Kentarou Fukuda

Proposing new metrics to evaluate web usability for the blind

Accessibility-related regulations and guidelines are contributing to the steady improvement of Web accessibility. There are various accessibility evaluation tools, and they also help Web authors make their pages compliant with guidelines. As a result, an increasing number of Web pages are compliant with the evaluation tools. These days, however, blind people face the serious problem that reading Web pages is quite difficult. Improvements in information density by using visual effects such as two-dimensional layouts are making it difficult for blind people to understand the page structure. Also, inappropriate alternative texts mislead or confuse blind users.In this paper, to evaluate these kinds of usability problems, we introduce two metrics: navigability and listenability. Navigability evaluates how well structured the Web content is by using headings, intra-page links, labels, etc. Listenability denotes how appropriate the alternative texts are. By using these metrics, we summarize the historical transition of Web usability for blind people.

Web accessibility technology at the IBM Tokyo research laboratory

This paper provides an overview of Web accessibility technologies developed at the IBM Tokyo Research Laboratory. Home Page Reader provides an easy and comfortable way for the blind to read Web pages. Transcoding technology solves problems that arise when a voice browser, such as Home Page Reader, reads Web pages. It also offers more comfortable ways for visually impaired people and senior citizens to read Web pages. Accessibility Designer, the main focus of this paper, allows page designers to learn about disabilities and to create more accessible and usable Web pages at authoring time. It has two modes: a low-vision mode and a blind mode. The low-vision mode simulates the perception of people with low vision and detects inaccessible parts in the target page. The blind mode visualizes the usability of a voice browser for the target page and detects accessibility and usability problems. Accessibility Observer makes it easier for Web developers to detect accessibility problems.

Providing synthesized audio description for online videos

We describe an initial attempt to develop a common platform for adding an audio description (AD) to an online video so that blind and visually impaired people can enjoy such material. A speech synthesis technology allows content providers to offer the AD at minimal cost. We exploit external metadata so that the AD can be independent of the video format. The external approach also allows external supporters to add ADs to any online videos. Our technology includes an authoring tool for writing AD scripts, a Web browser add-on for synthesizing ADs synchronized with original videos, and a text-based format to exchange AD scripts.

Remote IT education for senior citizens

Information technologies (IT) have great potential to improve the everyday lives of senior citizens, but their lack of skills prevents them from exploiting the possibilities. Skilled seniors can effectively teach unskilled seniors based on their deep understanding of the barriers and needs of their generation, but skilled seniors are scarce. Distant learning methods could be a solution, but their unfamiliarity with IT and strong preference for face-to-face learning are challenges. To make the distant course closer to the face-to-face experience, we developed a remote education system with real-time gesture visualization integrated with multiple audio and video streams between the teachers and learners. In this paper, we will introduce our remote course system and the course design, and then report results of the trial remote course approach.

Hands-Free Collaboration Using Telepresence Robots for All Ages

The use of telepresence robots brings the impression of physical presence to remote collaborations, which is beneficial in terms of establishing a closer relationship in a short time. However, operating a robot requires substantial cognitive effort. This can cause problems in practical situations involving older users, where the cognitive load interferes with the main task that needs to be performed. We have developed a telepresence robot system that addresses this problem by lowering the barriers preventing the operation of a robot. Its basis is the concept of an “observation window” that allows the robot to be operated without using hands or having to wear additional devices. This lightweight, less intrusive technology is expected to be desirable even for older users. This poster describes the mechanism and implementation of our system and reports its effectiveness in practical use by people of all ages, including older users.

Describing online videos with text-to-speech narration

Most online videos are inaccessible for blind and visually impaired people. Those who are illiterate or barely literate also face difficulties with many videos. An audio description (AD) can help, but is rarely provided for actual online videos because of the time and trouble required. The technology platform we are developing uses a speech synthesis technology to add ADs to online videos at minimal cost. We are developing an authoring tool for AD scripts, a Web browser for playing the described videos, and a text-based format to handle the AD scripts.

Facilitating Remote Communication Between Senior Communities with Telepresence Robots

Rapid aging and low birthrate of the society is a big issue especially in suburban district of Japan. Since social participation is one of the major factors of well being, online communication helps the elderly in suburban community maintain social relationships by receiving various kinds of services provided from urban area. Our research group introduced a remote IT classroom for senior citizens as an example of local senior communities support each other by connecting those communities through the Internet. This remote IT classroom is based on video conferencing system, and the IT lecturer and his assistants in urban district taught participants live in suburban district how to use tablet devices. From previous study, assistants pointed out that they had difficulties in establishing conversation with the students. Thus we propose the use of telepresence robots in order to overcome this issue. Results from the remote IT classroom indicated that the application of telepresence robots lowered the barrier for initiating conversation between remote assistants and local students.