Access Keys:
Collaborative Cross-modal Interfaces allows visually impaired and sighted people to collaborate together on diagrams in real time.
At SightVillage the "premier European events showcasing technology, support and services for people who are blind or visually impaired", the Research in the Wild Collaborative Cross-modal Interface team demonstrated a working version of the Research Councils UK Digital Economy funded CCml project.
The team spent 3 days at SightVillage in Birmingham and had a steady stream of members of the public trying out the novel system. The interaction was intuitive for most people who tried it out; responses were positive and they recruited a number of additional participants for studies from the SightVillage exhibition. The team has developed support for a number of types of diagrams including UML (for software engineers), Organisational charts (these were popular at SightVillage), and transport maps. The main focus of the project is on increasing the inclusion of visually impaired programmers in the workplace, and they have conducted two workplace studies so far, and will be carrying out more workplace studies in the autumn.
The software is now reaching robustness and the team aim to distribute it through the SoundSoftware project at Queen Mary University of London by the end of 2011.