Use of voice activated interfaces by people with intellectual disability

Balasuriya, Saminda Sundeepa; Sitbon, Laurianne; Bayor, Andrew A.; Hoogstrate, Maria; Brereton, Margot

doi:10.1145/3292147.3292161

Cited by 55 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For instance, long hesitations or pauses can be misinterpreted by the system as a sentence delimiter [ 23 ], causing an alteration of speech segmentation. Moreover, users must be able to correctly articulate words, especially multisyllable words (eg, temperature) or specific words that may require more effort to be articulated [ 24 ]. A further aspect to properly interact with these devices is the voice intensity, which should be sufficiently loud to make voice assistants detect and segment the sounds [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Accessibility of Voice Assistants With Impaired Users: Mixed Methods Study

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Voice assistants allow users to control appliances and functions of a smart home by simply uttering a few words. Such systems hold the potential to significantly help users with motor and cognitive disabilities who currently depend on their caregiver even for basic needs (eg, opening a door). The research on voice assistants is mainly dedicated to able-bodied users, and studies evaluating the accessibility of such systems are still sparse and fail to account for the participants’ actual motor, linguistic, and cognitive abilities. Objective The aim of this work is to investigate whether cognitive and/or linguistic functions could predict user performance in operating an off-the-shelf voice assistant (Google Home). Methods A group of users with disabilities (n=16) was invited to a living laboratory and asked to interact with the system. Besides collecting data on their performance and experience with the system, their cognitive and linguistic skills were assessed using standardized inventories. The identification of predictors (cognitive and/or linguistic) capable of accounting for an efficient interaction with the voice assistant was investigated by performing multiple linear regression models. The best model was identified by adopting a selection strategy based on the Akaike information criterion (AIC). Results For users with disabilities, the effectiveness of interacting with a voice assistant is predicted by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Robertson Dysarthria Profile (specifically, the ability to repeat sentences), as the best model shows (AIC=130.11). Conclusions Users with motor, linguistic, and cognitive impairments can effectively interact with voice assistants, given specific levels of residual cognitive and linguistic skills. More specifically, our paper advances practical indicators to predict the level of accessibility of speech-based interactive systems. Finally, accessibility design guidelines are introduced based on the performance results observed in users with disabilities.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Accessibility of Voice Assistants With Impaired Users: Mixed Methods Study

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They include: Siri (Apple), Alexa (Amazon) and Google Assistant. Conversational interfaces have been studied in a variety of contexts, ranging from: health care [27], aging [31], physical activity [49,8], and for people with an intellectual disability [6].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

"Hey Model!" Natural User Interactions and Agency in Accessible Interactive 3D Models

Reinders

Butler

Marriott

2020

Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While developments in 3D printing have opened up opportunities for improved access to graphical information for people who are blind or have low vision (BLV), they can provide only limited detailed and contextual information. Interactive 3D printed models (I3Ms) that provide audio labels and/or a conversational agent interface potentially overcome this limitation. We conducted a Wizard-of-Oz exploratory study to uncover the multi-modal interaction techniques that BLV people would like to use when exploring I3Ms, and investigated their attitudes towards different levels of model agency. These findings informed the creation of an I3M prototype of the solar system. A second user study with this model revealed a hierarchy of interaction, with BLV users preferring tactile exploration, followed by touch gestures to trigger audio labels, and then natural language to fill in knowledge gaps and confirm understanding.

show abstract

“…They also found that when using a purpose designed application to access videos, which uses only visuals for interactions, they were able to complete pre-determined queries. Sitbon and colleagues [5,6,16] have observed how young adults perform various information access tasks, through search engines, voice search and social media. They have shown that users were able to use support from people around them to perform the various aspect of online information seeking, and that visuals were a key feature that supported them [16].…”

Section: Information Access By People With Intellectual Disabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They have shown that users were able to use support from people around them to perform the various aspect of online information seeking, and that visuals were a key feature that supported them [16]. They also found that a large majority of young adults with intellectual disability were using Youtube [6], that voice search can be empowering and effective for querying but more support is needed for information access beyond the query [5], particularly in instances where the system cannot understand a user properly. Because of their visual nature, platforms that provide information in video form are good candidates to provide information that is accessible and in an accessible manner to people with intellectual disability [2].…”

Section: Information Access By People With Intellectual Disabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework for Information Accessibility in Large Video Repositories

Sitbon

Favre

Zhang

et al. 2020

Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Online videos are a medium of choice for young adults to access or receive information, and recent work has highlighted that it is a particularly effective medium for adults with intellectual disability, by its visual nature. Reflecting on a case study presenting fieldwork observations of how adults with intellectual disability engage with videos on the Youtube platform, we propose a framework to define and evaluate the accessibility of such large video repositories, from an informational perspective. The proposed framework nuances the concept of information accessibility from that of the accessibility of information access interfaces themselves (generally catered for under web accessibility guidelines), or that of the documents (generally covered in general accessibility guidelines). It also includes a notion of search (or browsing) accessibility, which reflects the ability to reach the document containing the information. In the context of large information repositories, this concept goes beyond how the documents are organized into how automated processes (browsing or searching) can support users. In addition to the framework we also detail specifics of document accessibility for videos. The framework suggests a multi-dimensional approach to information accessibility evaluation which includes both cognitive and sensory aspects. This framework can serve as a basis for practitioners when designing video information repositories accessible to people with intellectual disability, and extends on the information presentation guidelines such as suggested by the WCAG.

show abstract

Use of voice activated interfaces by people with intellectual disability

Cited by 55 publications

References 26 publications

Investigating the Accessibility of Voice Assistants With Impaired Users: Mixed Methods Study

Investigating the Accessibility of Voice Assistants With Impaired Users: Mixed Methods Study

"Hey Model!" Natural User Interactions and Agency in Accessible Interactive 3D Models

A Framework for Information Accessibility in Large Video Repositories

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Use of voice activated interfaces by people with intellectual disability

Cited by 55 publications

References 26 publications

Investigating the Accessibility of Voice Assistants With Impaired Users: Mixed Methods Study

Investigating the Accessibility of Voice Assistants With Impaired Users: Mixed Methods Study

"Hey Model!"  Natural User Interactions and Agency in Accessible Interactive 3D Models

A Framework for Information Accessibility in Large Video Repositories

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

"Hey Model!" Natural User Interactions and Agency in Accessible Interactive 3D Models