This is a draft transcript of the event. Some headings, paragraphs, links, and the table of contents have been added, and couple of typos corrected but otherwise it is in the original form.
Table of Contents:
Event Name:W3C Research and Development Interest Group
Event Description:Teleconference on Making Collaboration
Technologies Accessible for Persons with Disabilities
Start Time:Mon Apr 28 08:43:36 EDT 2003
End Time:Mon Apr 28 10:33:44 EDT 2003
Transcript:
TELECONFERENCE ON MAKING COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGIES ACCESSIBLE FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIS.
APRIL 28th, 2003.
THE W3C CALL WILL BEGIN SHORTLY.
PLEASE STAND BY FOR REALTIME CAPTIONS.
I THINK WE HAVE THE CAPTIONING UP AND RUNNING FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT.
IT'S NOW 10:04 A.M. ON THE EAST COAST AT THE U.S., WHERE WE'RE LOCATED FOR
THE CHAIR, AT LEAST.
THIS IS MARK HAKKINEN AND I'M GOING TO BE CHAIRING OUR FIRST IN WHAT WILL BE
A SERIES OF TELECONFERENCES HOSTED BY THE W3C WEB ACCESSIBILITY INITIATIVE
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INTEREST GROUP.
TODAY'S TELECONFERENCE IS ENTITLED MAKING COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGIES
ACCESSIBLE FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES.
AND WE HAVE A SERIES OF SPEAKERS WHO WILL TALK ON VARIOUS RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
THAT THEY ARE UNDERTAKING IN THE AREA OF COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGIES.
AND OUR FORMAT TODAY WILL BE TO HAVE AN INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT FROM JANUARY
RICHARDS.
JANUARY RICHARDS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ATRC WILL BE GIVING US A
BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO ACCESSIBILITY AND COLLABORATION, WE'LL FOLLOW THAT BY A
PRESENTATION OF ALISON LEE FROM THE IBM THOMAS J. WATSON RESEARCH LABS ON
SOCIAL INTERACTION WEBSITES AND WEB ADAPTATION FOLLOWED BY A PRESENTATION BY
SUHIT GUPTA AND GAIL KAISER OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SPEAKING ABOUT THEIR
PROJECTING, CRUNCH.
WE WILL THEN CONCLUDE THE PRESENTATION BY GOTTFRIED ZIMMERMANN OF THE TRACE
R&D CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN ON TRANSLATION, MODALITY
TRANSFORMATION AND ASSISTANCE SERVICES.
WE'LL HOLD OFF QUESTIONS UNTIL AFTER THE PRESENTATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE, AND WE
HAVE A MECHANISM FOR HANDLING QUESTIONS FROM THE PARTICIPANTS.
ALL QUESTIONS FROM THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE CALL WILL BE COMING EITHER THROUGH
IRC OR VIA E-MAIL.
AND SO THOSE WHO WISH TO SUBMIT QUESTIONS DURING THE COURSE OF THE
TELECONFERENCE SHOULD DO SO BY EITHER SENDING YOUR QUESTION IN E-MAIL FORM TO
WENDY CHISHOLM, WENDY@W3.ORG, OR AGAIN, TO THE IRC CHANNEL.
AND THE WAY WE HAVE THE TELECONFERENCE, AGAIN, SET UP, IS THAT THE PRESENTERS
BE ABLE TO INTERACT WITH ONE ANOTHER AND ANSWER QUESTIONS.
THE REMAINING PARTICIPANTS ARE MUTED ON THE TELECONFERENCE, AND WILL NOT BE
ABLE TO DIRECTLY SPEAK.
THE AGENDA FOR THE TELECONFERENCE IS AVAILABLE ON THE WEB, AND EACH OF THE
AGENDA ITEMS FOR EACH OF THE PRESENTERS HAS A LINK TO ANY PRESENTATION SLIDES
THEY WILL BE USING DURING THE COURSE OF THEIR TALK.
AND WE CAN POST THAT URL TO THE IRC CHANNEL AS WELL AS I CAN GIVE THAT TO YOU
NOW.
IT IS http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/Agenda SO WITHOUT
FURTHER ADO, I WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE THE FIRST PRESENTER WHO IS JANUARY
RICHARDS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO.
JANUARY JAN?
THANKS, MARK.
WELCOME TO EVERYBODY.
IT'S GREAT TO SEE SO MANY PEOPLE COULD MAKE IT TODAY.
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN WORKING WELL WITH OTHERS MEANT THAT A CHILD HAD GONE
FOR A FEW HOURS WITHOUT KNOCKING OVER A CLASSMATE'S BLOCKS OR AT LEAST NOT
WHILE THE TEACHER WAS LOOKING.
BUT THESE DAYS SOMEONE MIGHT BE SAID TO WORK WELL WITH OTHERS IF THEY CAN
COLLABORATE CLOSELY ON COMPLEX MULTIMEDIA TASKS WITH FOR-FLUNG CO-WORKERS
ONLY SOME OF WHOM KNOW EACH OTHER PERSONALLY.
WHILE THIS SORT OF COLLABORATION WAS NOT ONLY IMPOSSIBLE WITH PREVIOUS FORMS
COMMUNICATION SUCH AS PRINTED MATERIALS, FAXES, CONFERENCE CALLS, FACE TO
FACE MEETINGS, ELSE, THE ADVENT OF COMPUTER MEDIA COLLABORATION TOOLS HAS
MADE IT POSSIBLE AS WELL AS ACCESSIBLE.
YES, I DID SAY ACCESSIBLE, ALTHOUGH MANY OF THE COLLABORATIVE TOOLS ON THE
MARKET TODAY WOULD SEEM TO PUT THE LIE TO THIS LAST STATEMENT.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO REALIZE THAT COMMUNICATION MODES PREVIOUSLY USED FOR
COLLABORATION ALL SUFFERED FROM INTRINSIC PROBLEMS WITH ACCESSIBILITY FOR
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.
FOR EXAMPLE, PRINTED MATERIALS AND FAXES COULD NOT BE READ BY PEOPLE WHO
COULD NOT SEE THEM.
LIVE CONFERENCES AND CONFERENCE CALLS COULD BE DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE WHO COULD
NOT HEAR THEM.
ATTENDANCE AT FACE TO FACE COLLABORATION CAN BE DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE WITH
DISABILITIES WHICH AFFECTS TRAVEL.
THERE'S NO FUNDAMENTAL REASON FOR THE EXISTENCE OF ACCESS BARRIERS IN
COMPUTER CREATED COLLABORATIVE TOOLS.
THERE ARE A NUMBER OF INTRINSIC ACCESSIBILITY ADVANTAGES.
THE FIRST ADVANTAGE IS THAT COMPUTER MEDIATED COLLABORATIVE TOOLS PROVIDE TO
SOME EXTENT AN ELECTRONIC TEXT WHICH CAN BE RELATIVELY EASILY TRANSFORMED
BETWEEN SENSITIVITY MODALITIES.
IF DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOOL FOLLOWS PLATFORM STANDARDS THE TOOL WILL USUALLY
BE ABLE TO RELY ON THIRD PARTY ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES.
FOR EXAMPLE, A PERSON WHO IS BLIND MAY BE UNABLE TO READ A PAPER FAX BUT
USING A PROPERLY DEVELOPED TOOL THE USER WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS FORMS OF
COMMUNICATION ANALOGOUS TO A PAPER FAX SUCH AS SCHARED ELECTRONIC FILES USING
SCREEN READER OR BRAILLE DISPLAY.
ON THE OTHER HAND, A PERSON WHO HAS LOW VISION MAY BE PERFECTLY ABLE TO
ACCESS INFORMATION IN A FAX AS LONG AS IT CAN BE MAGNIFIEDED AND OR RECOLORED
ACCORDING TO THEIR PREFERENCES.
A SECOND INTRINSIC ADVANTAGE OF COMPUTER MEDIATED COLLABORATIVE TOOLS IS THAT
THEY CAN MORE EASILY MANAGE ALTERNATIVES TO NECESSARILY INACCESSIBLE
MATERIALS.
SO, FOR EXAMPLE, A PERSON WHO IS BLIND MAY NOT BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN A
MEETING WHERE A PHYSICAL WHITE BOARD IS USED, BUT A COMPUTER MEDIATED SHARE
DRAWING SPACE COULD BE AUGMENTED TO PROVIDE ENOUGH AUTOMATIC AND IF NECESSARY
HUMAN WHATCIESED DISCUSSIONS FOR THE USER TO FOLLOW ALONG.
SIMILARLY A COLLABORATIVE TOOL COULD IMPLEMENT A CLOSED CAPTION VIDEO TO ONLY
SHOW THOSE CAPTIONS TO PEOPLE WHO WANTED TO SEE THEM.
AND A THIRD AND FINAL ADVANTAGE OF COMPUTER MEDIATED COLLABORATIVE TOOLS IS
THAT THEY CAN AUTOMATICALLY MODERATE THE FLOW OF TOOLS TO CONTRIBUTE TO
REALTIME DISCUSSIONS.
FOR EXAMPLE, A PERSON WITH A MOBILITY DISABILITY MAY REQUIRE SOME EXTRA TIME
TO COMPOSE A MESSAGE WHICH IN A CONVENTIONAL REALTIME COMMUNICATION MODE MAY
RESULT IN THE REST OF THE GROUP MOVING ON TO A NEW BEFORE THE MESSAGE IS
READY.
IF A FLOOR PASSING MECHANISM IS IMPLEMENTED, THEN THE SYSTEM MIGHT RATION
ACCESS TO THE COMMUNICATION MEDIUM WHETHER IT BE A WHITE BOARD, ET CETERA, IN
ORDER TO CONTROL THE FLOW OF THE CONVERSATION ENOUGH TO ALLOW SLOWER
COMMUNICATING INDIVIDUALS TO CONTRIBUTE.
THE CHALLENGE OF ONGOING WORK ON THE ACCESSIBILITY OF COLLABORATIVE TOOLS
WILL BE TO MORE FULLY REALIZE THE INTRINSIC VAINGS THE COMPUTER MEDIATED
APPROACH WHILE AT THE SAME TIME GUARDING AGAINST THE EROSION OF EXISTING
INTERPRACTICE BIBLT AS NEW TECHNOLOGIESES SUCH AS VOICEOVER IP AND MORE
SOPHISTICATED WHITE BOARD SYSTEMS COME ON LINE.
PERHAPS THE ULTIMATE PRAISE FOR A FUTURE COLLABORATIVE TOOL WILL BE THAT IT
ENABLES ANY USER NO MATTER WHAT THEIR PHYSICAL OR SENSORY ABILITIES TO WORK
WELL WITH OTHERS.
THANK YOU.
THANK YOU, JAN.
THE NEXT PRESENTER IS GOING TO BE ALISON LEE FROM THE IBM THOMAS J. WATSON
RESEARCH LABS.
ALISON?
HI.
THIS IS ALISON SPEAKING.
I HAVE A SET OF SLIDES WHICH ARE NOT AT THE SITE THAT MARK MENTIONED.
IF YOU WOULD JUST TYPE http://www.webcollab.com./alee-wai2003/,
YOUR SHOULD SEE A SET OF SLIDES.
-- SLIDES.
THEY'RE LINKED FROM THE AGENDA AS WELL.
ALL RIGHT.
AS MARK MENTIONED, I'M FROM THE IBM RESEARCH LAB IN HAWTHORN.
JUST TO START OFF, I WOULD LIKE TO JUST GIVE YOU A LITTLE BIT OF CONTEXT.
I'VE BEEN A RESEARCHER AT IBM RESEARCH FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS.
BUT OVER THE LAST EIGHT YEARS I'VE BEEN WORKING IN THE AREA OF COLLABORATION,
AND HAVE FOCUSED SPECIFICALLY ON WEB BASED COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGIES.
I'VE BUILT A NUMBER OF TECHNOLOGIES THAT RANGE FROM SHARED BROWSING AND TALK
CAPABILITY TO SOCIAL INTERACTION WEBSITES.
AND TODAY I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO TALK ABOUT SOME OF THAT WORK IN THAT AREA AND
TIE THAT IN TO ACCESSIBILITY, WHICH IS AN AREA THAT I'M NOW WORKING IN.
SO TO BEGIN WITH, IF YOU WOULD CLICK ON THE FIRST SLIDE,
SOCIAL WEB, I WANT TO BASICALLY MOTIVATE THE NOTION THAT THE WEB IS
REALLY MORE THAN JUST THE ABILITY TO PUBLISH, PERFORM TRANSACTIONS AND
CONNECT COMPUTERS.
IT'S REALLY BECOME A TECHNOLOGY WHERE THE AFFORDANS OF THAT TECHNOLOGY IS
ENABLING PEOPLE TO SHARE INFORMATION, COMMUNICATE AND CONNECT WITH PEOPLE.
