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
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11:30–11:40 |
Break.
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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>.