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• WeLi: A Smartwatch Application to Assist Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

  Hui Zheng, Vivian Genaro Motti · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This poster paper presents WeLi (Wearable Life), a smartwatch application designed to assist students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) in post-secondary educational environments. The system was developed for and deployed at Mason Life, a programme at…

  wearable technology · intellectual disability · developmental disability · special education · self-regulation

• Understanding Fatigue and Stamina Management Opportunities and Challenges in Wheelchair Basketball

  Patrick Carrington, Denzel Ketter, Amy Hurst · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper investigates the current use and future potential of wearable fitness technologies for stamina and fatigue management in wheelchair basketball — a team sport originally created for paraplegic athletes that now includes people with a range of physical abilities. The…

  adaptive sports · wearable technology · wheelchair · fitness tracking · physical disability

• Investigating Microinteractions for People with Visual Impairments and the Potential Role of On-Body Interaction

  Uran Oh, Lee Stearns, Alisha Pradhan, Jon E. Froehlich, Leah Findlater · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper investigates how well microinteractions — brief, high-frequency mobile tasks that take sighted users only a few seconds to complete — are currently supported for people who are blind or visually impaired (VI). While modern smartphones are reasonably accessible through…

  microinteraction · on-body interaction · visual impairment · wearable technology · mobile accessibility

• "But, I Don't Want/Need a Power Wheelchair": Toward Accessible Power Assistance for Manual Wheelchairs

  Dafne Zuleima Morgado Ramirez, Catherine Holloway · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper explores the needs, expectations, and experiences of manual wheelchair users regarding power assist devices — motorized attachments that augment a manual wheelchair's propulsion without converting it into a full power wheelchair. Manual wheelchair users face…

  wheelchair accessibility · assistive technology · participatory design · physical disability · spinal cord injury

• "Hands On" Visual Recognition for Visually Impaired Users

  Joan Sosa-García, Francesca Odone · 2017 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents a collaborative visual recognition system designed to help blind or visually impaired (BVI) users identify specific product instances — distinguishing between brands, models, or types of objects that feel similar when handled. While BVI individuals can often…

  visual impairment · object recognition · computer vision · assistive technology · wearable technology

• WearMail: On-the-Go Access to Information in Your Email with a Privacy-Preserving Human Computation Workflow

  Saiganesh Swaminathan, Raymond Fok, Fanglin Chen, Ting-Hao (Kenneth) Huang, Irene Lin, Rohan Jadvani, Walter S. Lasecki, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2017 · Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2017)

  WearMail is a conversational system that extracts specific information from a user's email via voice queries on wearable devices (such as smartwatches), using a novel privacy-preserving human computation workflow. The system addresses the challenge that email functions as…

  crowdsourcing · human computation · privacy · wearable technology · information extraction

• TactBack: VibroTactile braille output using smartphone and smartwatch for visually impaired

  Aritra Dhar, Aditya Nittala, Kuldeep Yadav · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This extended abstract presents TactBack, a system that uses vibration patterns on off-the-shelf smartphones and smartwatches to convey braille characters haptically. The system was motivated by the limitations of audio-based screen reader feedback (TalkBack) for visually…

  braille · haptic technology · wearable technology · visual impairment · deafblindness

• Wearables for All: Development of Guidelines to Stimulate Accessible Wearable Technology Design

  Jobke Wentzel, Eric Velleman, Thea van der Geest · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Twente and The Accessibility Foundation (Netherlands) presents the rationale and methodology for developing accessibility guidelines specifically for wearable technology — a domain where no dedicated accessibility standards existed at the time.…

  wearable technology · universal design · guidelines · visual impairment · multimodal interaction

• Developing a Wearable Tactile Prototype to Support Situational Awareness

  Flynn Wolf · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This doctoral consortium paper from UMBC describes dissertation research into head-mounted tactile displays for spatial and situational awareness, with applications for people who are blind and those experiencing situational impairments. The research program is grounded in…

  haptic technology · wearable technology · tactile accessibility · blindness · situational impairment

• Tactile Accessibility: Does Anyone Need a Haptic Glove?

  Andrii Soviak, Anatoliy Borodin, Vikas Ashok, Yevgen Borodin, Yury Puzis, I.V. Ramakrishnan · 2016 · Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This paper presents FeelX, a low-cost haptic glove system designed to enable blind users to tactilely explore graphical user interfaces (GUIs) by moving their hands on any flat surface such as a desk or table. The fundamental problem addressed is that screen readers reduce…

  blindness · haptic technology · tactile accessibility · screen reader · GUI accessibility

• Designing Wearable Mobile Device Controllers for Blind People: A Co-Design Approach

  Catherine Feng · 2016 · Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This poster paper explores the design space of wearable controllers that enable blind people to operate their smartphones more efficiently while on the go, without needing to directly interact with the phone's touchscreen. Blind people rely heavily on mobile phones for…

  blindness · wearable technology · mobile accessibility · co-design · interaction design

• Ad-Hoc Access to Musical Sound for Deaf Individuals

  Benjamin Petry, Thavishi Illandara, Juan Pablo Forero, Suranga Nanayakkara · 2016 · Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This poster paper presents MuSS-Bits (Music Sensory Substitution Bits), a wearable sensor-display system that enables deaf individuals to explore musical sound from various audio sources with real-time vibrotactile feedback. While existing sensory substitution systems for music…

  deaf and hard of hearing · music accessibility · sensory substitution · haptic technology · wearable technology

• Evaluating Haptic and Auditory Directional Guidance to Assist Blind People in Reading Printed Text Using Finger-Mounted Cameras

