Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

This paper proposes a listed sign language system that combines written expressions in table form with sign language fragments. The system generates urgent video style messages that offer rapid, certain, and easy understanding for environments such as railway carriages. We developed a prototype of the system and conducted an evaluation experiment. The results show that the system improves the level of understanding urgent messages. Participants confirmed that the messages scored highly in terms of ease of understanding, high accuracy, rapid understanding, and sense of security.

Within ASK-IT project, an extensive survey of the needs of elderly and disabled travelers using infomobility services has been performed. More specifically, 39 past and on-going research projects have been reviewed, having a common aim to ASK-IT. The user needs that have emerged after the testing of the developed systems are highlighted in this document for the transport and tourism areas. Results do not refer only to the visual and acoustical HMI of systems and services for information provision while traveling, but also to the content and the design aspects of the HMI, in order to satisfy accessibility.

Eighty percent of seniors have some type of functional impairment that impacts one or more activities of daily living. This paper focuses on the use of assistive technology devices to support elders with successful aging. A variety of assistive technology devices and their utilization by elders are explored.

Though the Web and those who use it have changed considerably in the last decade, a digital divide between older and younger users persists. Older users still use the Web less than younger users, and more commonly experience significant usability issues when they do. With the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies, we have the ability to close that divide and ensure the Web is universally usable for people of all ages. It requires taking what we know of “senior surfer” requirements and applying them to Web 2.0 interfaces. This paper examines the changing nature of the Web, the Senior Web user, and assesses how Web 2.0 technologies can – but do not yet - improve universal access for everyone. Pilot studies support these hypotheses; future studies are planned to further examine these issues.

Aging implies a general decrease of physical and mental fitness, which, however, largely depends on training. Additionally, individual impairments occur more frequently with age. Three studies show that most elderly people struggle with the application of modern technologies, although physical communication is only slowed but not impaired and handling characteristics do not significantly differ from younger persons. Most usability problems originate from a lack of understanding the complex interaction of menu control. Former education and missing experience then tend to augment usability problems with time. Using the example of a mobile phone prototype it is shown that, despite the complex and inconsistent needs of elderly, the usability obstacles can be vanquished by considering the hierarchy of cause-effect relationships for design.

We report on a study exploring the use of voice commands by older adults browsing the Web. We sought to develop an understanding of how such commands might make Web navigation and access to Web accessibility transformations easier. The results suggested a number of surprising difficulties in using spoken commands. Some were due to general confusions about how to use the browser. Some were due to mismatches between what was natural to say versus what was natural to do with a mouse. We review some of these difficulties and discuss possible underlying reasons. Finally, we suggest interface changes that would make an otherwise well-engineered user interface better suited for voice commands.

Older adults have difficulties in using unfamiliar IT appliances because they look poor to learn operations in trial-and-error fashion. To find a different way for older adults to learn operations effectively, an experiment like usability testing with Electronic Program Guide (EPG) system on a HDD/DVD recorder was executed. Unfocused general information was not helpful for learning new operations. Repeated practice of basic operations with timely help-guidance messages facilitated the acquisition of targeted elementary actions and made them easy to learn new elementary actions as well as new complicated operations. It was suggested that older adults could learn better from successful operations than from trial-and-errors, which may induce harmful error spiral. It is necessary to investigate how to avoid error spiral in self-learning environment in home use.

Improving the quality of life of elderly people is an emerging issue within our information society for both research and development. This paper addresses some issues on the development of applications for mobile devices, which have been designed to enhance the quality of life of the growing number of elderly people, and how they can be made more acceptable to the target population. We summarize some relevant issues in order to devise a research methodology to cover more than just the technological and physical aspects of user interfacing but also psychological and sociological aspects. One aspect of achieving this aim is to confront designers and developers with those problems that the elderly face daily and which are not easily understood – especially by younger designers and developers. Finally, we present some issues on how to simulate certain physical constraints of elderly by using the AgeSim, which is a simulation suit. However, not only physical but also cognitive impairment cause problems amongst elderly and result in fear, anxiety and consequently in rejection. The main goal of this paper is to raise awareness amongst developers on which problems are to be taken into considerations during design and development of mobile applications for the elderly.

This study investigated the optimal button size and spacing for touch screen user interfaces intended for use by older adults. Current recommendations in the literature are aimed at general audiences and fail to consider the specific needs of older adults. Three independent variables, button size, button spacing, and manual dexterity were studied in two experiments that measured reaction time, accuracy and user preferences. Design recommendations for touch screen button size and spacing for older adults are stated based on these experiments. The paper also discusses the role of manual dexterity in designing appropriate touch screen interfaces for older adults.

Wireless broadband networks for home environment present us with many challenges unfamiliar in more public settings. At home, we encounter the end-users with little ICT experience. Probably among the most challenging members of the home network are the elderly, who may have demanding needs for ensuring accessibility. Either living in a joined community as in a home for the elderly or at home on their own, the possibility to have a remote connection to the homes of their extended family may become important by e.g. decreasing mobility. Interconnectivity between various heterogeneous networks across multiple homes means for example situations where the family shares a photo album or web server with various pieces located at different homes. In this paper, we identify usability challenges presented by internetworking multiple homes, with a special focus on universal accessibility.