Alexandros Pino

ITHACA: An Open Source Framework for Building Component-Based Augmentative and Alternative Communication Applications

As an answer to the disabled community’s odyssey to gain access to adaptable, modular, multilingual, cheap and sustainable Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) products, we propose the use of the ITHACA framework. It is a software environment for building component-based AAC applications, grounded on the Design for All principles and a hybrid---community and commercial---Open Source development model. ITHACA addresses the developers, the vendors, as well as the people who use AAC. We introduce a new viewpoint on the AAC product design-develop-distribute lifecycle, and a novel way to search-select-modify-maintain the AAC aid. ITHACA provides programmers with a set of tools and reusable Open Source code for building AAC software components. It also facilitates AAC product vendors to put together sophisticated applications using the available on the Web, independently premanufactured, free or commercial software parts. Furthermore, it provides people who use AAC with a variety of compatible AAC software products which incorporate multimodal, user-tailored interfaces that can fulfill their changing needs. The ITHACA architecture and the proposed fusion of past and current approaches, trends and technologies are explained. ITHACA has been successfully applied by implementing a family of AAC products, based on interchangeable components. Several ready to use ITHACA-based components, including on-screen keyboards, Text-to-Speech, symbol selection sets, e-chatting, emailing, and scanning-based input, as well as four complete communication aids addressing different user cases have been developed. This demonstration showed good acceptance of the ITHACA applications and substantial improvement of the end users’ communication skills. Developers’ experience on working in ITHACA’s Open Source projects was also positively evaluated. More importantly, the potential contribution of the component-based framework and Open Source development model combination to the AAC community emerged.

Designing user interfaces for social media driven digital preservation and information retrieval

Social Media provide a vast amount of information identifying stories, events, entities that play the crucial role of shaping the community in an everyday heavy user involvement. This work involves the study of social media information in terms of type (multimodal: text, video, sound, picture) and role players (agents, users, opinion leaders) and the potential of designing accessible, usable interfaces that integrate that information. This case examines the design of a user interface that uses an underlying engine for modality components (plain text, sound, image, video) analysis, social media crawling, contextual search fusion and semantic analysis. The interface is the only point of user interaction to the world of knowledge. This work reports on the usability and accessibility methods and concerns for the user requirements phase and the design control and testing. The findings of the pilot user testing and evaluation provide indications on how the semantic analysis of the social media information can be integrated to the design methodologies for user interfaces resulting in maximization of user experience in terms of social information involvement.

A new generation of communication aids under the ULYSSES component-based framework

In this paper, we introduce a new generation of computer-based communication aids, designed and developed using state of the art software engineering models and architectures. The communicators we present are based on a component-based framework called ULYSSES that aims to simplify the integration of multi-vendor components into low cost products and maximizes modularity and reusability. Following the ULYSSES approach, one can build up powerful and reliable applications, adaptable to various user needs and requirements. For developers of AAC components, ULYSSES provides an engineering-for-reuse environment with guidelines and tools to build software modules, which can operate effectively and interact with each other transparently, without even being aware of each others existence. Furthermore, ULYSSES grants a process of engineering-with-reuse for AAC system integrators for the selection and assembly of components on demand to build user-specific robust communicators out of pre-fabricated software parts. Thus, adding or removing characteristics and features as needed, is becoming an easy task for system AAC systems integrators. Three complete Interpersonal Communication Aids are presented as cases of ULYSSES application in this specific domain.

A methodological approach for designing and developing web-based inventories of mobile Assistive Technology applications

Mobile technologies provide radical opportunities in the domain of Assistive Technologies (AT) for persons with disabilities and the elderly by facilitating them to access multimedia content and improve their social interaction. The search for mobile AT applications that meet specific user needs is not an easy task for the disabled users, their facilitators, and rehabilitation professionals, as the mobile app stores do not include a category for AT or a classification by disability. In this work, we first provide an analysis of the disabled users’ needs along with the required mobile software adaptations in order to fulfill them. Then, we introduce a methodological approach for the design and development of web-based inventories which make the search and selection of AT apps simpler and efficient. This methodology has to main parts, first it is based on experts in an AT lab thoroughly testing each application, and second, the creation of a consistent and well-documented presentation of the information for each app. Finally, we present the mATHENA repository of free AT apps for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), which has been created by following the suggested methodology for creating AT app inventories. Currently, mATHENA includes 420 free mobile AT applications, carefully selected from a total of 1100. The features of mATHENA are compared with the functionality and social interaction services of six other inventories for AT applications.

The mATHENA Inventory for Free Mobile Assistive Technology Applications

The entry of smartphones and tablets in the market yields new opportunities in the domain of Assistive Technology (AT) for persons with disabilities. The search process for mobile AT applications that fulfill specific user needs is not an easy task for the end-users, their facilitators as well as the professionals in the area of rehabilitation. Even, when they finally find what they are looking for, a number of questions are raised relative to the reliability, stability, compatibility and functionality of the AT applications. These questions can be answered safely only by a team of AT experts. In this work we present the methodological approach for the design and development of the mATHENA web-based inventory, which aims to make the search and selection of free mobile AT applications simple and sound. This methodology is based on the consistent and well-documented presentation of the information for each mobile AT application, after it is tested in an AT lab. mATHENA offers social interaction services for its diverse target groups. Moreover, we present the advantages of mATHENA compared with the functionalities of six other inventories for AT applications. Currently, mATHENA includes 420 free mobile AT applications, carefully selected among a total of 1,100.

HERMOPHILOS: A Web-Based Information System for the Workflow Management and Delivery of Accessible eTextbooks

In this work we present the functional specifications, architecture and implementation of the HERMOPHILOS web-based system developed to auto-mate and accelerate the accessible eTextbooks’ production, workflow management, and delivery in an a higher education environment. We describe the redesign of the relative manual procedures and we show how HERMOPHILOS makes things easier and faster for the print-disabled students, as well as for the personnel involved. The web services of HERMOPHILOS include user sign up, user authentication, user rights management, students’ accessible textbooks re-quests, digital textbook requests to publishers, requests’ progress monitoring, original digital textbook copy submission, scanning, OCR, version and archive management, copyright protection, distribution, and digital content usage statistics. Implementation specifications included support for all browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices, accessible user interfaces (WCAG 2.0 AA), and advanced encryption and security policies. The HERMOPHILOS system sup-ports multiple formats for eTextbooks: plain text (.txt), rich text (.rtf), accessible markup (.xml, .xhtml, and .html), large print (.doc), audio books (.mp3), DAISY 2&3 (text only or full text - full audio), Braille (.brf or .brl), MS-Word (.docx), portable document format (.pdf) and LaTex (.tex). Paperwork was dramatically reduced, and the need for students’ visits to the accessibility office was eliminated. Τhe results show that, compared to the traditional procedure, the HERMOPHILOS workflow management system reduced the overall production and delivery time by 47 %.