  Lee Stearns, Ruofei Du, Uran Oh, Yumeng Wang, Leah Findlater, Rama Chellappa, Jon E. Froehlich · 2016 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents HandSight, a finger-mounted camera system that enables blind people to read printed text by tracing their finger across lines while receiving real-time directional guidance to stay on track. The research addresses a significant gap in print accessibility:…

  blindness · wearable technology · haptic feedback · auditory feedback · OCR

• Sign Transition Modeling and a Scalable Solution to Continuous Sign Language Recognition for Real-World Applications

  Kehuang Li, Zhengyu Zhou, Chin-Hui Lee · 2016 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents a scalable framework for continuous sign language recognition (SLR) designed to work in real-world conditions using affordable hardware. The researchers address a fundamental challenge in SLR: modeling the transitions between signs. Unlike spoken language…

  sign language recognition · hidden Markov models · machine learning · deaf and hard of hearing · wearable technology

• WearWrite: Crowd-Assisted Writing from Smartwatches

  Michael Nebeling, Alexandra To, Anhong Guo, Adrian A. de Freitas, Jaime Teevan, Steven P. Dow, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2016 · Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2016)

  WearWrite is a system that enables users to write documents from their smartwatches by leveraging crowd workers to translate ideas into text. The system addresses the fundamental limitation that smartwatches have severely constrained input/output — touch-based text input is…

  crowdsourcing · wearable technology · human computation · collaborative writing · mobile accessibility

• Just-in-Time Cognitive Assessment and Task Recommendation for Individuals with Cognitive Impairments

  Sean-Ryan Smith · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This doctoral consortium paper proposes a mobile system that performs just-in-time cognitive assessment for people with cognitive impairments (CI), then uses those assessment results to recommend tasks the individual is most likely to be able to perform independently. The core…

  cognitive impairment · cognitive assessment · cognitive rehabilitation · assistive technology · mobile accessibility

• Haptic Gloves for Audio-Tactile Web Accessibility

  Andrii Soviak · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This doctoral consortium paper proposes FeelX, a haptic glove system that would enable blind users to explore web page layouts through touch on any flat surface such as a desk or table. The core problem is that screen readers linearise web pages into a one-dimensional sequence…

  blindness · haptic technology · tactile interface · screen reader · web accessibility

• What Not to Wearable: Using Participatory Workshops to Explore Wearable Device Form Factors for Blind Users

  Michele A. Williams, Erin Buehler, Amy Hurst, Shaun K. Kane · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper documents two participatory design workshops conducted with a team of eight visually impaired adults to explore features and form factors for a wearable navigation device. The research team met monthly over nine months as a "design team," with two sessions dedicated…

  wearable technology · participatory design · blind users · navigation · assistive technology

• ApplianceReader: A Wearable, Crowdsourced, Vision-based System to Make Appliances Accessible

  Anhong Guo, Xiang "Anthony" Chen, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2015 · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts

  This work-in-progress paper presents ApplianceReader, a wearable system that combines a point-of-view camera (Google Glass) with crowdsourcing and computer vision to make everyday appliance control panels accessible to people with visual impairments. The system addresses a…

  appliance accessibility · crowdsourcing · computer vision · wearable technology · blindness

• VisAural: A Wearable Sound-Localisation Device for People with Impaired Hearing

  Benjamin M. Gorman · 2014 · ASSETS '14: Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility

  This paper presents VisAural, a wearable device that converts sound direction information into visual cues for people with hearing impairments. The system addresses a gap left by conventional hearing aids, which help with general sound detection but do not preserve spatial…

  hearing impairments · wearable technology · sound localisation · sensory substitution · assistive technology

• Headlock: A Wearable Navigation Aid that Helps Blind Cane Users Traverse Large Open Spaces

  Alexander Fiannaca, Ilias Apostolopoulous, Eelke Folmer · 2014 · ASSETS '14: Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility

  This paper presents HEADLOCK, a navigation aid for optical head-mounted displays (OHMDs) like Google Glass that helps blind cane users traverse large open spaces—environments that are particularly challenging because they lack the tactile features (walls, corridors, floor…

  visual impairment · blindness · navigation · wayfinding · wearable technology

• Design of and Subjective Response to On-body Input for People with Visual Impairments

  Uran Oh, Leah Findlater · 2014 · Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper investigates on-body input — using the skin as an input surface — as an alternative or complement to touchscreen interaction for people with visual impairments. Since blind users do not need the visual display of a mobile device, on-body input offers potential…

  mobile accessibility · on-body interaction · gesture interaction · blindness · wearable technology

• Headlock: A Wearable Navigation Aid that Helps Blind Cane Users Traverse Large Open Spaces

  Alexander Fiannaca, Ilias Apostolopoulous, Eelke Folmer · 2014 · Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demo paper presents HEADLOCK, a navigation aid built for an optical head-mounted display (HMD) that helps blind cane users traverse large open spaces — environments like building foyers, plazas, and parking lots that lack the tactile boundaries (walls, curbs, fences) that…

  blind navigation · wearable technology · head-mounted display · computer vision · sonification

• Expression: A Google Glass Based Assistive Solution for Social Signal Processing

  ASM Iftekhar Anam, Shahinur Alam, Mohammed Yeasin · 2014 · Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demo paper presents Expression, a Google Glass-based assistive system that enables blind and visually impaired users to perceive non-verbal social signals during face-to-face conversations. Limited access to non-verbal cues — facial expressions, gestures, body language — is…

  blindness · wearable technology · facial expression recognition · social interaction · Google Glass

• A Google Glass App to Help the Blind in Small Talk

  Mohammad Iftekhar Tanveer, Mohammed Ehsan Hoque · 2014 · Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demo paper presents a Google Glass prototype that helps blind individuals initiate small talk by automatically analysing a scene to detect the number of people present, their approximate ages, and gender distribution, then synthesising this information as speech feedback…

  blindness · Google Glass · wearable technology · computer vision · face detection