Artículos

 

Development of Voice–Based Tools for Accessibility to Computer Services

 

Desarrollo de herramientas de accesibilidad al ordenador basadas en la voz

 

Oscar Saz Torralba, William Ricardo Rodríguez Dueñas, and Eduardo Lleida Solano

 

Communications Technology Group (GTC), Aragón Institute for Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain. E–mail: oskarsaz@unizar.es, wricardo@unizar.es, lleida@unizar.es

 

Article received on July 30, 2010.
Accepted on January 15, 2011.

 

Abstract

This work presents the development of two tools which intend to provide accessibility to people with different handicaps in their access to computer applications using speech technologies. The basis of the work is to use voice emissions from a severely handicapped user to substitute mouse and key strokes in one of the tools; and the movement of the cursor in the other. The speech technologies required for these tasks are robust energy estimation and robust formant calculation and normalization. The paper will also provide a comprehensive view of all the process required for a successful development of these tools, starting with the contact with assistive and education institutions, understanding the difficulties of these collectives in their everyday life, defining how technology can help in these cases, the actual development of the tools and, finally, the deployment of the tools with real users to assess their usability and functionality.

Keyword: Voice I/O, user–centered design, signal analysis synthesis and processing, speech processing, universal accessibility and handicapped aids.

 

Resumen

Este trabajo presenta el desarrollo de dos herramientas que buscan proveer accesibilidad a personas con diferentes discapacidades en su acceso a aplicaciones informáticas a través de las tecnologías del habla. La base del trabajo es usar emisiones de voz por parte de un usuario con discapacidad severa para sustituir las pulsaciones de ratón o teclado en una de las herramientas; y el movimiento del cursor en la otra. Las tecnologías del habla requeridas para ello son estimación de energía robusta y cálculo robusto de formantes con normalización. El artículo también buscar dar una visión global del proceso requerido para el desarrollo exitoso de estas herramientas, empezando por el contacto con instituciones asistivas y educativas, entender las dificultades de estos colectivos, definir qué soluciones puede dar la tecnología, el propio desarrollo de las herramientas y, finalmente, el despliegue de las mismas ante usuarios reales para conocer su usabilidad y funcionalidad.

Palabras clave: Voz E/S, diseño centrado en el usuario, análisis síntesis y procesado de señal, procesado de voz, accesibilidad universal y ayudas a discapacidad.

 

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank the following people: Antonio Escartín for his work; Marta Peña and the staff from CADIS–Huesca; Verónica Bermúdez, Laura Abarca, Sara Mejuto and employees and users of ASPACE–Huesca. This work was supported by project TIN2008–06856–C05–04 from MEC of the Spanish government, the Santander Bank Scholarship, and a collaboration project between CADIS–Huesca and the University of Zaragoza founded by Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada (CAI), Instituto Aragonés de Servicios Sociales (IASS) and Diputación Provincial de Huesca (DPH).

 

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