Tutorial 4

Enabling Technology for Users with Special Needs

Alan Edwards, Unisys Corporation
Alistair D. N. Edwards, University of York
Elizabeth D. Mynatt, Georgia Institute of Technology

Sunday, May 7

Objective

This tutorial will provide an overview of current practice and research in the field of human-computer interfaces for enabling technology.

Content

This tutorial proposes that the fields of human-computer interaction and assistive technology can learn from each other and work together to design technology that enables all users. The tutorial initiates this discussion by suggesting that we are all disabled and that interfaces should be designed for all users. The tutorial explains US regulations requiring that electronic equipment be accessible by all people. The tutorial examines five major types of disability (mobility, vision, speech, hearing, and cognitive impairments) and surveys current technology and research that enable people with these disabilities. A set of design guidelines is proposed for building enabling technology, and then participants are given a group design problem.

Audience

This introductory-level tutorial is for user interface designers, developers, managers, and researchers. No specific background is required.

Presentation

Lecture, video, demonstration

Instructors

Alan Edwards is a Human Factors Scientist at Unisys. He has the responsibility for promoting accommodation guidelines and access for persons with disabilities as part of the mainstream user interface work. Alistair D. N. Edwards is a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of York, England, and a member of the Human-Computer Interaction Research Group. His principal research interest is the use of multiple modalities of interaction to make computers accessible to people with disabilities. Elizabeth D. Mynatt is a Research Scientist in the Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology where she directs the Mercator Project. The Mercator Environment provides access to GUIs for people who are blind through the use of synthesized speech, nonspeech audio, and spatialized sound.

Keith Instone / instone@acm.org / 95-01-05