SO THE EFFECT IS THAT PEOPLE ARE ABLE TO USE THE WEB NOW MUCH MORE SO TO
SHARE, MEET, INTERACT, COLLABORATE, AND ORGANIZE ON-LINE.
THERE ARE MANY EXAMPLES OF THESE FROM COMMUNITY-TYPE SITES FOCUSING ON
SPECIAL TOPICS SUCH AS CANCER CARE SUPPORT, INVESTING IN GAME PLAYING.
THERE ARE ALSO COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE LIKE THE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT SITE TAPPED IN THAT REALLY BRING PROFESSIONALS IN THE AREA OF
TEACHING TOGETHER TO TALK ABOUT TEACHING AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR
PROFESSION.
THEN THERE ARE OF COURSE MARKETPLACES THAT WE'RE FAMILIAR WITH, THE MOST
FAMOUS BEING E-BAY, WHERE PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE IN AUCTIONS.
AND SOME WORK THAT WE'RE SEEING QUITE A BIT OF IS CUSTOMER CARE SITE, BOTH
THE ASYNCHRONOUS VARIETY WHERE ONE CAN POST QUESTIONS AND GET RESPONSES, TO
LIVE SITES LIKE THE L L.L.BEAN LIFE HELP WHERE PEOPLE CAN CONNECT TO TALK TO
A REAL SERVICE AGENT.
IF YOU GO TO THE SECOND SLIDE
ON COMMON ELEMENTS, WHAT WE SEE ON THESE WEBSITES THESE SOCIAL
INTERACTION WEBSITES IS A SENSE OF THE EXISTENCE OF PEOPLE, AND THEY'RE
MANIFESTED IN MANY DIFFERENT FORMS.
I'LL SHOW YOU AN EXAMPLE.
WHAT THEY ALSO HAVE IS A GROUP SPACE WHERE PEOPLE CONNECT, PEOPLE WITH A
COMMON PURPOSE, AND SHARE SOME GOALS AND WORK THAT THEY NEED TO DO.
THERE'S ALSO SOME AWARENESS IN THE SENSE THAT THERE ARE TRACES AND ARTIFACTS,
BOTH LIVE AND/OR PERMANENT TRACES, TO TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT PEOPLE, THE
ACTIVITIES AND SOME HISTORY OF WHAT'S GOING ON IN A GROUP SPACE.
AND OF COURSE MANY OF THESE WEBSITES HAVE A NUMBER OF MECHANISMS TO ENABLE
PEOPLE TO INTERACT.
THE MOST BASIC EXAMPLE IS A DISCUSSION FORUM.
AND A VERY SYNCHRONOUS FORM IS LIKE CHAT OR INSTANT MESSAGING.
SO TO ILLUSTRATE, LET'S GO TO THE THIRD
SLIDE.
AN EXAMPLE IS SOMETHING THAT WE'RE PERHAPS MOST OF US FAMILIAR WITH,
SOMETHING THAT'S AVAILABLE IN YAHOO! GROUPS.
SOME OF THESE ELEMENTS THAT I HAD TALKED ABOUT EXIST IN DIFFERENT WEB PAGES.
FOR INSTANCE, EVERYBODY WHO HAS AN ACCOUNT IN YAHOO! GROUPS CAN FIND OUT
ABOUT THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF GROUPS THEY BELONG TO.
SO THERE IS A NUMBER, IN THIS EXAMPLE, OF ON-LINE GROUPS THAT I ACTUALLY
BELONG TO.
AS WELL, FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL GROUP, THERE ARE EXAMPLES TO TELL US SOMETHING
ABOUT WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN THE GROUP SPACE.
SO THE RIGHT SCREEN SHOT, LABELEDED "AWARENESS," SHOWS US SORT OF THE
DISCUSSION THAT HAVE BEEN GOING ON, THE POST IN THAT PARTICULAR GROUP THAT
I'VE SELECTED.
OF COURSE ON THE BOTTOM LEFT THERE'S EXAMPLES A DISCUSSION FORUM IN ONE OF
THESE GROUPS WHERE PEOPLE CAN POST.
THEN THERE'S, BECAUSE IT'S REALLY TO ENABLE PEOPLE TO WORK AND ORGANIZE,
THERE ARE SHARED RESOURCES, ASIDE FROM INTERACTION TOOLS LIKE FILES AND
OBJECTS THAT PEOPLE SHARE WITH EACH OTHER.
SO MANY OF THESE SOCIAL INTERACTION WEBSITES HAVE SOME OR A NUMBER OF THESE
ELEMENTS.
NOW, YOU CLICK ON THE FOURTH
SLIDE.
WHAT THEN DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ACCESSIBILITY?
WELL, I THINK THE FIRST TO NOTE IS THAT THESE INTERACTION WEBSITES ARE VERY
COMMONPLACE ON THE WEB.
YOU CAN FIND MANY EXAMPLES THESE, THEY COME IN MANY DIFFERENT FORMS.
IN THE LITERATURE THERE IS TALK ABOUT COMMUNITY NETWORKS, THESE SORT OF
GEOGRAPHICAL COMMUNITIES THAT ARE SUPPORTED BY ON-LINE WEBSITES FOR THESE
PHYSICAL COMMUNITIES.
THERE'S WORK ON LARGE DIGITAL CITIES SUCH AS IN NEW YORK THERE'S NEW YORK
CITY WEBSITE, AND OTHER FORMS LIKE WEBLOGS AND PORTALS.
SO WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW IS THAT WE'RE SEEING THE NOTION OF COLLABORATION OR
COMPUTER SUPPORTIVE COOPERATIVE WORK MOVING BEYOND, SO THAT THE TRADITIONAL
BOUNDARIES OF THE WORK CONTEXT TO COMMERCIAL AND NONCOMMERCIAL CONTEXT.
AND WE'RE ALSO SEEING THAT IT'S BECOME AVAILABLE TO A LARGE NUMBER OF LARGE
SIZE GROUPS AS WELL AS SMALL SIZE GROUPS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE TECHNICAL AND
NONTECHNICAL.
AND THE POINT THAT I ALSO WANT TO MAKE VERY CLEARLY HERE IS THAT A LOT OF
PEOPLE TALK ABOUT COLLABORATION IN THE CONTEXT OF SYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATION,
BUT I THINK THERE'S A GREAT DEAL OF THE NOTION OF COLLABORATION THAT EXISTS
IN THE CONTEXT OF ASYNCHRONOUS AND SEMI SYNCHRONOUS, IN WHICH THE SOCIAL
WEBSITES LIKE YAHOO!
GROUPS IS A REALLY GOOD ILLUSTRATION.
SO IN THIS AREA THERE'S A LOT OF INTEREST TO DEVELOP NOT ONLY TECHNOLOGIES,
SOCIAL TOOLS AND APPLICATIONS, BUT THERE'S A LOT OF INTEREST IN DESIGN
PRINCIPLES FOR SOCIAL INTERFACES TO THESE SITES.
IT IS WITHIN -- IT IS IN THIS AREA THAT I'VE BEEN WORKING A LOT ON, BUT IN
THE CONTEXT OF ACCESSIBILITY THERE'S A LOT OF THINGS THAT CAN ALSO BE
RELEVANT IN TALKING ABOUT THE DESIGN OF SOCIAL INTERFACES.
SO IF YOU GO TO THE NEXT SLIDE, NUMBER
5, I WANT TO TALK ABOUT SOME WORK THAT MY GROUP AT IBM RESEARCH IS DOING.
IT'S THE ACCESSIBILITY HEADED BY VICKY HANSON.
AND WE'VE BEEN WORKING THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS ON A TECHNOLOGY ENTITLED WEB
ADAPTATION.
AND IT'S REALLY TARGETED FOR END USERS, A WIDE RANGE OF END USERS, WITH A
VARIETY OF IMPAIRMENTS.
WHAT I SHOULD POINT OUT VERY SPECIFICALLY IS THIS WORK IS REALLY FOCUSED ON
END USERS OF THE WEB RATHER THAN WORK ON WEB AUTHORING TOOLS AND WEB PAGE
VALIDATION TOOLS.
WHAT WEB ADAPTATION DOES IS REALLY ENABLE USERS TO ACCESS WEB PAGES, REFORMAT
IT IN A VARIETY OF WAYS, BUT CONTROLLED BY THE USER, TO MAKE WEB PAGES MORE
ACCESSIBLE TO THEM.
SO THE WEB ADAPTATION TECHNOLOGY REALLY HAS THREE BASIC CAPABILITIES.
USERS CAN APPLY ONE OR MORE ADAPTATIONS ON THE WEB PAGE THAT THEY'RE LOOKING
AT.
IT THEY CAN ALSO GET SOME ADAPTATIONS THAT ACTUALLY PRESENT THE INFORMATION
IN OTHER CHANNELS.
AND THEY CAN ALSO MORE EASILY ACCESS FEATURES OF THE WEB BROWSER,
ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES THE WEB BROWSER AND INPUT DEVICES THROUGH THE TOOL.
IN THE NEXT FEW SLIDES, I'M GOING TO JUST GIVE YOU A FLAVOR OF WHAT THE
WEB ADAPTATION TECHNOLOGY LOOKS LIKE.
IF YOU CLICK ON THE NEXT LINK,
WHAT YOU SEE IS BASICALLY A TYPICAL BROWSER SCREEN.
THE WEB ADAPTATION TECHNOLOGIES PROVIDED AS A BROWSER HELPER OBJECT, AND THIS
WORKS WITH MICROSOFT IE 5.0 AND HIGHER.
THE WAY THE TECHNOLOGY WORKS WHEN IT'S INSTALLED, THERE SAY BUTTON ON THE
TOOL BAR, AS YOU CAN SEE HERE WHERE THE CURSOR IS, A SETTINGS BAR, WHICH THE
USER CAN PRESS.
WHEN THEY PRESS THAT THEY CAN ACTUALLY GET A UI PANEL THAT LETS THEM CYCLE
THROUGH A NUMBER OF PANELS TO APPLY A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT ADAPTATIONS.
ON THIS PARTICULAR SCREEN HERE WE'RE SEEING THE TEXT SIZE PANEL APPEARING.
IF WE GO TO THE NEXT SLIDE, IF THE USER SELECTS THE LARGEST TEXT SIZE, THE WEB PAGE THE USER IS CURRENTLY VIEWING IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE CHOICE OF THE LARGER TEXT SIZE.
IF WE MOVE TO THE NEXT
SLIDE, WHAT I WANT TO SHOW HERE IS THAT THESE ADAPTATIONS ARE NOT LIMITED
TO THE SELECTION OF ONE.
USERS CAN SELECT A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT ONES.
IN THIS CASE YOU'RE SEEING THE RESULT OF A NUMBER OF SELECTED ADAPTATIONS,
WIDER LINE SPACING, WIDER CHARACTER SPACING, AND A LARGER TEXT.
IF YOU CLICK ON THE NEXT
SLIDE, WE'RE NOW ON SLIDE NUMBER 9, I MENTIONED IT'S POSSIBLE ALSO TO
HAVE ADAPTATIONS THAT ENABLE USERS TO HAVE THE INFORMATION PRESENTED IN A
DIFFERENT CHANNEL.
SO IN THIS SCREEN, WHAT I'M SHOWING IS BANNER TEXT.
WHEN THE CURSOR -- WHEN THIS IS SELECTED AND THE USER PUTS THEIR CURSOR OVER
SOME TEXT, THAT TEXT IS ENLARGED IN THE BANNER AREA AT THE TOP OF THE WINDOW.
SO IN THIS CASE IT'S MAKING THE TEXT LARGER FOR THE USER TO SEE.
WE HAVE A SIMILAR FEATURE WHERE IF IT'S ENABLED, IT'S CALLED SPEED TEXT,
PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY HEAR THE TEXT UNDER THE CURSOR.
IF YOU MOVE TO THE NEXT SLIDE,
SLIDE NUMBER 10, THIS LAST PART IS ABOUT THE NOTION OF ENABLING USERS TO
USE THE ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES THAT ARE PROVIDED IN THE BROWSER.
AND THERE ARE A NUMBER OF ADAPTATIONS THAT WE PROVIDE THAT ENABLE USERS TO
GET AT THESE FEATURES MUCH EASIER.
THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IF ANY OF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH SOME OF THESE
ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES, THEY'RE FAIRLY EASY TO INVOKE, BUT OTHER FEATURES
TAKE A GREAT DEAL OF WORK.
YOU NEED TO GO THROUGH MULTIPLE STEPS BEFORE YOU'RE ABLE TO ENABLE THEM.
AND SO ONE OF THE THINGS WE CAN DO HERE IS ENABLE THE USERS TO DO THIS WITH A
FAIRLY SIMPLE SELECTION.
SO HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF THE ENLARGED BROWSER CONTROLS.
SO THAT'S A VERY QUICK OVERVIEW OF THE WEB ADAPTATION TECHNOLOGIES.
