research-seminars-past Archives

Q: Inclusion and Accessibility in XR: Exploring Experiences | Reginé Gilbert

July 19, 2022 This talk will review what inclusion and accessibility mean for extended reality and the metaverse. By examining existing heuristics and researching existing methods for accessibility, the discovery has been made that new principles need to be adopted to create more equitable experiences. We will discuss ongoing research on accessible augmented reality. Register for the talk here. About the Speaker Reginé Gilbert is a user experience designer, educator, and author with over ten years of experience working in technology. She has a strong belief in making the world a more accessible place that starts and ends with the user. Reginé’s areas of research focus are digital accessibility, inclusive design, and immersive experiences. In 2019, Reginé’s first book, Inclusive Design for a Digital World: Designing with Accessibility in Mind , was released through Apress publishing. In addition, Doug North Cook and Reginé Gilbert are working on a book titled Human Spatial Computing , which Oxford University Press will publish in 2023. Watch the Talk [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt8TOFuId1I[/embed]

Q: Multimedia for Deaf Viewers | Dr. Raja Kushalnagar

Tuesday, May 17, 2022 Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) people have relied on assistive and accessible technologies/services to consume or produce aural information. Some hard-of-hearing people rely on an assistive technology approach to enhance aural information for easier perception and understanding. Other hard of hearing and most deaf people rely on an accessible technology approach to transform the aural information into visual or tactile information for easier perception and understanding. We will briefly discuss the history of DHH assistive and accessible technology. We will then go through interactive examples of how deaf and hard-of-hearing people consume and produce information through assistive and accessible technologies. After the examples, we will discuss how the differences in aural, visual, and tactile modalities influence multimodal information consumption and production Finally, we will discuss the design and development of effective accessible computing solutions for multimodal information access. About the Speaker Dr. Raja Kushalnagar is a professor and the Director of the Information Technology program in the school of Science, Technology, Accessibility, Mathematics, and Public Health at Gallaudet University. Watch the Talk [embed]https://youtu.be/5XGvI5GWb20[/embed]

Q: Does VR Have an Accessibility Problem? | Dr. Mar Gonzalez-Franco

February 2, 2022 In this talk we explore the special challenges of VR with regards to accessibility. In VR and more in general spatial computing, users find themselves entering the digital content through wearables, and interacting with content with their own body. This means that if they have any bodily limitation this limitation will carry on to VR. In some cases it might even mean they won’t be able to wear the headset. In this talk we also present some work done to deal with this challenge. About the Speaker Dr Mar Gonzalez-Franco is a Principal Researcher in the Extended Perception Interaction and Cognition team at Microsoft Research. [embed]https://youtu.be/WG06R3f2h-4[/embed]

Q: XR Access Research Seminar | Dr. Brian Smith

September 29, 2021 We often think of AI as giving computers new abilities, but there is tremendous potential for AI to give people new abilities as well. In this talk, entitled "AI and New Abilities: Video Games for Blind Players", Brian shows how AI can be used to power assistive technologies — specifically, how to make it possible for people who are blind to play video games, including evaluating and navigating virtual worlds. About the Speaker Dr. Brian Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University, and the Director of Columbia's Computer-Aided Abilities Laboratory. This talk was held on Wednesday, September 29, 2021. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLMgPp_yMaY[/embed]