Automated driving system (ADS) technology has been incorporated into critical driving functions (e.g., adaptive cruise control and autonomous braking) for over two decades. Now companies like GM and Google are developing and testing fully autonomous vehicles (AVs). However, the current design of AVs is for individuals who can drive rather than those who cannot, those who would benefit most from these vehicles. As the technology is still primarily experimental, conducting research with AVs and older adults or people with disabilities is infeasible. Therefore, to explore the accessibility of AVs, we conduct user enactment studies, as this method works well with technologies that participants have little to no experience utilizing. This pictorial describes the iterative process of developing a high-fidelity enactment environment, the space and objects with which participants interact. The aim is to encourage the HCI community to utilize high-fidelity enactment environments for conducting accessible future technology research.

Ridesharing services have become a popular mode of transportation that holds significant benefits for people with disabilities unable to operate conventional motor vehicles. Prior work shows how these services enable people with vision impairments to travel independently without the use of public transportation or walking. We conducted a study in which we observed 17 blind or visually impaired participants using the Uber ridesharing service to explore the social and accessibility dynamics they perceived during their experiences. This paper presents a case study of the process used for our research, reflecting on aspects that considerably impacted the study. Key takeaways include study site considerations, recruiting participants, balancing realism with participant safety, and the unintended side effects of observations in a ridesharing context. The reflection points provided will help readers in considering important study aspects when conducting observations with participants with disabilities, particularly in a ridesharing setting.

Accessibility is a topic that is recognized as increasingly important in both industry and academia. In industry, there is a growing awareness of the importance of designing technologies that provide an optimal user experience regardless of the user's ability or impairment. At the university level, this awareness of the need for accessibility minded future technologists has encouraged the incorporation of accessibility and inclusive design content into a wide range of computer science and related courses. Despite this growing awareness, the actual process of teaching students about the needs and perspectives of persons with disabilities remains challenging. Within this paper we report on our experience teaching a graduate course on inclusive design with a specific focus on our experience incorporating a participatory design (PD) activity involving older adults as the course's concluding design activity. While students responded favorably to much of the course's content, learning was enhanced through the design activity which mirrored a real-world project and included three older adult (80+) co-designers. Despite the benefits of PD, students were at times overwhelmed by the workload and the logistical difficulties of working within a remote participatory design process. We believe that a review of our experience and student reflections may prove beneficial to those similarly teaching inclusive design and accessibility.

As the computing job market continues to expand, the demand for eligible professionals to fill open positions has increased. In response, diversity efforts seek to broaden the participation of underrepresented populations in computing. This movement towards broadening participation includes blind or visually impaired (BVI) people who, historically, have faced barriers in succeeding in a primarily visually-oriented field. The present literature has examined modifying current tools for greater accessibility for BVI people and developing new, more inclusive learning environments. We argue, however, for additional investigation into the accessibility of computing education from the lens of instructors who teach computing to BVI students. Our paper reports on findings from interviews investigating the learning experience of BVI students in computer science courses from the perspective of teachers of the visually impaired (TVI). We interviewed K12 TVIs regarding their experience teaching students how to code, preparing lectures to accommodate their students' needs, and the resources they believe are necessary to help teachers provide more accessible instruction to the students. Our findings revealed that despite the recent improvements to increase accessibility in K12 computer science curricula, challenges still exist regarding the technology used by BVI students and the lack of accessible learning materials available to teachers. Additionally, our participants offer suggestions of resources to help K12 teachers in providing more accessible instruction to their students. The findings may benefit those interested in improving accessibility in computing education for students with disabilities.

Self-driving vehicles have been described as one of the most significant advances in personal mobility of the past century. By minimizing the role of arguably error-prone human drivers, self-driving vehicles are heralded for improving traffic safety. Primarily driven by the technology’s potential impact, there is a rapidly evolving body of literature focused on consumer preferences. Missing, we argue, are studies that explore the needs and design preferences of older adults (60+). This is a significant knowledge gap, given the disproportionate impact that self-driving vehicles may have concerning personal mobility for older adults who are unable or unwilling to drive. Within this paper, we explore the design and interaction preferences of older adults through a series of enactment-based design sessions. This work contributes insights into the needs of older adults, which may prove critical if equal access to emerging self-driving technologies are to be realized.