THERE ARE A FEW OTHER ONES THAT EXIST THAT I HAVEN'T MENTIONED, BUT CERTAINLY
IF THERE ARE ANY QUESTIONS, WE WOULD BE HAPPY TO TALK ABOUT IT.
IF WE MOVE TO THE NEXT SLIDE,
SLIDE NUMBER 11, THE FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR THIS WORK, FOR OUR GROUP, IS
TO EXPLORE OTHER FORMS ADAPTATION, IN PARTICULAR I'M ACTUALLY WORKING ON
LOOKING AT HOW TO ENHANCE EXISTING ADAPTATION.
ONE ADAPTATION WHICH I DIDN'T TALK ABOUT IS PAGE LINEARIZATION.
IT TAKES A COMPLEX PAGE AND LINEARIZES THE CONTENT INTO A COLUMN.
THIS ADAPTATION OBVIOUSLY WOULD BE ENHANCED ON WEB SITES THAT HAVE THE SKIP
NAVIGATION, BUT NOT ALL WEBSITE SITES HAVE THIS.
ONE BENEFIT IS TO IDENTIFY AREAS WHICH ARE FULL OF LINKS AND WHERE THE
BEGINNING OF TEXT WORKS.
SO THAT'S ONE APPLICATION OF THE PAGE SEGMENTATION.
THERE'S OBVIOUSLY OTHER AREAS WHERE THIS WORK CAN IMPROVE ON ONE OF THESE
LEGACY APPLETS THAT EXIST ON WEB PAGES.
RIGHT THOUSAND THEY'RE OPAQUE OBJECTS TO THE WEB ADAPTATION TECHNOLOGY.
THIS APPROACH ACTUALLY IS A VERY REASONABLE COMPROMISE, CONSIDERING A NUMBER
OF THINGS.
ONE, THERE'S LOTS OF LEGACY WEB PAGES THAT EXIST, AND MANY OF THE SOCIAL
INTERACTION WEBSITES, WHILE THEY MAY HAVE ACCESSIBILITY SUPPORT, THERE ARE
MANY OTHERS THAT DON'T.
SO A PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY LIKE WEB ADAPT WILL OPEN THE DOOR FOR A LOT OF USERS
WITH DIFFERENT KINDS OF IMPAIRMENTS.
AND ALSO, I THINK IT WOULD BE A LONG WAYS AWAY BEFORE WE SEE ANY WEB DESIGN
WHICH ACTUALLY SUPPORTS MULTIPLE DIFFERENT AUDIENCES.
WHAT WE'RE LEFT WITH LARGELY IS A SINGLE WEB DESIGN.
AND A TOOL LIKE THIS CAN ACTUALLY ENABLE USERS LIKE THOSE WITH DIFFERENT
KINDS OF IMPAIRMENTS TO ACCESS THE WEB SITES.
BUT LET'S BRING IT BACK A LITTLE BIT TO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH
COLLABORATION.
IN ADDITION TO BEING ABLE TO ACCESS WEBSITES LIKE THE SOCIAL WEBSITE THAT ARE
NOT ASSESSABILITY-AWARE, THERE'S A WHOLE SET OF OTHER WORK THAT'S BEING DONE
IN THIS COMMUNITY THAT COULD BENEFIT FROM A FOCUS ON ACCESSIBILITY.
ONE AREA THAT I HAD BEEN WORKING ON EXTENSIVELY IS AWARENESS MECHANISMS.
THERE ARE TOOLS THAT WILL ENABLE PEOPLE TO FIND OUT ABOUT PEOPLE, OBJECTS,
AND ACTIVITIES THAT HAVE BEEN OCCURRING IN A SHARED SPACE.
AND ONE APPROACH THAT'S BEEN USED EXTENSIVELY IS SOCIAL VISUALIZATION, TO
ENABLE VISITORS TO A WEBSITE TO REALLY BROWSE THAT ENVIRONMENT AND LEARN
SOMETHING ABOUT THAT ON-LINE SPACE AND THAT COMMUNITY.
SO VISITORS CAN EXPLORE TO FIND OUT ABOUT THE PURPOSE, TENOR, AND KIND OF THE
NORMS OF THE ON-LINE SPACE.
AND INVERSELY, COMMUNITIES CAN ACTUALLY PRESENT THE PUBLIC SPACE TO THE
VISITORS TO SHOW THEM SOME ASPECT ABOUT WHAT THIS COMMUNITY IS INVOLVED
IN.
NOW, WE'LL MOVE JUST TO THE LAST
SLIDE.
AND I'LL SHOW YOU TWO EXAMPLES.
ONE IS SOME WORK THAT I DID ON A WEBSITE THAT I BUILT, COMMUNITY FOR HUMAN
INTERACTION PRACTITIONERS.
THE SCREEN SHOT ON THE LEFT IS AN EXAMPLE OF A VISUALIZATION THAT ALLOWS
VISITORS AS WELL AS COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT THE PEOPLE
WHO ARE PART OF THIS COMMUNITY.
AND THIS PEOPLE BROWSER ACTUALLY LOOKS AT THE WORK THAT THE PARTICIPANTS WORK
IN, AND IDENTIFY THE DIFFERENT CLUSTERS OF PEOPLE.
SO IN THIS VIEW YOU CAN SEE THERE'S A LARGE NUMBER OF RESEARCHERS, STUDENTS
AND DESIGNERS IN THIS COMMUNITY.
THE ONE ON THE RIGHT, PEOPLE GARDEN, WAS SOME WORK THAT WAS DONE BY REBECCA
SONG TO INITIALIZE DISCUSSION FORUMS, TO FIND OUT HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE PART OF
A DISCUSSION FORUM, WHO PARTICIPATES, HOW LONG DO THEY PARTICIPATE.
AND SO THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF A PARTICULAR DISCUSSION FORUM WHERE YOU CAN SEE
MANY DIFFERENT PARTICIPANTS, SOME WHO ARE -- WHO DON'T POST VERY MUCH, OTHER
THAN THAT DO.
THE ONES THAT DO ARE THESE BIG ROUND FLOWER SHAPES THAT EXIST.
SO JUST AS THIS EXAMPLE SHOWS, THERE'S PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITY FOR ALLOWING
SUCH VISUALIZATIONS TO ENABLE VISITORS TO FIND OUT ABOUT A COMMUNITY.
AND THERE COULD BE A LOT OF INTEREST TO FIGURE OUT HOW AN ACCESSIBLE VERSION
OF SUCH KINDS INTERFACES COULD LOOK LIKES.
ALISON, COULD YOU DESCRIBE A LITTLE MORE THE FIRST SCREEN SHOT YOU
DISCUSSED, THE PEOPLE BROWSER?
WE HAVE SOME PEOPLE WHO CANNOT SEE THE SCREEN SHOTS, AND I THINK THAT'S A
FAIRLY INTERESTING LAYOUT.
OKAY.
SO THIS IS ACTUALLY JUST A VISUALIZATIONS.
WHAT IT SHOWS IS REALLY A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE REPRESENTED AT DOTS.
THE TOOL IS ACTUALLY LOOKING AT THE INFORMATION, THE USERS HAVE PROVIDED IT
IN THEIR PROFILE, ABOUT THE KIND OF WORK THEY DO.
THEY CAN SELECT MULTIPLE WORK, THEY CAN BE A RESEARCHER, EDUCATOR, DESIGNER.
THIS RESEARCH GOES OVER THE ENTIRE DATABASE AND IDENTIFIES THE NATURAL
CLUSTERS, THE SET OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE OCCUPATIONS THAT ARE IN COMMON.
AND THEY PUT THEM IN THEIR OWN CLUSTER.
AND THE VISUALIZATION ACTUALLY ENVISIONS THIS CLUSTER IN THE TWO-DIMENSIONAL
SPACE.
IT'S NOT JUST THE IMPLEMENTATION, IT'S ALSO A BROWSER.
THE USER CAN POSITION THEIR MICE OVER A DOT AND FIND OUT WHO THAT PERSON IS.
THEY CAN SEE ON THE VISUALIZATION, THERE'S A CLUSTER ON TOP OF "RESEARCHER,"
THEY CAN SKIM AROUND THE DOTS AND FIND OUT WHO'S THERE.
THERE'S ALSO A DYNAMIC CAPABILITY WHICH IS THE SET OF CHECK BOXES ON THE
RIGHT WHERE PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY SELECT THE KINDS AREAS THAT THEY'RE
INTERESTED IN BY SELECTING THEM, THE VISUALIZATION ACTUALLY TURNS THOSE DOTS
ON SO YOU CAN SEE WHO HAS THOSE PARTICULAR FEATURES.
YOU CAN APPLY BOTH AN "AN" QUERY OR AN "OR" QUERY SO YOU CAN FIND OUT WHICH
PEOPLE ARE EDUCATORS, USERS, OR DESIGNERS, OR SIMPLY LOOK AT WHO ARE ALL THE
USERS WHO DESCRIBE THEMSELVES AS DESIGNERS OR EDUCATORS OR END USERS.
THIS IS WENDY.
I JUST WANTED TO CLARIFY ONE THING.
RIGHT NOW I'VE MUTED EVERYONE BUT THE PRESENTERS.
IF YOU'VE BEEN TRYING TO INSERT A QUESTION, WE HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO HEAR YOU.
WE'RE HOLDING THE QUESTIONS UNTIL AFTER ALL THE PRESENTERS.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ASK A QUESTION SEND AN E-MAIL TO ME OR IF YOU'RE AN IRC
YOU CAN TYPE A QUESTION THERE.
OKAY.
SO THAT'S BASICALLY WHAT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT.
CERTAINLY THERE'S OPPORTUNITY TO TALK ABOUT ANY ASPECT OF THIS WORK FROM WEB
ADAPTATION TO THE COLLABORATION WORK AND THE COMBINATION OF THE TWO.
OKAY.
THANK YOU, ALISON.
THANK YOU.
NEXT, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE SUHIT GUPTA AND GAIL KAISER FROM COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY TALKING ABOUT CRUNCH.
SO I'LL TURN IT OVER TO SUHIT.
HI, THIS IS SUHIT.
MY ADVISOR, DR. GAIL KAISER, IS ONLINE, BUT I'LL BE GIVING THE PRESENTATION.
I'M A PHD STUDENT HERE AT THE COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT AT COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY.
AND MY ADVISOR, GR DR. GAIL KAISER, IS THE DIRECTOR OF THE PROGRAMMING
SYSTEMS LAB WHERE WE DO RESEARCH.
OUR PRIMARY RESEARCH IS SYSTEMS WORK.
I'M CONCENTRATING ON -- SINCE I STARTED DOING MY MASTERS, I WAS WORKING ON
CREATING A THREE DIMENSIONAL COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT.
AND WE HAVE MOVED INTO SORT OF A UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING -- INTO THE UBIQUITOUS
COMPUTING FIELD.
THAT'S WHERE WE FIND CRUNCH TO HAVE THE MOST USE.
THAT'S WHAT WE'RE DESCRIBING TODAY.
VERY BROADLY, IT'S A WEB PROXY THAT ACTUALLY JUST REALLY QUICKLY, I HOPE
EVERYBODY CAN SEE THE SLIDES, IN CASE YOU CAN'T, YOU CAN GO TO MY WEBSITE, www.suhit.com/crunch.
AT THE TOP LINK YOU'LL HAVE ACCESS TO THE POWER LINE PRESENTATION.
SUHIT, CAN I ASK YOU TO SPEAK UP A BIT MORE?
ABSOLUTELY.
IS THAT BETTER?
SORT OF?
YES.
ALL RIGHT.
SO I HOPE EVERYBODY CAN SEE THE SLIDES.
IF YOU MOVE TO SLIDE NUMBER 2, IT SHOWS YOU A SCREEN SHOT OF A TYPICAL
WEBSITE WE'VE CHOSEN, A TYPICAL GEEK WEBSITE FOR NEWS AND GENERAL
INFORMATION.
LIKE I SAID EARLIER, WE WERE WORKING ON THIS UBIQUITOUS COLLABORATIVE
ENVIRONMENT.
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS WAS FOR USERS TO BE ABLE TO TALK TO EACH
OTHER NO MATTER WHATEVER CONSTRAINED ENVIRONMENT THEY WERE USING, THEY WOULD
STILL HAVE ACCESS TO THE ORIGINAL INFORMATION.
AND THIS IS WHERE THE IDEA FOR WEB ACCESSIBILITY CAME INTO PLAY.
WE WANTED TO SEE WHETHER PEOPLE, WHETHER DISABLED OR NOT, SHOULD BE ABLE TO
TALK ABOUT A GIVEN WEBSITE WITH EASE.
AND WE'VE CREATED A WEB PROXY WHERE YOU PASS AN HTML PAGE THROUGH IT AND IT
WILL -- WE HOPE IT WILL MAKE IT MORE ACCESSIBLE.
