More Wobbrock
This was SO INTERESTING. It made me want to run away and do accessibility research.
Wobbrock and his AIM & DUB students have done lots of research with user, screen, stylus combinations. They noticed that people with disabilities frequently used the edge of the screen as a leverage point. Now that stylus technology is being replaced by touch screen technology, how will blind people use touch screens effectively? Wobbrock’s researchers are working on a way to access touch screens in combination with audio prompts.
- reading screen with finger (dragging finger on touchscreen)
- selection with second finger
- flick gestures with natural mapping
- ubiquitous navigation gestures
One of Jason’s subjects with peripheral neuropathy commented- “Why can’t my computer just do the right thing when I type?” It’s a great question…
Jacob and crew are working on something called truekeys- the space bar will attempt to correct typing to commonly recognizable words.
Another project, supple++, is working to generate user interfaces tailored to a person’s individual measured abilities and patterns. Supple++ first guides the user through a series of tasks in order to determine their motor and vision abilities. In a study, 11 motor impaired participants worked with 73% accuracy using the supple interface.
Jacob sez: The world is a button. But, what if the world was a switch? How do we interact with a switch? Can we get rid of pointing altogether, and move towards “goal crossing?” (getting into the right general area on a screen instead of “target acquisition” by clicking on a link, button, etc).
Some of Wobbrock and his students’ many projects-
- Edgewrite
- Barrier pointing
- Sliderule
- Truekeys
- Supple++
- Anglemouse
- Accessible goal crossing
- More AIM projects
- More DUB projects
Ability based design.
Accessibility- potential design for everyone.
WORD.
