Accelerometer & spatial audio technology: making touch-screen mobile devices accessible

Authors:
Flaithri Neff;Tracey J. Mehigan;Ian Pitt
Affiliations:
Dep't Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland;Dep't Computer Science, University College Cork, Ireland;Dep't Computer Science, University College Cork, Ireland
Venue:
ICCHP'10 Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Computers helping people with special needs: Part I
Year:
2010

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Abstract

As mobile-phone design moves toward a touch-screen form factor, the visually disabled are faced with new accessibility challenges. The mainstream interaction model for touch-screen devices relies on the user having the ability to see spatially arranged visual icons, and to interface with these icons via a smooth glass screen. An inherent challenge for blind users with this type of interface is its lack of tactile feedback. In this paper we explore the concept of using a combination of spatial audio and accelerometer technology to enable blind users to effectively operate a touch-screen device. We discuss the challenges involved in representing icons using sound and we introduce a design framework that is helping us tease out some of these issues. We also outline a set of proposed user-studies that will test the effectiveness of our design using a Nokia N97. The results of these studies will be presented at ICCHP 2010.