YOU SEE A PLAIN PAGE WHICH HAS A COUPLE OF ADS ON TOP, IT HAS A MENU BAR WITH
A WHOLE BUNCH OF LINKS.
THERE'S THE ACTUAL BODY IN THE MIDDLE WITH A FEW ARTICLES.
ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE THERE'S A LOG-IN SCREEN WITH A BUNCH OF LINKS AS WELL.
MOVING ALONG TO THE NEXT LINE, USUALLY -- AND WE'RE NOT EXPERT IN THE FIELD
SO MOST OF THIS IS FROM WHAT WE'VE HEARD, MAGNIFIERS, THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED
END UP USING MAGNIFIERS.
HOWEVER, ONE OF THE DOWNSIDES USING A MAGNIFIER, WE FEEL, IS THAT IT NOT ONLY
INCREASES THE SIZE OF THE ACTUAL CONTENT THE USER MAY BE INTERESTED IN BUT
ALSO THE LEFT MENU BARS THAT PEOPLE MAY NOT BE INTERESTED IN, THINGS LIKE
THAT.
HERE'S A QUICK SCREEN SHOT, WE USED A PLAIN OLD OFF THE SHELF SCREEN
MAGNIFIER AND THIS IS WHAT IT DID TO THE WEBSITE, EVERYTHING HAS BEEN
ENLARGED.
WE DIDN'T REALLY NOTICE THE ACTUAL ADVANTAGE IN USING IT AS MUCH.
SUHIT, CAN YOU DESCRIBE A BIT MORE WHAT THE IMAGE IS AND WHAT THE WEBSITE IS?
SURE.
SO THE SLIDE WHERE THE SCREEN SHOT IS MAGNIFIED, YOU NOTICE THAT THE IMAGES,
ALL THE IMAGES HAVE BEEN INCREASED IN SIZE, EVEN THOUGH THE USER MAY NOT BE
INTERESTED IN THEM, THE TEXT HAS ALL BEEN INCREASED, AGAIN, IN SIZE, YOU
NOTICE THAT THE ARTICLE IN THE MIDDLE, FROM THE ORIGINAL SCREEN SHOT, THERE
WAS A LOT MORE OF THE ARTICLE THAT WOULD FIT ON THE PAGE THAN FITS NOW ON THE
PAGE, IT'S A MUCH SMALLER -- A LOT LESS CONTENT.
THE LINKS SORT OF COME INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE, AND IT JUST MAKES THE
SCREEN LESS READABLE, ALMOST.
SO WE FIND THAT SCREEN READERS MAY NOT BE AS DESIRABLE AN OPTION, AND WENT TO
THE NEXT OPTION, MOVE TO THE NEXT SLIDE, WHICH DESCRIBES SCREEN READERS,
SCREEN READERS ARE USED AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO MAGNIFIERS.
WINDOW SHOP, I HAVE MOST EXPERIENCE WITH THAT, MICROSOFT NARRATOR THAT COMES
PRELOADED WITH WINDOWS, READS HTML TAGS JUST THE WAY THEY ARE FROM EXPLORER.
THERE ARE CERTAIN OTHER SCREEN READERS WHICH JUST OMIT IMAGES COMPLETELY.
MOVING AHEAD, YOU NOTICE THIS IS THE SAME WEBSITE THAT I SHOWED EARLIER, IT'S
HIGHLY COMPLEX HTML.
FIVE YEARS AGO THE HTML WAS MUCH SIMPLER ON A WEB PAGE, NOW IT CAN GET VERY
COMPLEX, SCREEN READERS MAY HAVE A HARD TIME WITH THAT.
WE FEEL THE BEST WAY IS TO INTERPRET THE HTML TAGS MORE INTELLIGENTLY.
OUR APPROACH IS THIS PRODUCT CALLED CRUNCH.
WE'VE SET UP A FRAMEWORK WHERE ONE CAN INSERT PLUG-INS, EACH OF WHICH -- AND
THESE PLUG-INS WE END UP CALLING FILTERS, AND EACH THESE FILTERS ARE NOT
NECESSARILY -- THE CONCEPT IS NOT NECESSARILY CREATED BY US, BUT WE IMPORT
EACH ONE OF THESE FILTERS INTO THE SPRINGBOARD, AND RUN OUR -- THEY CAN BE
RUN SORT OF ONE AFTER THE OTHER.
THE WEB PAGE IS SENT THROUGH THE ENTIRE FRAME AND IS HIT BY EACH FILTER ONE
AFTER ANOTHER, COMPLETELY CUSTOMIZEABLE BY THE ADMINISTRATOR.
THE USER CAN PARAMETERIZE, TURN OFF, TURN ON DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS,
MAKING THE WEB PAGE AS HE OR SHE WANTS.
IT CAN BE USED AS A WEB PROXY, AS A STAND ALONE APPLICATION ON ONE'S
COMPUTER, IT CAN BE USED WITH ARBITRARY BROWSERS.
IT WON'T TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER, JUST ADDS ON TO YOUR WORK BROWSER.
YOU SEE A SCREEN SHOT OF WHAT WE ACTUALLY CREATE.
THIS IS SLIDE NUMBER 7, I THINK.
8.
THE TOP BAR IS COMPLETELY GONE, THE LEFT BAR IS COMPLETELY GONE.
A WHOLE BUNCH OF LINKS ON THE UPPER RIGHT HAND SIDE HAVE BEEN REMOVED AND YOU
HAVE DIRECT ACCESS TO BE ABLE TO LOG INTO THE COMPUTERS.
THE ARTICLES ARE DIRECTLY AVAILABLE, AND MOVING AHEAD ANOTHER SLIDE, EVEN IF
WE HAVE THE SCREEN COMPLETELY MAGNIFIED, YOU STILL HAVE ACCESS -- YOU HAVE
ACCESS TO A GREATER AMOUNT OF INFORMATION ON THE SCREEN RATHER THAN BEING
ABLE TO -- RATHER THAN HAVING THESE LINKS THAT ARE ENCROACHING ON YOUR SPACE,
NOW YOU HAVE A LOT MORE DATA ON YOUR SCREEN.
OKAY.
FURTHER, WE CAN -- I MENTIONED THESE FILTERS, ONE FILTER, WE CAN COMPLETELY
REMOVE ALL HTML TAGS AND WE FINALLY HAVE JUST TEXT ON THE SCREEN, WHICH IS ON
SLIDE 8, I THINK. [marja: slide 10]
YOU NOTICE THAT RIGHT ON TOP, THE WEBSITE IS ACTUALLY INTRODUCED, WE SAY
SLASH DOT, AND EACH OF THE ARTICLES IS DISPLAYED.
SO WHETHER YOU MAGNIFY THIS OR HAVE A SCREEN READER, IT'S VERY TRIVIAL TO
ACTUALLY GO FROM ARTICLE TO ARTICLE.
IN THE CASE OF A COLLABORATIVE SETUP, A DISABLED USER DOES NOT HAVE TO LAG
BEHIND AND HAVE, YOU KNOW, HAVE ALL THE OTHER LINKS AND THE HTML TAGS READ
OUT TO HIM OR HER.
INSTEAD YOU CAN READ THE ARTICLE DIRECTLY AND BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE
NONDISABLED PERSON.
MOVING FURTHER, A COUPLE OF OTHER EXAMPLES ON SOME OTHER BASIC WEBSITES.
YOU SEE A SCREEN SHOT OF CNN.COM.
ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE THERE IS JUST A PLAIN OLD ARTICLE THAT YOU WOULD SEE
USING INTERNET EXPLORER.
ONCE PASSED THROUGH OUR PROXY, ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE, YOU NOTICE CLEARLY THE
-- ON THE LEFT SIDE WE'VE REMOVED THE MENU BAR.
THE MENU BAR CAN ACTUALLY BE LOADED UP IN A SEPARATE WINDOW SO YOU STILL HAVE
ACCESS TO IT.
ON TOP YOU STILL HAVE ACCESS TO THE SEARCH, SO IT'S NOT REMOVING THE
INFORMATION.
BUT IT HAS REMOVED CERTAIN WORDS THAT YOU MAY NOT WANT.
IT'S CONVERTED THE IMAGE INTO JUST PLAIN TEXT.
SO THE OLD TAG THAT WENT WITH THE IMAGE IS NOW SOMETHING THAT'S CLICKABLE,
AND ONE CAN USE IT.
ON THE NEXT SLIDE, ANOTHER WEBSITE, SPACEDAILY.COM, ACTUALLY I'M AN ASTRONOMY
BUFF, AND I CHECK OUT THIS WEBSITE QUITE A BIT.
THIS WEBSITE JUST HAS A WHOLE BUNCH OF ARTICLES, BUT IF WE RAN THIS THROUGH A
SCREEN READER AND IT TRIED TO READ OUT EACH OF THE IMAGES ON TOP AND WENT TO
THE LEFT SIDE AND TRIED TO READ THE MENU BAR, THE WAY THE TAILS ARE LAID OUT,
IT WENT DOWN TOWARDS THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE BEFORE COMING TO THE TOP FOR THE
MAIN ARTICLE.
ON THE OTHER HAND, AFTER RUNNING IT THROUGH OUR SYSTEM, WE HAVE ALL THE
ARTICLES LAID OUT ONE AFTER THE OTHER, IN SORT OF READY TO READ FORMAT.
OKAY.
SO THAT'S DESCRIBING WHAT -- THAT'S JUST SHOWING YOU WHAT THE RESULTS ARE.
TO SHOW HOW OUR WORK FITS INTO WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE HAS DONE, MOST OF THE WORK
THAT'S BEEN DONE IN THE PAST, FOR EXAMPLE MOST OF YOU MAY BE FAMILIAR WITH
OPERA OR THUNDERHAWK, BOTH OF THESE ARE USED TO DISPLAY WEB PAGES ON PDAs OR
PHONE, BUT THEY'RE VERY SIMILAR TO OUR SYSTEM WHERE THEY RUN THROUGH A PROXY
AND ARE AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE.
BUT THE WORK THAT'S BEEN DONE FOR PDAs AND PHONES INVOLVES MORE OF REDOING
THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, JUST REFORMATTING WHERE THINGS ARE LAID OUT.
INSTEAD, OUR PROPOSAL WAS TO ACTUALLY DETECT WHAT THE CONTENT IS ON THE PAGE
AND THEN EXTRACT THAT OUT.
THIS HAS THE ADDITIONAL ADVANTAGE THAT FOR PEOPLE THAT WANT TO DO NATURAL
LANGUAGE PROCESSING RESEARCH, DATA CAN BE HIGHLY NOISY IF YOU HAVE
INFORMATION THAT ACTUALLY IS NOT DIRECTLY ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR RESEARCH.
USING THIS, OUR SYSTEM MIGHT HELP CREATE MUCH CLEANER DATA FOR NLPA
ALGORITHMS.
SOME OTHER SYSTEMS DIVIDE UP THE PAGE INTO DIFFERENT UNITS AND DISPLAY
DIFFERENT AMOUNTS OF INFORMATION.
AGAIN, WHAT WE DO IS WE TRY TO KEEP THE ORIGINAL CONTENT OF THE PAGE INTACT
AND NOT CHANGE IT TOO MUCH.
MOVING AHEAD TO TECHNICAL DETAILS, I'M VERY, VERY BRIEFLY GOING TO GO OVER
THIS.
WE USE THE DOCUMENT OBJECT MODEL, W3C STANDARD, FOR REPRESENTATION RATHER
THAN JUST THE HTML.
WE TAKE THE HTML INTO A DOM TREE AND THEN USE OUR FILTERS TO EXTRACT CONTENT
FROM THE DOM TREE WHICH WE FOUND TO BE A VERY GOOD MODEL.
AND AGAIN, THE NEXT POINT, WE PASS THE DOM TREE THROUGH A SERIES OF
TRANSFORMATION FILTERS, AND THE OUTPUT CAN BE HTML OR PLAIN TEXT.
HOWEVER, MOVING TO THE NEXT SLIDE, THERE ARE SOME LIMITATIONS.
WE HAVE A PARTICULAR FILTER CALLED THE LINK REMOVER.
THIS IS A RATIO BASED LINK REMOVER SO THE RATIO OF LINKS TO THE TEXT -- WE
TRY TO DETERMINE WHETHER SOMETHING IS CONTENT OR NOT BASED ON THE NUMBER OF
LINKS, THE RATIO OF NUMBER OF LINKS VERSUS TEXT TEXT.
WE FIND THAT PAGES THAT ARE LINK HEAVY TURN OUT TO GIVE VERY POOR RESULTS,
THE SCREEN SHOT FOR MSN.COM HAS A WHOLE BUNCH OF LINKS ON THE PAGE, AND
SOMEBODY MAY DEFINITE LIFE WANT TO VIEW IT.
