Transcript Developing Internet Services for People using AAC

World Wide AAC:
Developing Internet Services
for People using AAC
Michael Clarke and Andrew Lysley,
ACE Centre Advisory Trust, Oxford, England
Colette Nicolle and David Poulson,
Research School in Ergonomics and Human Factors,
Loughborough University, England
WWAAC Consortium
Commercial Organisations
– Handicom, The Netherlands
– Modemo, Finland
– MITC, Denmark
– Femtio Procent, Sweden
Service Providers
– DART, Sweden
– ACE Centre, England
Research Institutes
– KTH University, Sweden
– Loughborough University, England
This presentation will:
• Introduce the WWAAC project
• Outline some developments in Internet
accessibility and usability
• Summarise requirements for future
developments identified by people using AAC
and service providers
• Highlight the WWAAC project response
to these requirements
WWAAC Aim
To make Internet services more
accessible to and usable
by people using AAC
Email
Discussion fora
Echat
Web browsing
Taming the Internet
Website design
• www.papunet.net
• http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/meldreth
What we wanted to know
• How are people that use AAC accessing
Internet services?
• What do people using AAC and Service
Providers think of Internet services?
• What are the requirements for improved
accessibility to and usability of Internet
services?
Participants
52 Service providers
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24 England
14 Sweden
7 Netherlands
3 Finland
3 Denmark
1 Spain
29 people using AAC
(age range 12- 42
years, median18 years)
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17
4
2
6
England
Sweden
Finland
Spain
Measures
Service providers
People using AAC
• Interviews
• Observation
• Interviews
- Rich pictures
- Symbol based
Rich Pictures 1
Rich Pictures 2
Rich Pictures 3
Rich Pictures 4
Rich Pictures 5
Service Providers:
experience of Internet services
• 78% substantial or
better experience
of email
• 82% moderate or better
experience of web
browsing
• Only 10% of their
clients were using
Internet services
AAC users: experience of Email
25/29 knew about email
41%
53%
6%
Supported use
Watching others
No use
AAC users:
experience of Web browsing
28/29 knew about web browsing
7%
18%
Supported use
Watching others
No use
75%
Barriers to Internet services
• Physical access to technology
• Complexity of user interface
• Expense of time spent online
particularly for home users
• A perception of limited availability
of specialist software
• Limited technical support and training
• Understanding and handling information
Despite the barriers AAC users
reported:
1. Strong desire for more use
2. Strong desire for independent use
Future requirements Internet services
• Integrated support within applications
– e.g. Wizards to support set-up and maintenance of
email accounts
• Easier integration between applications
– e.g. dedicated AAC devices with computers
Future requirements Internet Services
• Symbol based websites
– Simple text
– Keyword representation
• Symbol - text - symbol transformation
of email and for interaction with websites
• Text to symbol transformation of web based
information
• Web browsers and search engines
– Text to speech
– Audio prompting
Summary
• Common issues across European national
boundaries
• Physical access - some problems identified
reflect difficulties with access to technology in
general
• Managing information - critical to successful
Internet use
Priorities for WWAAC
1a. Adapted utilities for browsing
1b. Guidelines for web designers
1c. Authoring tools for web developers
2. Email
3. Discussion fora and echat
Table of Content
Document URL www.Worldcup2002
Keywords
Beckham, Ferguson, World cup, match
Summary
Michael Clarke
[email protected]
The ACE Centre
92 Windmill Road
Headington
Oxford OX3 7DR
England
Tel: +44 (0)1865 759 800
Fax: +44 (0)1865 759 810
www.wwaac.org