Despite significant progress, most apps remain oblivious to their users’ abilities. To enable apps to respond to users’ situated abilities, CREATE researchers developed the Ability-Based Design Mobile Toolkit (ABD-MT). ABD-MT integrates with an app’s user input and sensors to observe a user’s touches, gestures, physical activities, and attention at runtime to measure and model these abilities, and to adapt interfaces accordingly. With the goal of optimizing user interfaces to better suit users’ abilities, earlier systems attempt to create the “optimal”…
Category: Mobile Device Accessibility Research
Articles about mobile device accessibility research being done by CREATE members and partners.
Winter 2023 CREATE Research Showcase
At the December 2023 CREATE Research Showcase, students from CSE 493 and other CREATE researchers shared their work with faculty, students, and community partners.
UW News: How an assistive-feeding robot went from picking up fruit salads to whole meals
November, 2023 Training a robot to feed people presents an array of challenges for researchers. Foods come in a nearly endless variety of shapes and states (liquid, solid, gelatinous), and each person has a unique set of needs and preferences. A team led by CREATE Ph.D. students Ethan K. Gordon and Amal Nanavati created a set of 11 actions a robotic arm can make to pick up nearly any food attainable by fork. In tests with this set of actions,…
Virtual Traffic Stop App Aims to Ease Tensions, Aid Communication
October 2, 2023 The designers of the Virtual Traffic Stop app aim to ease tensions and prevent misunderstandings between drivers and law enforcement during traffic stops. For Hard-of-Hearing or Deaf drivers, the app can be used to communicate with law enforcement via chat during the video. Users can add family members and invite them to the chat for additional assistance. A Gainesville Florida K-12 school has announced their endorsement of Virtual Traffic Stop and has encouraged parents and their children…
Proposed Federal Accessibility Standards: CREATE’s Guide to Reviewing and Commenting
A proposal for new digital accessibility guidelines for entities receiving federal funds was released for review by the U.S. Department of Justice on August 4, 2023. Anyone affected by these guidelines had until October 3, 2023 to comment. August 2023 announcement Note that the comment period has ended. The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) is proposing new requirements for digital accessibility for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Their goal is to provide public entities with clear and concrete standards…