HOWEVER, IF YOU PASS IT THROUGH OUR PROXY AT THIS POINT IT TURNS OUT MOST OF
THE LINKS ARE REMOVED, IT ASSUMES MOST OF THEM ARE NONCONTENT RELATED AND IT
REMOVES THEM.
THAT'S SOMETHING WE ARE WORKING ON.
SUHIT, CAN I GIVE YOU A FIVE-MINUTE WARNING?
THIS IS MY SECOND TO LAST SLIDE.
OKAY, GREAT.
THANKS.
SO THE FUTURE DIRECTION WE WANT TO MOVE IN IS WE ARE HOPING TO PERFORM A
USER STUDY WITH DR. MICHAEL CHANG, WHO IS AN INSTRUCTER IN CLINICAL
OPHTHALMOLOGY, AND HE'S ACTUALLY AN OPHTHALMOLOGIST HERE AT COLUMBIA IN THE
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS.
HE WAS HOPING TO RUN A STUDY WITH US WITH USERS THAT HAVE BEEN BLIND FOLDED
AND USERS THAT CANNOT SEE AND GET FEEDBACK FROM THEM ON HOW OUR PROXY CAN BE
IMPROVED.
WE'RE IN THE PROCESS OF SEEKING APPROVAL FOR THIS STUDY.
IN CONCLUSION, WE ARE -- JUST TO RECAP, WE'RE WORKING WITH THE DOCUMENT
OBJECT MODEL RATHER THAN THE RAW HTML MOST OF THE OTHER PRODUCTS THAT ARE OUT
THERE RIGHT NOW, COMMERCIAL PRODUCT OF, TRY TO REFORMAT THE HTML AS OPPOSED
TO LOOKING AT THE DOM TREE.
WE FIND THAT ENABLES US TO DO BETTER IDENTIFICATION OF THE OBJECTS IN A PAGE
AND EXTRACT CONTENT.
CRUNCH IS A FRAMEWORK THAT PROVIDES THE BASIS FOR ADDITIONAL RESEARCH IN
CONTENT EXTRACTION AND ACCESSIBILITY.
IF YOU WANT FURTHER SCREEN SHOTS OR YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD THE PRODUCT, YOU CAN
GO TO OUR WEBSITE, www.psl.cs.columbia.edu.
PROGRAMMING SYSTEMS LIVE INTO GOOGLE, I BELIEVE THAT'S WHAT COMES UP.
THANK YOU.
THIS IS GOTTFRIED.
CAN YOU HEAR ME?
JUST FINE.
BECAUSE I MUTED MYSELF AND YOU UNMUTED ME.
THAT'S OKAY.
I'M WORK HEARING AT THE TRADE CENTER THAT IS PART OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
WISCONSIN HERE IN MADISON.
WE HAVE A CENTER GRANT FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN WASHINGTON FOR FIVE
YEARS, THAT'S ACTUALLY RUNNING OUT RIGHT NOW.
WE'RE FUNDING RESEARCH INTO THE AREA OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ACCESS FOR
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND ALL THE PEOPLE.
I HOPE YOU CAN ALL SEE MY SLIDES.
SO IF WE MOVE TO THE
FIRST SLIDE, THE PROJECT I'M TALKING TO YOU TODAY IS T-TRANS, ASSISTANCE
SERVICES ON DEMAND.
I HAVE KIND OF TWO PARTS IN MY SPEECH.
WHAT IS THE OVERARCHING CONCEPT THAT'S A LONG TERM GOAL OF TRACE, AND THAT'S
SOMETHING NOT ONLY TRACE IS WORKING ON, BUT MANY OTHER RESEARCHERS AND
ORGANIZATIONS AS KIND OF THE SAME AGENDA TO DO.
WE TRY TO MAKE A CONCEPT OF IT.
THEN WHAT CONCRETE STEPS ARE WE DOING RIGHT NOW TO GET TOWARDS THIS BIG GOAL.
SO WE MOVE TO SLIDE
2.
AND HERE YOU SEE THIS BIG CONCEPT LAID OUT AS A RAINBOW HERE.
MAYBE IN YOUR BROWSER, IF THERE IS A SCROLL BAR JUST FOR THE RAINBOW, IF YOU
HIT THE BUTTON WITH "SMALL A/ BIG A", ONCE OR TWICE, THEN YOU GET RID OF THAT
SCROLL BAR OFF THE GRAPHICS, ALTHOUGH YOU CAN USE ALTERNATE STYLE SHEET THAT
ARE BETTER FOR THIS GRAPHIC.
SO WHAT DO WE SEE HERE?
WE SEE A THREE-LAYERED RAINBOW, AND IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT THERE IS A USER.
AND THE USER CAN USE SERVICES THAT ARE LAID OUT ON THAT RAINBOW.
AND THERE ARE -- THERE IS A SPEECH RECOGNITION SERVICE.
THAT MEANS THE USER CAN GET ASSISTANCE ON DEMAND VIA SPEECH OR TEXT
TRANSLATION.
THAT'S A THING WE SEE TODAY IN THAT CAPTIONS APPLET.
HOWEVER, THIS IS NOT FROM US THAT'S RUNNING RIGHT NOW, BUT THIS IS THE TYPE
OF SERVICE.
AND THERE IS A SIGN LANGUAGE SERVICE THAT WOULD TRANSLATE SPEECH OR TEXT TO
SIGN LANGUAGE.
THEN THERE IS A SIGN LANGUAGE RECOGNITION SERVICE THAT TRANSLATES SIGN
LANGUAGE TO SPEECH OR TEXT.
THEN THERE IS AN INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATION SERVICE THAT TRANSLATES FROM ONE
LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER, USUALLY SPEECH TO SPEECH.
WE HAVE ASSISTANCE MENTORING SERVICE, THAT'S ACTUALLY WHERE IN A BROAD SENSE,
IT CAN BE SPECIALIZED FOR FOR EXAMPLE MEDICAL ASSISTANCE FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED
IT, WHO HAVE TO OBSERVE SPECIAL DIETS.
BUT IT COULD ALSO BE A DOCTOR WHO NEEDS IN SOME CASES EXPERTISE HELP.
ALSO FOR A PERSON WITH COGNITIVE DISABILITIES, THAT CERTAIN SITUATIONS IN
THEIR LIFE, THEY NEED SOMEONE WHO MENTORS THEM AND CAN CALL THEM UP.
NEXT SERVICE IS A LANGUAGE SIMPLIFICATION SERVICE.
AGAIN, THIS IS SOMETHING FOR CHARTS, PEOPLE WITH COGNITIVE DISABILITIES,
COMPLEX SENTENCES OR DOCUMENTS, THEY CAN GET A SIMPLIFIED VERSION.
THE PRINT RECOGNITION SERVICE, THIS IS LIKE OCR, BUT USUALLY MORE COMPLEX.
OCR, THAT'S SOMETHING WE DO PRETTY WELL, BUT YOU HAVE COMPLEX LAYOUTS, HOW TO
LINEARIZE THAT, AND THE LAST SERVICE THAT'S CALLED IMAGE DESCRIPTION SERVICE,
THAT WOULD BE A VERBAL DESCRIPTION OF AN IMAGE OR VIDEO FOR PEOPLE WHO CANNOT
SEE OR WHOSE EYES ARE BUSY.
SO WHAT DO THESE SERVICES HAVE IN COMMON?
AND THIS IS JUST A SET OF SERVICES AS AN EXAMPLE.
IT'S NOT EXHAUSTIVE.
BUT THESE ARE THE SERVICES WE THOUGHT THAT WOULD BE USEFUL FOR PEOPLE WITH
AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES TO HAVE THEM AVAILABLE ON DEMAND IN ORDER TO
COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER OVER DIFFERENT MODALITIES.
AND THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT IT'S NOT JUST A ONE-WAY COMMUNICATION, IT
ENABLES A PERSON, WHATEVER ABILITIES OR DISABILITIES THEY HAVE, TO
COMMUNICATE IN TWO WAYS WITH THEIR PARTNERS.
THIS IS LAID OUT AS THREE LAYERS, AND A KEY COMPONENT OF THIS CONCEPT IS THAT
WE HAVE A TRY HARDER FEATURE.
THAT MEANS THESE SERVICES CAN BE IMPLEMENTED EITHER LOCALLY, ON A DEVICE OF
THE USER,/A HAND-HELD OR A COMPUTER.
IT COULD ALSO BE IMPLEMENTED IN THE NEXT LAYER AS A NETWORK ADVANCE SERVICE,
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF MORE SERVICES THAT ARE AVAILABLE.
BUT YOU NEED CONNECTION TO A NETWORK.
AND THAT IS ALWAYS ACTIVE.
THEN THE LAST LAYER IS THE HUMAN ASSISTED SERVICES LAYER.
THERE ARE SERVICES THAT ARE PROVIDED BY HUMANS OR HUMANS CORRECT OR APPROVE
OR IN SOME WAY CHECK THE SERVICES THAT ARE AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED BY
IMPLEMENTATION OF THAT SERVICE.
SO WITH THE TRY HARDER FEATURE, WHAT WE CAN DO IS, I'LL GIVE YOU AN EXAMPLE,
FOR EXAMPLE THE SPEECH RECOGNITION SERVICE, LET'S SAY I'M GOING OUT TO A MALL
AND I'M -- I WANT TO RECORD EVERYTHING, WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING IN TEXT.
I WANT TO INTERVIEW PEOPLE.
FIRST I MIGHT JUST USE A LOCAL SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE THAT IS AVAILABLE,
FOR EXAMPLE VIA VOICE FROM IBM.
IF I GET TOO MUCH BACKGROUND NOISE I MIGHT ACTUALLY NEED TO GO CALL UP THE
NETWORK ENABLED SERVICE THAT HAS SPECIAL BACKGROUND CANCELLATION AND
SUPPRESSION FEATURES.
IT'S MORE POWERFUL.
I COULD DO THAT SEAMLESSLY, JUST HIT A BUTTON, OR IT MIGHT ACTUALLY DO THAT
AUTOMATICALLY BECAUSE IT REALIZES THE QUALITY IS ACTUALLY DROPPING.
THEN I GET TO A PERSON WHO HAS A HEAVY ACCENT, AND THEN THIS SECOND SERVICE
FAILS OR THE QUALITY DROPS DOWN, SO I ACTUALLY CALL UP A HUMAN ASSISTED
SERVICE, SOMEBODY WHO IS SITTING THERE AND EITHER CAPTIONING WITH A SPECIAL
KEYBOARD, OR REVOICING WHAT IS BEING SAID.
THIS PERSON MAY BE EVEN A SPECIALIZED PERSON THAT IS FAMILIAR WITH THAT
ACCENT, MAYBE THEY COME FROM THE SAME AREA OR WHATEVER.
SO THIS IS THE CONCEPT OF TRY HARDER.
AND THESE SERVICES CAN BE DELIVERED TO THE PERSON WHO NEEDS THEM VIA
DIFFERENT DEVICES.
YOU SEE THE DEVICES ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS PICTURE.
SO JUST AS EXAMPLES, THERE'S A COMPUTER, A HAND-HELD, IT COULD BE JUST VIA
EARPLUGS AND A MICROPHONE, IT COULD BE A CELL PHONE.
ALSO VIA -- THERE ARE THESE HEAD UP DEVICES, AND SOME OF THEM THAT YOU HAVE
ON A MONITOR TO CLASSES, THAT'S VERY INOBTRUSIVE, AND LAPTOP PCs, EVERYTHING
YOU CAN IMAGINE COULD BE USED TO DELIVER THESE SERVICES.
WE'LL MOVE ON TO SLIDE
THREE.
THIS WAS THE BIG PICTURE, AND NOW WE'RE COMING DOWN TO WHAT ARE WE DOING
RIGHT NOW.
THIS IS ALONG A CHAIN, JUST STARTING WITH THAT, AND HOPING WE CAN IMPLEMENT
THAT.
SO OUR FIRST STEP INTO THAT IS A SPEECH, IMPLEMENTING A SPEECH RECOGNITION
SERVICE, JUST ADDED VALUE.
AND ADDED VALUE IS REGARDING TO SPECIALIZED FEATURES THAT FACILITATE
MEETINGS, AND WE'RE JUST STARTING WITH THAT.
SO THE GOAL IS TO DEVELOP A WEB-BASED SERVICE SYSTEM FROM MODULAR DESCENT.
WE HAVE A SYSTEM THAT IS COMPRISED OF WEB SERVICES THAT CAN BE LIKE BUILDING
BLOCKS PUT TOGETHER TO BUILD THIS SPEECH RECOGNITION SERVICE WITH ADDED
VALUE.
ONE SERVICE IS THE EXECUTIVE SERVICE, COORDINATES ALL OUR SERVICES, AND
THAT'S SESSION MANAGEMENT.
