various institutions have proposed electronic publication (EPUB) accessibility guidelines, based on the IDEF modeling language, to provide accessible content for electronic publications. However, these are merely guidelines for securing accessibility of common electronic books. They are not geared toward the visually impaired persons. Moreover, even if accessibility standards exist, it becomes even more difficult to then find examination tools that can fully verify standards compliance. This study establishes an electronic book accessibility standard for the physically challenged individuals, based on the EPUB 3.0 accessibility guideline. We developed an automatic/semi-automatic examination tool that can test the standard. We linked the SIGIL electronic book reader, having the highest market share in Korea, to an examination tool to verify error detection performance. Lastly, an accessibility test was performed on 50 electronic books, commercially used in the Korean electronic book market, to assess which accessibility standard domain is the most problematic. Thus, we propose a guideline on matters that should be considered when writing electronic books in Korea.     

The use of simulated visual impairment to identify hospital design elements that contribute to wayfinding difficulties

Many public facility layouts have been developed with little consideration of the visually impaired, producing difficult and unpleasant wayfinding experiences. Not all wayfinding elements can be applied universally to all environments; several wayfinding elements are specific to the type of industry being considered. No known research has been conducted within healthcare systems to find wayfinding limitations among visually impaired users during the navigation process. The purpose of this study was to analyze the current issues in a wayfinding task for the visually impaired and normally sighted to identify wayfinding design deficits. Normally-sighted participants (m = 25, f = 25) wore one of five different vision simulator goggles to simulate a specific visual impairment (diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, and hemianopsia) and were then given directions how to get to specific series of departments within a hospital campus. Participants then navigated a second time (using a different, but similar series of paths) without the vision simulator goggles (normal vision) so comparisons could be made. During participant wayfinding, behaviors such as stopping, looking around, touching walls, becoming lost and/or confused were recorded by location of each instance on a map. Questionnaires asking about the surrounding environment were completed after each condition. The results of this study identified several design elements involving signage, paths/target sites, lighting and flooring that created wayfinding issues for both experimental conditions. The effects of the wayfinding issues on participants ranged from tripping to becoming lost in the surrounding environment. Enhancing wayfinding for the most highly visually impacted individuals may also improve wayfinding for those with normal vision via universal design. The hospital design flaws identified by this study provide key areas and elements (not previously investigated) for further research studies to analyze more comprehensively and ultimately provide sound design recommendations to enhance effective wayfinding.

Relevance to the industry

This paper offers information relevant to a growing healthcare sector facing an aging population with growing needs. Applying organizational, architectural and design principles from this paper can lead to improved patient satisfaction, safety and patient flow within the hospital setting for the visually impaired and others without visual impairment.     

Blind and visually impaired people studying computer science and mathematics

The author runs an educational experiment at his university where blind and visually impaired people can study computer science or mathematics under conditions adequate to their disabilities. The project is now in its first semester. The paper reveals the problems blind and visually impaired students are presently facing, and it describes the methods used in our educational experiment to overcome these difficulties. It also reports our experience with the project gained so far. An appendix is devoted to a brief survey about the technology used to make computers accessible to blind and visually impaired people.     

The interaction experiences of visually impaired people with assistive technology: A case study of smartphones

Globally, the number of visually impaired people is large and increasing. Many assistive technologies are being developed to help visually impaired people, because they still have difficulty accessing assistive technologies that have been developed from a technology-driven perspective. This study applied a user-centered perspective to get different and hopefully deeper understanding of the interaction experiences. More specifically, this study focused on identifying the unique interaction experiences of visually impaired people when they use a camera application on a smartphone. Twenty participants conducted usability testing using the retrospective think aloud technique. The unique interaction experiences of visually impaired people with the camera application, and relevant implications for designing assistive technologies were analyzed.Relevance to industryThe considerations for conducting usability testing and the results of this study are expected to contribute to the design and evaluation of new assistive technologies based on smartphones.     

Ontology-assisted automatic precise information extractor for visually impaired inhabitants

As the internet grows rapidly, millions of web pages are being added on a daily basis. The extraction of precise information is becoming more and more difficult as the volume of data on the internet increases. Several search engines and information fetching tools are available on the internet, all of which claim to provide the best crawling facilities. For the most part, these search engines are keyword based. This poses a problem for visually impaired people who want to get the full use from online resources available to other users. Visually impaired users require special aid to get?along with any given computer system. Interface and content management are no exception, and special tools are required to facilitate the extraction of relevant information from the internet for visually impaired users. The HOIEV (Heavyweight Ontology Based Information Extraction for Visually impaired User) architecture provides a mechanism for highly precise information extraction using heavyweight ontology and built-in vocal command system for visually impaired internet users. Our prototype intelligent system not only integrates and communicates among different tools, such as voice command parsers, domain ontology extractors and short message engines, but also introduces an autonomous mechanism of information extraction (IE) using heavyweight ontology. In this research we designed domain specific heavyweight ontology using OWL 2 (Web Ontology Language 2) and for axiom writing we used PAL (Protégé Axiom Language). We introduced a novel autonomous mechanism for IE by developing prototype software. A series of experiments were designed for the testing and analysis of the performance of heavyweight ontology in general, and our information extraction prototype specifically.     

Supporting visually impaired children with software agents in a multimodal learning environment

Visually impaired children have a great disadvantage in the modern society since their ability to use modern computer technology is limited due to inappropriate user interfaces. The aim of the work presented in this paper was to develop a multimodal software architecture and applications to support learning of visually impaired children. The software architecture is based on software agents, and has specific support for visual, auditory and haptic interaction. It has been used successfully with different groups of 7-8 year-old and 12 year-old visually impaired children. In this paper we discuss the enabling software technology and interaction techniques aimed to realize our goal and our experiences in the actual use of the system.