Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Instructional eLearning Technologies for the Vision Impaired Iain Murray This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Curtin University of Technology November 2008 Declaration This Thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgement has been made. Signature: …………………………….. Date: …………………………. Parts of this thesis been previously published as listed below: • Armstrong, H, Murray, I, 2005, Building a bridge for the sight impaired, 4th World Conference in Information Security Education, Moscow, Russia, 2006 • Armstrong, H, Murray, I, Permvattana, R, 2006 Evaluating e- Learning Cisco Courses Modified for the Vision Impaired, Information Technology based Higher Education and Training Conference, Sydney, Australia • Armstrong, H. & Murray, I., 2007, Remote and local delivery of Cisco education for the vision impaired, IT Innovation in Computer Science Education Conference 2007, Dundee, Scotland, UK i • Srivilailuck S, Beale P, Murray I, Kidd B 2006 ‚ Hidden Design: An Inquiry into the Design of Inclusive Environment for the Vision Impaired and Blind in their Learning Environment, 2nd International Universal Design Conference, Kyoto, Japan 22-26 October • Hollier, S, Murray, I, 2004, The evolution of e-inclusion: Technology in Education for the Vision Impaired. History of Computing in Education 2004, Toulouse, France • Hollier, S, Murray, I, 2004, Digital Disability – An examination into the effectiveness of multimodal interfaces for people with disabilities, Toulouse, France, 2004 • Hope, J, von Konsky, B, Murray, I, Chew, L, Farrugia, B, 2006, A Cisco Education Tool Accessible to the Vision Impaired, ASSETS 2006, Portland, Oregon USA • Murray, I, 2004, A Computing Education via eLearning for the Vision Impaired, Pathways 7, 2004, Alice Springs, Australia • Murray, I, Armstrong, H, 2004, A computing education vision for the sight impaired, Sixth conference on Australasian Computing Education, 2004, Dunedin, New Zealand • Murray, I, Armstrong, H, 2005, Teaching Sight Impaired IT Students, Proceedings of Educause 2005, Auckland, New Zealand • Permvattana, R, Murray, I, Hollier, S, 2006 Innovations in tertiary online learning for students who are blind or vision impaired, 7th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training, Sydney Australia 2006 ii Synopsis The principal sensory modality employed in learning is vision, and that not only increases the difficulty for vision impaired students from accessing existing educational media but also the new and mostly visiocentric learning materials being offered through on-line delivery mechanisms. Using as a reference Certified Cisco Network Associate (CCNA) and IT Essentials courses, a study has been made of tools that can access such on-line systems and transcribe the materials into a form suitable for vision impaired learning. Modalities employed included haptic, tactile, audio and descriptive text. How such a multi-modal approach can achieve equivalent success for the vision impaired is demonstrated. However, the study also shows the limits of the current understanding of human perception, especially with respect to comprehending two and three dimensional objects and spaces when there is no recourse to vision. iii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the support and guidance given by my supervisors Drs Doug Myers, Helen Armstrong and Brian von Konsky. Their patience, advice and rigorous feedback was immensely helpful during this course of study. Thanks must also go to my wife, Susan Murray, for proofreading and editing support throughout the thesis production. For his assistance in the coding of the haptic showcase application, my thanks go to Kieren Eaton. I would also like to thank the software engineering students, in particular James Hope, for his contributions to the iNetSim network simulator. Thanks must also go to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for the support offered over the several years of my enrolment. I would also like to express my gratitude to Cisco Systems, Mr Peter Scope in particular, for their generous donation of equipment that made the Cisco Academy for the Vision Impaired possible. iv Contents 1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Introduction................................................................................................... 1 1.2. The Demographics of Disability.................................................................. 3 1.3. Improving access to eLearning resources for the vision impaired ........ 5 1.4. Achievements of the research .................................................................... 9 1.5. Structure of Thesis..................................................................................... 11 2. AN EXAMINATION OF ELEARNING AND ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR PEOPLE WITH VISION IMPAIRMENT ................................................................. 12 2.1. Introduction................................................................................................. 12 2.2. Human Sensory Perception....................................................................... 12 2.2.1. Rate of Perception ................................................................................. 12 2.2.2. Cognition ................................................................................................ 13 2.2.3. Tactile and Haptic perception ................................................................ 14 2.2.4. Auditory Perception................................................................................ 18 2.3. Braille - A Written Communications System ........................................... 21 2.3.1. Properties of the Braille System ............................................................ 21 2.3.2. Braille Literacy in Education and Employment ...................................... 22 2.4. Human Computer Interaction.................................................................... 24 2.5. Assistive Technologies.............................................................................. 28 2.5.1. Human Senses and Assistive Technology ............................................ 28 2.5.2. An Historical Perspective on Assistive Technology............................... 28 2.6. Haptic Devices ............................................................................................ 33 2.6.1. Haptics and perception .......................................................................... 33 v 2.6.2. Haptic Receptors ................................................................................... 34 2.6.3. Haptic Device Types .............................................................................. 35 2.6.4. Haptics Research................................................................................... 38 2.6.5. Three-dimensional haptic devices ......................................................... 39 2.6.5.1. Devices and overview ..................................................................... 39 2.6.5.2. Tablets............................................................................................. 49 2.6.5.3. Static displays ................................................................................. 53 2.6.5.4. Other forms of tactile display........................................................... 55 2.6.6. Use of haptic Devices ............................................................................ 57 2.6.7. Haptic Device Summary ........................................................................ 58 2.7. Auditory Devices ........................................................................................ 59 2.7.1. The use of the human auditory system.................................................. 59 2.7.2. Methods of audio presentation .............................................................. 63 2.7.3. Audio feedback as a supplement to a visual interface .......................... 68 2.7.4. Auditory navigation tools........................................................................ 70 2.8. Challenges in HCI: The Digital Divide ...................................................... 72 2.8.1. Usability: Comprehension of Graphics .................................................. 72 2.8.2. Traditional Methods of Graphical Data Representation to Vision Impaired.............................................................................................................. 73 2.8.3. The Haptic User Interface...................................................................... 73 2.8.4. Audio Desktop or Audio User Interface ................................................. 74 2.8.5. Speech Interfaces and Screen Readers................................................ 76 2.9. Combining Modalities in HCI..................................................................... 79 2.10. e-Learning and the Vision Impaired ......................................................... 80 2.10.1. The Vision Impaired Learner ............................................................... 80 2.10.2. Vision in Learning ................................................................................ 83 2.10.3. The Move to e-Learning......................................................................