THEN THERE IS A MODALITY TRANSFORMATION MANAGER SERVICE, THAT IS A GATEWAY TO
THIRD PARTY TRANSLATION AND TRANSFORMATION SERVICES, AND IT WILL BE
EVENTUALLY WITH TRIED HARDER CAPABILITIES.
WE'RE NOT IMPLEMENTING THE SERVICES THEMSELVES, AND MAYBE I GAVE YOU THAT
IMPRESSION, THAT IS WRONG.
WHAT WE DO IS TO IMPLEMENT A FRAMEWORK THAT ALL THESE SERVICES CAN BE
EMPLOYED FROM THIRD PARTIES AND CAN BE PUT TOGETHER TO ONE SESSION THAT THE
USER CAN HAVE LIKE A PORTAL TO ALL THESE SERVICES.
OKAY.
THE NEXT SERVICE IS THE MEETING FACILITATION SERVICE.
IT'S A LIST OF PARTICIPANTS LIKE THE ONE YOU SEE IN IRC, FOR EXAMPLE.
MESSAGE CUING, AGAIN, SOMETHING THAT IS AVAILABLE TODAY WITH IRC TO SOME
EXTENT.
AND FLOOR GIVING.
SO WE THOUGHT ABOUT HOW CAN WE MAKE THAT, FOR EXAMPLE, A PERSON WITH A
HEARING DISABILITY CAN ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE, NOT ONLY LISTEN TO AND ASSESS,
WE'RE SEEING THAT ON THE TEXT, BUT ALSO HAVE A QUESTION, CONTRIBUTE, GIVE A
PRESENTATION THEMSELVES.
THERE ARE SOME LIMITATIONS RIGHT NOW WITH SPEECH TEXT SYSTEM.
AND THE OTHER WAY IS RIGHT NOW THE USER WOULD HAVE TO TYPE SOMETHING.
SO THERE'S SOME PERFORMANCE CONSTRAINTS.
BUT THAT'S WHAT WE START WITH.
IDEALLY, THIS PERSON WOULD HAVE A SIGN RECOGNITION, AND THEY COULD SIGN THEIR
PRESENTATION AND PEOPLE WOULD SEE THAT AS TEXT OR BE SPOKEN.
BUT IN ORDER TO ENABLE THESE PEOPLE TO PARTICIPATE ACTIVELY, THEY HAVE TO BE
ABLE TO TYPE QUESTIONS.
AND IF WE DO THAT, WE REALIZE THAT WE NEED A COMMON MESSAGE SYSTEM SO THAT
EVERYBODY WOULD, IF THEY WANT TO SAY SOMETHING, EITHER JUST TYPING "I WANT TO
SAY SOMETHING" OR TYPE IN A MORE SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION OF WHAT THEY WANT TO
ASK, ACCORDING TO WHAT WE DO IN IRC.
BUT IT'S ONE SYSTEM FOR ALL.
IF WE DO THAT, THEN EVERYBODY ACTUALLY HAS GREAT BENEFIT IN HAVING MINUTES,
SEEING WHO RAISED WHAT QUESTION IN WHAT ORDER, AND WE HAVE A VERY GOOD
DOCUMENTATION OF THE SESSION, IF WE WANT THAT.
THEN THE NEXT SERVICE IS A TEXT CORRECTION SERVICE.
AND THAT'S UNIQUE, IN THAT PEOPLE IN THE SESSION WHO ARE USING THE SERVICE,
THE SPEECH TO TEXT SERVICE, CAN ACTUALLY ERECT WHAT THEY GET FROM A SERVICE,
HOW IF YOU USE HUMANS ON THE OTHER END LIKE WE DO TODAY FOR CAPTIONING,
THEY'RE PRETTY GOOD, SOMETIMES THERE ARE EXPRESSIONS THEY DON'T KNOW, DOMAIN
SPECIFIC EXPRESSIONS OR ACRONYMS, AND THEN ON THE SIDE, WHERE WE USE THESE
SERVICES, WE CAN JUST SHORT CLICK OR WHATEVER, TAB OR WHATEVER WE USE, YOU
CAN CORRECT THIS INSTANCE OF THE WORD.
AND THIS IS ACTUALLY THOUGHT TO BE IN THE END THAT MANY PEOPLE CAN WORK
TOGETHER SO THAT ALL THE PARTICIPANTS OF A SESSION CAN SIMULTANEOUSLY CORRECT
THE TEXT.
OBVIOUSLY THERE'S SOME RESTRICTIONS, IF THERE IS A CONFLICT.
BUT WE WANT TO ALLOW THAT IN PRINCIPLE.
AND THEN THERE'S ARCHIVE SERVICE THAT IS VERY HELPFUL FOR EVERYBODY, YOU CAN
SEARCH THE ARCHIVE AND SEARCH THE TEXT.
OKAY.
WE MOVE ON TO SLIDE
4.
NOW, I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT SOME USE CASES OF THIS SPEECH OR TEXT SERVICE WE
ARE BEING IMPLEMENTED.
WE HAD ALREADY A PRECURSOR OF THE SYSTEM WE ARE RIGHT NOW IMPLEMENTING.
THE PRECURSOR WAS NOT REALLY WEB BASED BUT WE MADE SOME PRETTY GOOD
EXPERIENCES WITH IT.
WE COULD NOW USE IN IMPLEMENTED THE NEW SYSTEM.
SO THIS FIRST USE CASE DESCRIBES A TEXT TRANSCRIPTION FOR PRESENTATION.
SO IN THIS WAY, IN THIS CASE IT'S JUST A ONE-WAY TRANSLATION FROM THE
PRESENTER WHO IS TALKING TO A TEXT PRESENTATION THAT IS EITHER DISPLAYED ON A
LARGE SCREEN OR ON PERSONAL COMPUTERS THAT PEOPLE HAVE IN THE AUDIENCE.
AND WE DID THAT ABOUT HALF A YEAR AGO AT THE SUPERCOMPUTERS CONFERENCE IN
BALTIMORE IN NOVEMBER.
AND THE GRAPHIC IS HERE ON THIS WEB PAGE.
I'M SORRY, I THINK THE SVG DOESN'T WORK WITH MY WEB BROWSER HERE.
MAYBE YOU CAN SEE THAT LATER.
SO WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A PERSON IS TALKING, THE AUDIO IS SHIPPED TO A SPEECH
TO TEXT TRANSLATION SERVICE, AND THEN THE SERVICE PROVIDES CAPTIONS THAT ARE
DELIVERED TO A SPEECH OR TEXT MANAGEMENT SERVICE.
THEN CORRECTIONS ARE PROVIDED BY PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE WHO HAVE COMPUTERS,
HAND-HELD COMPUTERS OR LAPTOPS OR WHATEVER, AND THE CAPTIONS AND THE
CORRECTIONS ARE TOGETHER, AND THE USERS SEE IN A WINDOW, SEE THE TEXT, AND
ACTUALLY IN THIS CASE WE HAVE THE NORMAL TEXT IN BLACK FONT AND THE
CORRECTIONS IN RED FONT.
THE THING IS THAT USERS WILL SEE THE TEXT FLOWING IN THIS WINDOW ON AND ON,
AND THEN SUDDENLY A WORD THAT HAS ALREADY APPEARED ON THE SCREEN WILL CHANGE
AND BECOME RED BECAUSE SOMEBODY HAS CORRECTED THAT.
AND YOU CAN DO THAT ON ANY LOCATION OF THE SCREEN, OF THE TEXT, SO YOU CAN GO
BACK AND DO CORRECTIONS OF SOMETHING THAT'S ALREADY FIVE MINUTES AGO.
ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF THIS SERVICE, THE TRANSCRIPT IS AVAILABLE FOR PERSONS
WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENTS AND PEOPLE LISTENING WITH A NONNATIVE LANGUAGE.
WE FOUND AT THIS CONFERENCE THERE WERE A LOT OF PEOPLE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES
AND THEY SAID, THIS IS NICE, BECAUSE I'M NOT SO GOOD IN ENGLISH AND IF I SEE
THE TEXT POPPING UP THERE I CAN BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT THE PRESENTER IS
SAYING.
IT'S ALSO HELPFUL FOR AN AUDIENCE, FOR SPEAKERS WITH HEAVY ACCENTS, WE HAD
SOMEBODY WHO WAS A PERSON, AND HE WAS FROM JAPAN, AND HE HAD A PRETTY HEAVY
ACCENT, AND PEOPLE LOOKED AT THIS CAPTIONING SCREEN AND SAID LATER THAT THAT
WAS VERY HELPFUL, AND THE CAPTIONER WAS ABLE TO UNDERSTAND PRETTY WELL WHAT
THE PRESENTER WAS SAYING.
AND THE SPEECH IS AVAILABLE AS A TEXT DOCUMENT AFTERWARDS AS A TRANSCRIPT.
PEOPLE CAN CORRECT WORDS AND NAMES NOT KNOWN BY THE INTERPRETERS.
ALL TOGETHER IS MORE ECONOMIC THAN HAVING A CAPTIONER AT THE SITE.
GOTTFRIED, CAN WE TRY WRAP THIS UP?
WE HAVE APPROXIMATELY 25 MINUTES LEFT FOR THE CALL, WE WANT TO GET QUESTIONS
IN.
THANK YOU.
CAN YOU GIVE ME TWO MORE MINUTES?
YES, ABSOLUTELY.
OKAY.
THE SECOND USE CASE, IS WHERE WE ACTUALLY RIGHT NOW GET MONEY FOR THAT, IT'S
PART OF THE NSF FUNDED PROGRAM CALLED -- A PART OF THAT PROGRAM IS THE ACCESS
GRID, A SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT.
WE'RE IMPLEMENTING THAT INTO THIS ENVIRONMENT.
THIS IS AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE YOU HAVE EVERYTHING I TALKED ABOUT BEFORE,
EVERYTHING IN ELECTRONICS FORM AVAILABLE.
YOU HAVE THE AUDIO SHIPPED OVER IP, YOU HAVE THE SLIDES SHIPPED OVER IP, AND
WHAT WE ARE ADDING IS THAT YOU HAVE A TEXT COMPONENT, AND EVERYTHING IS
ELECTRONICALLY AVAILABLE.
IT'S KIND OF A PERFECT TEST FOR WHAT WE WANT TO DO.
THE BENEFITS HERE, AGAIN, YOU HAVE A TEXT TRANSCRIPT, WE WANT TO USE THE
MESSAGE CUING BECAUSE ALREADY IF YOU HAVE DISTRIBUTIVE GROUPS COLLABORATING,
IT'S KIND OF A HAS TOLL FIND OUT WHO WANTS TO SAY SOMETHING.
AND WITH ALL THESE WINDOWS ON THE SCREEN.
THIS WILL BE VERY NICE FOR THEM, AND ALSO PEOPLE CAN SUBMIT THEIR
CONTRIBUTIONS AS TEXT.
SLIDE
6, THIS IS THE COMMODITY OPERATIONS IN THE FUTURE.
WE PLAN THAT WE MAKE THIS AVAILABLE FOR EVERYBODY, AND HOPEFULLY SOME WAY
THAT THEY CAN JUST USE IT FROM THEIR OPERATING SYSTEM, WHATEVER THEY USE, BY
CLICKING ON A BUTTON, AND THEY CAN HAVE A TRANSCRIPT.
SO, FOR EXAMPLE, IF I'M SITTING IN MY OFFICE AND SOMEBODY COMES IN, THE
PERSON WHO COMES IN IS HEARING IMPAIRED, THEN I CAN JUST CLICK ON THE BUTTON
AND HOPEFULLY I HAVE A MICROPHONE SOMEWHERE, AND THIS PERSON, IF I TOOK THE
SCREEN TO THEM, THEY CAN ACTUALLY SEE WHAT I'M TALKING.
THESE ARE SOME ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, PEOPLE I'M WORKING WITH, AND SOME OF THE
STUDENTS WHO ARE IMPLEMENTING THAT RIGHT NOW, AND IT COMES FROM NIDA AND NSF.
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION.
OKAY, THANK YOU, GOTTFRIED.
WE HAVE SEVEN MINUTES AFTER THE HOUR ON MY CLOCK.
WE'RE SCHEDULED TO END THE CALL AT 30 MINUTES PAST THE HOUR.
I WANTED TO MAKE ONE COMMENT FIRST.
THE ISSUE OF THE ACTUAL PRESENTATION SLIDES THAT HAVE BEEN USED TODAY, THERE
MAY BE SOME ACCESSIBILITY PROBLEMS WE'RE HAVING WITH A FEW OF THE SLIDES.
I THINK THERE WERE SOME ISSUES WITH PEOPLE BEING ABLE TO FOLLOW ALONG WITH
SUHIT'S PRESENTATION.
WE'LL BE WORKING TO GET AN ACCESSIBLE VERSION OF THOSE SLIDES UP THAT ARE
EASY TO NAVIGATE AND HAVE THOSE AVAILABLE OFF THE AGENDA PAGE AS SOON AS
POSSIBLE.
