May 2nd, 2024
Microsoft researchers will showcase Scene Weaving, a new approach to visual accessibility for 3D spaces.
Event Details
Date: May 2nd, 2024
Time: 10am US Pacific / 1pm US Eastern / 6pm London
Duration: 60 minutes
Location: Zoom
Three-dimensional virtual environments are currently inaccessible to people who are blind, as current screen-reading solutions for 2D content are not fully extensible to achieve the needed embodied spatial presence. Forefronting perceptual agency as key to any access approach for users who are blind, we offer Scene Weaving as an interactional metaphor that allows users to choose how and when they perceive the environment and the people in it. We illustrate how this metaphor can be implemented in a demo of an example prototype system. We conclude by talking about how these ideas have informed 3D screenreader UI for Microsoft’s Mesh product.
Event Recording
About the Speakers
Dalya Perez
Dalya Perez is a Product Manager for Accessibility and Global Readiness at Microsoft on the Mesh team. She has a PhD in Education leadership and policy from UW.
Thom Gable
Dr. Thom Gable is a Senior User Researcher at Microsoft, where he focuses on a variety of products across Mixed Reality, Surface, and other devices. His work ranges across topics such as input, hardware experience, accessibility, and product ideation.
Zhanat Mahataeva
Zhanat Mahataeva is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) at Nazarbayev University.
Martin Grayson
Martin Grayson is an engineering manager in the Collaborative Intelligence group at Microsoft Research, working across design and development, to build new user experiences that can enhance people’s everyday lives at home and at work.
Harshadha Balasubramanian
Harshadha is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Digital Anthropology (UCL) and was formerly an intern at Microsoft Research where she contributed to a project on non-visual VR access.
