IT and deaf people

April 14, 2008 – CS Faculty

Piazza Domenicani 3, Bolzano

working day

Deaf children have unique communication needs: unable to hear the continuous, repeated flow of language interchange around them, they are not automatically exposed to the enormous amounts of language stimulation experienced by hearing children. (UNESCO, 1987)

Introduction

The attention of information technology (IT) towards accessibility issues is increasing. Deaf users seem to have specific requirements, e.g., deaf signers seem to prefer spatial demanding hypertexts, and show difficulties when text is concentrated in few nodes. Do information technologists know about such requirements? The first working day on “IT and deaf people” aims at discussing them with the help of two experts of deaf studies, Barbara Arfé and Inmaculada Fajardo.

Programme

No registration is required; participation in the working day is free and most welcome! Interpreting services from English to LIS are available.

10:30–11:30 Barbara Arfé
Deaf and hearing students' referential strategies in writing: What referential cohesion tells us about deaf students' literacy development.
Slides.
LIS (coming soon).
Abstract and bio sketch
11:30–11:40 Break.
11:40–12:40 Inmaculada Fajardo
The influence of Hyperlink Format, Categorization Abilities and Sign Language in Deaf Users' Web Access.
Slides.
LIS (coming soon).

ABSTRACT
Web users seem to apply a scent following strategy in order to make navigation decisions and find information in a website (e.g. Card, Pirolli, Van Der Wege, Morrison, Schraedley and Boshart, 2001). This strategy which implies assessing the semantic similarity between searching goals and hyperlink choices is inefficient if the semantic scents are not available to the user as happens, for instance, when they navigate a non native language website. This phenomenon affects especially users of minority languages like the Sign Language (SL). While the technological advances have made possible the inclusion of the SL in the Web by means of videos, the usability and effectiveness of such innovations have not been tested empirically. In this presentation and based on our empirical experience, we will firstly highlight the influence of different cognitive factors ranging from reading comprehension or visual span to verbal categorization abilities in the scent following strategy. On the other hand, we will describe how hyperlink format (text, icons and videos in SL) and menu structure may interact with those cognitive factors. Among other conclusions, our results represent an empirical support to the usage of videos linked to textual hyperlinks as an efficient Web navigation mechanism for deaf signer users.

BIO
Dr. Inmaculada Fajardo is currently working as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Manchester Business School (University of Manchester) since March 2007. She was a member of the Laboratory of Human Computer Interaction for Special Needs (Computer Engineering School, University of the Basque Country) where she held a predoctoral fellowship for a period of three years. She completed her PhD at the School of Psychology (University of Granada) and then continued to work there as a Teaching Assistant until 2007. Her research interests are primarily on the areas of Cognitive Psychology and Human-Computer Interaction. In particular, during the last years, she has focused her research on the study of cognitive factors involved in hypertext interaction, especially, Deaf People's hypertext interaction. As part of her current postdoctoral stay at the Manchester Business School, she is currently working on Group Decision Making in Computer-Mediated Communication.

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Location

The working day takes place in the seminar room, 1st floor, Piazza Domenicani 3, Bolzano.

Organisers and contact people

Rosella Gennari <gennari AT inf.unibz.it>.

Ornella Mich <mich AT fbk.eu>.