AND IN THE FUTURE TELECONFERENCES, WE'LL MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE SOME ADVANCE
COORDINATION ON ENSURING THAT THE SLIDES ARE ALL NAVIGABLE FOR FUTURE
PRESENTATIONS.
SO HAVING SAID THAT, I WOULD LIKE TO GO INTO A QUESTION-AND-ANSWER PERIOD
HERE, AND WE HAVE BEEN RECEIVING QUESTIONS BOTH VIA E-MAIL AND FROM IRC.
AND I WOULD LIKE TO START AFTER INITIALLY WITH TWO SETS QUESTIONS THAT I'VE
RECEIVED PRIOR TO THE START OF THE CALL.
FIRST OFF, I WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS THIS TO ALISON AND SUHIT FOR SOME BRIEF
ANSWERS.
AND THE QUESTION IS FROM HAZEL KENNEDY IN THE UK.
I AM CONCERNED ABOUT THE ISSUES NONDISABLED DEVELOPERS MAKING DECISIONS FOR
DISABLED USERS.
WHO IS TO DECIDE WHAT CONTENT IS EXTRANEOUS AND WHO IS TO DECIDE WHAT SHOULD
AND SHOULD NOT BE FILTERED?
I WOULD LIKE TO GET SUGGESTIONS AND ANSWERS FROM ALISON FIRST AND THEN FOLLOW
THAT WITH SUHIT.
YES, I THINK ONE POINT THAT I SHOULD MAKE, AND MAYBE I DIDN'T DO THAT VERY
EFFECTIVELY IN MY TALK, WE DON'T ACTUALLY MAKE ANY DECISIONS FOR THE END
USERS ABOUT WHAT THINGS ARE FILTERED OUT.
ACTUALLY THE END USER ACTUALLY USES THE WEB ADAPTATION TOOL AND APPLIES THEM
IN WHATEVER MANNER -- APPLIES THE SET THAT IS MOST APPLICABLE FOR THEM.
IN NONE OF THE ADAPTATIONS WE DO DO WE FILTER OUT ANY OF THE INFORMATION.
THE ADAPTATIONS ARE LARGER FONT SIZES, IMAGE SCALING AND THINGS LIKE THAT.
BUT WE DON'T FILTER OUT ANYTHING.
YES, I HAD A COUPLE OF COMMENTS ABOUT THAT AS WELL.
I WASN'T ABLE TO SHOW SCREEN SHOTS THE ACTUAL PROXY CONTROL APPLET THAT THE
USERS HAVE ACCESS TO.
THERE ARE A LOT OF CHECK BOXES AND SLIDERS THAT ONE CAN CUSTOMIZE FOR EXACTLY
WHAT -- WAIT THEY WANT TO VIEW THEIR OWN WEB PAGE VERSUS WHAT THEIR FRIEND
MAY BE VIEWING RIGHT NEXT TO THEM.
THERE CAN BE A VERSION WHERE AN ADMINISTRATOR OF SORTS CAN ACTUALLY SET UP A
GLOBAL SETTING.
BUT I THINK I MENTIONED THIS, I MAY HAVE GLOSSED OVER IT, THE USER HAS -- THE
USER CAN RUN THIS AS A CLIENT SIDE APPLICATION AS WELL.
AND THE SECOND THING, AND THIS IS WHAT I MENTIONED TOWARDS THE END OF MY
PRESENTATION, WE ARE PERFORMING A USER STUDY, ACTUALLY THE USER-THE STUDY
WITH THE USERS WITH BLIND FOLDS HAS ACTUALLY JUST BEEN FORMED, AND THE STUDY
WITH THE USERS THAT ACTUALLY CAN SEE OR ARE VISUALLY IMPAIR IS BEING
HOPEFULLY GOING TO BE PERFORMED OVER THE SUMMER.
SO WE ARE GOING TO GET FEEDBACK AND GET AN IDEA OF WHAT PEOPLE WANT INSTEAD
OF ACTUALLY MAKING THE DECISIONS OURSELVES.
AND I SHOULD ASK GOTTFRIED, DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS?
NO, THANKS.
OKAY.
ANOTHER QUESTION HAS COME FROM JONATHAN CHETWYND IN THE UK.
WHAT ABOUT THE ISSUE OF EXTRACTING SUMMARIES, EITHER THROUGH THE LABELING OF
THE CONTENT'S AUTHORS OR BY ALGORITHM?
WHO WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS THAT?
THIS IS ALISON.
CAN I GET A CLARIFICATION TO THAT QUESTION?
ARE WE TALKING ABOUT SUMMARIZATION SUCH AS PROVIDING AN ABSTRACT VERSION OF A
WEB PAGE?
THE QUESTION ISN'T CLEAR IN THAT RESPECT.
I WOULD CONSIDER THAT COULD BE IMPLIED, THAT IT WOULD BE A SUMMARIZATION OF
THE CONTENT.
OKAY.
IF WE'VE LOOKED A LITTLE BIT AT SOME OF THIS AS THESE QUESTIONS WITH WEB
PAGES.
ON A SINGLE WEB PAGE BASIS IT'S FAIRLY DIFFICULT TO DO TRADITIONAL TEXT
SUMMARIZATION AS WE KNOW OF THEM BECAUSE WEB PAGES THEMSELVES ARE REALLY LOTS
OF SUMMARIES OF THE PAGE ITSELF.
ONE THING THAT MIGHT BE VERY USEFUL THAT WE'RE LOOKING AT IS THE ABILITY TO
PERHAPS GIVE A SORT OF A SUMMARY IN THE FORM OF AN OVERVIEW OF THE PAGE, FOR
PEOPLE WHO MAY NOT BE SEEING PAGES VERY WELL, TO BE MADE AWARE OF SORT OF THE
AREAS ON THE SCREEN, WHAT THEY CONSIST.
ANOTHER AREA MIGHT BE IN THE FORM OF HELPING PEOPLE WITH DEVELOPMENTAL
DISABILITIES NAVIGATE A PAGE ITSELF BY HIGHLIGHTING THE MAIN CORE AREAS IN
THE PAGE THEMSELVES, SORT OF IN THE FORM OF EITHER AN ORAL MAP OR A VISUAL
MAP.
I WANT TO JUST -- THIS IS SUHIT, BY THE WAY.
I WANT TO SAY SOMETHING AS WELL.
I HAD MENTIONED NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING.
IT IS A PROCESS, AND OURS IS A SYSTEMS GROUP, SO WE OURSELVES HAVEN'T DONE
ANY RESEARCH, BUT OUR PRODUCT CAN BE USED TOWARDS ALGORITHMS BECAUSE IT
PRODUCES LESS NOISY DATA.
IN FACT, THE EX-CHAIR OF OUR DEPARTMENT, IS AN NLP EXPERT HERE AND SHE'S
CREATED A PRODUCT THAT WAS ACTUALLY REVIEWED BY U.S.A. TODAY AND WAS RATED AS
-- IT DOES SORT OF WHAT NEWS.GOOGLE.COM, IF YOU TYPE NEWS BLASTER INTO
GOOGLE.
NOT ONLY DO THEY GET DIFFERENT NEWS ARTICLES FROM AROUND THE WEB BUT ALSO
PROVIDE A ONE-PARAGRAPH SUMMARY IN ACTUAL ENGLISH FOR ALL THOSE ARTICLES.
AND NEWS BLASTER IS USES OUR ALGORITHM NOW.
SO YES, IN RESPONSE TO YOUR QUESTION.
OUR STUFF CAN BE USED TOWARDS SUMMARIZATION.
THIS IS GOTTFRIED.
I JUST WANT TO ADD THAT AS WE TRY TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES TO PEOPLE WITH
DISABILITIES, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE TAKE CARE AND SEE HOW THEY CAN
BENEFIT EVERYBODY.
AND THIS IS A GREAT EXAMPLE OF SUMMARIZATION.
EVERYBODY WOULD LIKE TO GET IT SUMMARIZED TEXT OF A MEETING SO THAT THEY CAN
JUST SEE IN FIVE MINUTES WHAT WAS GOING ON IN 60 MINUTES IN THE MEETING.
OKAY.
I'M GOING TO TURN OVER THE QUESTIONS TO WENDY CHISHOLM WHO HAS BEEN RECEIVING
THE QUESTIONS FROM IRC.
OKAY.
THE FIRST QUESTION, THIS IS NEGOTIATION E-MAIL QUESTION THAT CAME FROM
FRANK BOW, IT'S FOR ALISON.
HE SAYS, ALISON, YOU MENTIONED A WED ADAPT TECHNOLOGY IN HER PAPER.
I'M NOT FAMILIAR WITH IT.
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT IT, HOW IT MIGHT BE INTEGRATED WITH OTHER
TECHNOLOGIES AND SYSTEMS.
YES, THE WEB ADAPTATION TECHNOLOGY IS A BROWSER BASED TECHNOLOGY.
IT WORKS CURRENTLY WITH INTERNET EXPLORER 5.0 ENLARGER.
IT'S AN ENTER USER TECHNOLOGY, ONCE INSTALLED IT ALLOWS A USER BROWSING ON
THE WEB USING IE TO MAKE A VARIETY OF ADAPTATIONS TO MAKE MODIFICATIONS TO
THE WEB PAGE.
IN TERMS OF MORE BROADLY SUPPORTING THESE ADAPTATIONS IN OTHER APPLICATIONS,
THAT'S NOT WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THIS WORK.
THIS WORK IS ACTUALLY BEING DONE BY OUR RESEARCH GROUP HERE, THE
ACCESSIBILITY RESEARCH GROUP.
AND THEY CAN SEND ME E-MAIL TO GET PAPERS ON THIS WORK.
THAT'S IT.
THE NEXT QUESTION IS ALSO FOR ALISON.
THIS IS FROM JOHN GUNDERSON.
HE SKP, IS THE BROWSER HELP -- HE SKP, IS THE BROWSER HELPER OBJECT
AVAILABLE?
WE'RE WORKING WITH A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT GROUPS TO GIVE THIS TECHNOLOGY TO
-- WE STARTED WITH SOME SENIORS, WHERE THIS YEAR WORKING WITH DEVELOPMENTALLY
DISABLED GROUPS THAT IBM HAS CONTACT WITH.
OUTSIDE OF THIS, PEOPLE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN GAINING ACCESS TO THIS
TECHNOLOGY CAN SEND ME E-MAIL, AND I WILL CERTAINLY FORWARD IT TO MY MANAGER
WHO WILL BE QUITE HAPPY TO EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITY OF MAKING IT AVAILABLE TO
OTHERS.
BUT THIS IS NOT A TECHNOLOGY THAT WE'RE OPENLY DISTRIBUTING TO OTHER PEOPLE.
IT'S VERY MUCH A RESEARCH PROTOTYPE.
THAT MIGHT ANSWER THIS QUESTION, DO YOU HAVE A BETA VERSION OR PROTOTYPE AVAILABLE TO TRY.
I THINK I JUST ANSWERED THAT.
RIGHT.
OKAY.
MARJA ASKS, -- I GUESS MARJA, IF YOU CAN CLARIFY, YOU SAY I CAN VISUALIZE FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T SEE, THERE'S A SMALL SET OF MARKETED -- WITH CRUNCH.
THOSE ARE TWO QUESTIONS.
THE FIRST THING IS THERE ARE A LOT OF VISUALIZATIONS, AND IT WBLD NICE TO KIND OF -- I'M INTERESTED IF THERE ARE IDEAS, HOW TO PRESENT IT FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN'T SEE.
YES, I THINK THE GENERAL PROBLEM ITSELF FOR EVEN THE ABLE-BODIED PERSON IN
THIS AREA IS REALLY HOW TO MAKE LARGE SCALE SET OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE FOR
A VARIETY OF USERS TO DIGEST.
INSOFAR AS THAT'S A GENERAL PROBLEM, I THINK WHETHER THAT AUDIENCE IS
ACCESSIBILITY IMPAIRED OR ABLE BODIED, WHATEVER TECHNIQUES CAN BE DEVELOPED
TO MAKE THIS MORE AVAILABLE TO PEOPLE CAN DEFINITELY BENEFIT BOTH SEGMENTS OF
THE COMMUNITY.
IN TERMS OF SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES, THERE IS WORK THAT'S BEING DONE ON ZOOMABLE
USER INTERFACES BY BEN BEADERSON'S GROUP AT UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND THAT CAN
OBVIOUSLY BE VERY USEFUL IN THINKING ABOUT HOW THEY CAN BE INCORPORATED INTO
THE VISUALIZATIONS THAT ARE CREATED.
THAT'S ONE APPROACH.
BUT THEN OF COURSE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO ARE VISUALLY IMPAIRED, THESE
VISUALIZATIONS ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT THAT ACCESSIBLE TO THEM.
A GOOD QUESTION IS HOW MIGHT THIS INFORMATION BE SOMEHOW PRESENTED IN ANOTHER
CHANNEL TO MAKE THE INFORMATION MORE ACCESSIBLE TO THEM.
THAT'S HOPEFULLY SOME AREA THAT I'LL HAVE A CHANCE TO LOOK AT IN MY NEW WORK
IN ACCESSIBILITY.
ALL RIGHT.
MEMET DUNDULAR HAS A QUESTION FOR SUHIT.
CAN YOU GIVE EXAMPLES HEURISTICS?
EXAMPLES HEURISTICS ARE?
THAT'S A GOOD QUESTION.
LET ME SEE IF HE WANTS TO -- HE OR SHE WANTS TO ASK -- OTHER FILTERING.
THANK YOU.
ON IRC.
OH. SO I CAN -- ACTUALLY I WISH I HAD THOSE PARTS MY SLIDES.
SOME OF THE FILTERS WE HAVE, SESIMPLY WE VAN HTML TAG REMOVER THAT JUST
REMOVES IMAGES OR LINKS, THINGS LIKE THAT.
WE HAVE A REMOVER THAT REMOVES ELEMENTS OF CERTAIN SRCs AND ATRIUM TAGS.
WE DOWNLOADED FROM A W3C SITE, A BLACK LIST THAT'S CONSTANTLY UPDATED OF
POPULAR ACTORS AND SERVERS.
WE BLOCK ANY CONTENT FROM THEM OUT.
AND THROUGH THE TALK I MENTIONED THE LINK LIST REMOVER.
WE LOAD UP A TABLE INTO A LIST AND WE FIGURE OUT HOW MANY OF THE ELEMENTS IN
THERE ARE LINKS, AND WE -- THIS IS, AGAIN, BASED ON A RATIO.
WE CAN REMOVE OR LEAVE THINGS IN THERE BASED ON THE USER SETTING.
EMPTY TABLES ARE VERY OFTEN REMOVED.
IF AN ENTIRE TABLE CONTAINS ONLY AN ADVERTISEMENT, AND WE REMOVE THAT
ADVERTISEMENT, THEN THE TABLE IS ALSO REMOVED, SO IT'S NOT LIKE HOLDING UP
REAL ESTATE ON THE WEB PAGE.
WE CAN REMOVE LINK REHITTERS, LINKS THAT FORWARD YOU TO OTHER PAGES OR POP UP
DIFFERENT THINGS ON YOUR SCREEN.
AND I'LL ACTUALLY PUT UP SCREEN SHOTS THE PROXY ON OUR WEB PAGE AS SOON AS
THIS CONFERENCE CALL IS DONE AND YOU CAN GET A BETTER IDEA OF WHAT THINGS WE
DO.
NEXT QUESTION IS FROM JOHN WHO ASKS, THIS IS ANOTHER QUESTION FOR SUHIT, THE COMMENT ABOUT USING BLIND FOLDED PEOPLE TO TEST WITH, BLINDFOLDED PEOPLE DO NOT EXPECT TO NAVIGATE AS A BLIND USER DOES AND WE RECOMMEND USING DISABLED TESTERS.
ABSOLUTELY, I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH HIM.
WE REQUIRE APPROVAL.
DR. MICHAEL CHANG IS WORKING ON THIS, WE REQUIRE APPROVAL TO GO AHEAD AND USE
THEM IN A CASE STUDY VERSUS I CAN JUST ASK SOME OF MY COLLEGE STUDENTS TO IN
A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT HAVE THEM DO THE TEST.
BUT WE ARE GOING TO PERFORM THE TEST YOU MENTIONED.
LOOKS LIKE OUR LAST QUESTION FROM MARJA, ANOTHER QUESTION ABOUT CRUNCH.
DOES THERE EXIST A SET OF -- TO HELP MAKE THE SEGMENTATION EASIER?
THERE ARE TWO ANSWERS I GUESS TO THAT.
YES, IN THAT WE'VE SET UP OUR SYSTEM AS A FRAMEWORK, SO WHATEVER THE USER
WANTS TO PROGRAM THAT WE DON'T OFFER CAN EASILY BE PROGRAMMED.
AND NO, WE DO NOT OFFER -- IT'S NOT LIKE WE DYNAMICALLY UPDATE THE PROXY TO
GO AHEAD AND CHECK TO SEE WHAT MEDITATER TYPES AND OFFER THEM, THAT HAS TO BE
A HARD CODED THING.
SO WHENEVER SOMEBODY WANTS TO CUSTOMIZE A CERTAIN PART OF THEIR WEB PAGE THEY
CAN WRITE A CLICK PLUG-IN.
IT CAN BE DONE.
HOWEVER IF SOMEBODY HAS ANY SUGGESTION, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SEND ME E-MAIL
AND WE'LL SEE WHAT CAN BE DONE.
THAT'S IT.
OKAY, THEN.
THOSE ARE ALL THE QUESTIONS, MARK
OKAY.
WE CAN DO SOMETHING WHICH I THINK IS A LITTLE BIT INTERESTING, IF THERE
ARE PEOPLE WHO HAVE QUESTIONS IN THE AUDIENCE WHO HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET
THROUGH EITHER E-MAIL OR IRC, WE WOULD LIKE TO GIVE YOU A CHANCE TO ANSWER
QUESTIONS.
I KNOW THAT'S DIFFICULT WHEN YOU HAVE APPROXIMATELY 40 PEOPLE ON A CONFERENCE
CALL.
BUT IF YOU DO HAVE A QUESTION, WE CAN UNMUTE THE TELEPHONE NOW AND IF IT'S A
BIG CACOPHONY OF VOICES, WE MAY HAVE TO RETHINK THE IDEA.
ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE?
OKAY.
IF WE DID SUCCESSFULLY UNMUTE, IT SOUNDS AS IF WE HAVE NO ADDITIONAL
QUESTIONS AT THIS TIME.
WE ARE AT 25 MINUTES PAST THE HOUR.
AND SO I WANTED TO OFFER THE -- EACH OF THE PRESENTERS A 60-SECOND SHOT TO
OFFER ANY CONCLUDING STATEMENTS THEY WOULD LIKE TO MAKE, STARTING WITH
ALISON.
YES.
BASICALLY I THINK THIS AREA IS VERY RICH IN CONTEXT FOR NOT ONLY THINKING
ABOUT HOW TO MAKE CURRENT TOOLS ACCESS ABLE TO USERS.
I THINK AN AREA THAT WE'RE VERY INTERESTED IN IS HOW TO CREATE TOOLS THAT
WILL ALLOW PEOPLE TO AUTHOR ACCESSIBLE APPLICATIONS.
NOT JUST FOR THE WEB, BUT OTHER APPLICATIONS IN GENERAL.
SO WE WOULD CERTAINLY LIKE TO GET SOME FEEDBACK FROM PEOPLE ON THIS AREA,
AMONG THOSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE WORKED IN THIS AREA.
THANKS.
SUHIT?
I AGREE WITH ALLISON, AND ACTUALLY JAN FROM EARLY ON IN THE TALK, THAT
THERE IS SO MUCH MORE RESEARCH POSSIBLE, IT WOULD BE GREAT IF THE DISABLED AS
WELL AS NONDISABLED WERE ABLE TO COLLABORATE SEAMLESSLY.
THIS IS -- I WOULDN'T SAY THIS IS A BRAND-NEW FIELD BUT THERE IS A LOT MORE
RESEARCH POSSIBLE, APPLICATIONS INVOLVING NOT ONLY ACCESSIBILITY BUT FOR
PRODUCT SUMMARIZATION, DATA MINE ANGER CONTEXT BASED RECOMMENDATIONS.
IF ANYBODY HAS COMMENTS ABOUT OUR SYSTEM OR WOULD LIKE TO DOWNLOAD IT, PLEASE
FEEL FREE TO SEND ME E-MAIL OR GO TO OUR WEB SIGHT.
THANKS.
SRB AND GOTTFRIED?
I WOULD LIKE TO INVITE EVERYBODY TO HELP PRAISE ALL POSSIBLE PARTNERS TO IMPLEMENT AND GET CLOSER TO THIS PICTURE OF THE RAINBOW AND ALL THE SERVICES.
ONE OF THE SERVICES WE WOULD LIKE TO TACKLE NEXT IS SIGN LANGUAGE IN BOTH
DIRECTIONS, AND ALSO VERBAL DESCRIPTIONS FOR IMAGES AND VIDEOS, BECAUSE THESE
TWO THINGS ARE -- SEEM TO BE VERY IMPORTANT FOR THESE LABORATORY
ENVIRONMENTS, ESPECIALLY SCIENTIFICALLY COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS WHERE YOU
HAVE A LOT OF VISUALIZATION.
THIS IS A FIELD WE NEED TO DO SOME MORE RESEARCH, ACTUALLY, HOW CAN WE
VERBALIZE OR REPRESENT VISUALIZATION IN AN EFFICIENT WAY, NONVISUALLY.
SO THIS IS A BIG THING TO DO, AND IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE LIKE A CONSORTIUM
OF PEOPLE AND RESEARCHERS AND ALSO COMPANY THAT PROVIDE THESE SERVICES.
CAN WE TRY SOME OF THE SERVICES?
I'M SORRY, WHAT WAS THE QUESTION?
ARE THE AVAILABLE, THE SERVICES YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT?
NOT AT THIS POINT.
WE'RE JUST, AS I SAID, WE'RE JUST STARTING TO IMPLEMENT THEM.
HOWEVER, THE SERVICE IMPLEMENTERS, RIGHT NOW WE USE A CAPTIONING SERVICE,
THAT IS AVAILABLE FOR EVERYBODY RIGHT NOW, BUT NOT IN THE CONTEXT OF OUR
FRAMEWORK, WITH THESE ADDED VALUES.
WE HOPE THAT WE CAN MAKE THESE SERVICES, SPEECH OR TEXT SERVICES AVAILABLE
MAYBE END OF NEXT YEAR OR SO.
WE HAVE STILL MUCH MORE TO DO HERE AND WE'RE STARTING WITH THIS COLLABORATIVE
ENVIRONMENT IN THE SCIENTIFIC WORK SPACE.
OKAY.
VERY GOOD.
I WANT TO TELL YOU A BIT HOW WE'RE GOING TO FOLLOW UP WITH THIS EVENT.
AND WE'RE GOING TO BE PUBLISHING THE SUMMARY OF THE PRESENTATION TODAY ALONG
WITH THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS AS WELL AS THE CONCLUSION, THAT WE'LL BE
PUTTING TOGETHER TO COMPLETE A -- ESSENTIALLY A PACKAGE ON THIS TOPIC ON
COLLABORATION FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES.
AND WE'LL BE SENDING AN ANNOUNCEMENT OUT TO THE PARTICIPANTS BY E-MAIL WHEN
THIS IS AVAILABLE.
I WOULD LIKE TO ENCOURAGE EVERYONE WHO IS ON THIS CALL THAT IF THEY'RE
INTERESTED IN THIS TOPIC AND WANT TO CONTINUE DISCUSSION, PARTICIPATE IN THE
W3C WAY R&D INTEREST GROUP.
THE MEMBERSHIP IS OPEN TO W3C TEAM MEMBERS AND NONMEMBERS.
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN CONTINUING THIS DISCUSSION OR HELPING US TO EXPLORE
ADDITIONAL FUTURE TOPICS FOR TELECONFERENCES ARE AND WE HAVE A LIST OF TOPICS
WE'RE EXPLORING FOR OUR TELECONFERENCE SERIES WHICH WILL RUN APPROXIMATELY
EVERY EIGHT WEEKS.
THEY'RE TOPICS RANGING FROM UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING TO SEMANTIC WEB TO DIFFERENT
TYPES OF ADDITIONAL COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGIES WE DIDN'T EVEN TOUCH ON TODAY.
SO AGAIN, I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE RTIG WEB PAGE AND JOIN
IN IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN A TOPIC.
I'LL ALSO GOING TO BE REQUESTING THAT IF YOU HAVE FEEDBACK ON TODAY'S
TELECONFERENCE, PLEASE SEND THAT ALONG TO US, WE WOULD BE INTERESTED IN
HEARING YOUR COMMENTS, BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE, ON THE PROCESS OF THE CALL
TODAY.
AGAIN, WE LOOK FORWARD TO ANY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS AND PERHAPS SOME FUTURE
COLLABORATIONS ARISING FROM THE PARTICIPANTS ON THIS CALL TO HELP MAKE
COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGIES MORE ACCESSIBLE IN THE FUTURE.
SO AGAIN, I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION, AND VISIT OUR WEB PAGE
FOR RDIG AND KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR EMAILS REGARDING THE RESULTS AND SUMMARY OF
THIS CALL.
I WANT TO THANK EACH OF THE PRESENTERS AND WE'LL BE IN TOUCH.
THANK YOU.
$Date: 2003/05/11 14:19:37 $ $Author: marja $