The rapid rise and ubiquity of computing has led to tremendous growth in the field of software development; growth that has outpaced society's ability to fill available positions. The gap between this large number of openings and the decidedly smaller pool of qualified candidates available to fill them has created opportunities for individuals from non-traditional backgrounds to pursue careers in software development. Due to the nature of their disability, blind and low vision persons have not to date been heavily pursued as candidates for software development positions given the arguably visually demanding nature of the practice. As such, we argue, there are significant knowledge gaps as it pertains to how visual impairment may impact a developer's contribution to a software development team. To explore this issue we interviewed 11 visually impaired software developers about their experiences. Our findings suggest that workplace dynamics, project management practices, and tool accessibility are among the most significant challenges for these developers. We argue that this work furthers the understanding of visually impaired software developers which contributes to the movement towards accessible workplace environments and employment equity in software development.

As institutions respond to market demand in their training of the next generation of technology designers, there is an increasing awareness of the need to add accessibility to computer science and informatics curricula. Advocates have suggested three strategies for including accessibility and discussions of disability in courses: changing a lecture, adding a lecture or adding a new course. In this paper we report on our experiences with the latter; incorporating accessibility within two new graduate and undergraduate inclusive design courses taught concurrently. We found that while the use of participatory design was decidedly effective in supporting student learning and ameliorating ableist attitudes, creating and managing teams comprised of students and visually impaired co-designers proved challenging. Despite these challenges, overall, students demonstrated steady growth in their grasp of inclusive design concepts as they tackled accessibility challenges through a series of mobility-related group projects. Efficiencies were also realized through the concurrent teaching of both courses though the pace of course deliverables proved challenging at times for undergraduates. We argue that a review of our experience may help others interested in teaching accessibility related courses, specifically in course design and execution.

Fully autonomous or "self-driving" vehicles are an emerging technology that may hold significant mobility potential for both disabled persons and for older adults unable to operate a conventional motor vehicle. It can be argued, however, that the needs, preferences and concerns of older adults and disabled persons regarding this technology have been insufficiently explored. Using focus group methodology, this study explores the sentiments of 39 older adults (55+) regarding self driving vehicle technology. Discussions from the focus groups revealed that although participants believed that self-driving vehicles can enhance their mobility and independence, they were concerned about their reliability and safety. Participants expressed additional concerns regarding their ability to purchase such a vehicle and the training required to operate it. Opinions were mixed regarding the consideration of older adults in the design of the technology.

Fully autonomous or “self-driving” vehicles are an emerging technology that may hold tremendous mobility potential for individuals who are visually impaired who have been previously disadvantaged by an inability to operate conventional motor vehicles. Prior studies however, have suggested that these consumers have significant concerns regarding the accessibility of this technology and their ability to effectively interact with it. We present the results of a quasi-naturalistic study, conducted on public roads with 20 visually impaired users, designed to test a self-driving vehicle human–machine interface. This prototype system, ATLAS, was designed in participatory workshops in collaboration with visually impaired persons with the intent of satisfying the experiential needs of blind and low vision users. Our results show that following interaction with the prototype, participants expressed an increased trust in self-driving vehicle technology, an increased belief in its likely usability, an increased desire to purchase it and a reduced fear of operational failures. These findings suggest that interaction with even a simulated self-driving vehicle may be sufficient to ameliorate feelings of distrust regarding the technology and that existing technologies, properly combined, are promising solutions in addressing the experiential needs of visually impaired persons in similar contexts.

Fully autonomous vehicles, commonly referred to as self-driving vehicles, are an emerging technology that may hold tremendous mobility potential for individuals who are blind or visually impaired who have been previously disadvantaged by an inability to operate conventional motor vehicles. This study explores the opinions of 38 participants who are blind and low vision, through the use of focus group methodology, regarding this emerging self-driving vehicle technology. Participants were overwhelmingly optimistic about the potential for independence and mobility that self-driving vehicles may provide but were concerned that the needs of individuals with visual impairments were not being adequately considered in the development of the technology. Participants also raised questions about how the technology would satisfy their need for situational awareness, how the technology would enable blind or visually impaired operators to verify their arrival at their desired location and a host of issues related to parking, vehicle location and roadside assistance. Participants also expressed a preference for smartphone and speech input capabilities as a primary means of system interaction. These findings suggest that at a minimum more needs to be done to engage individuals with visual impairments in the development of self-driving vehicle technology and to increase awareness of manufacturer efforts.

This paper presents an experience report documenting the design and development of an agent-based distributed software system called the “Feed Analyzer” a system deployed to Microsoft's Windows Azure Cloud Service. Cloud services are emerging as an increasingly attractive deployment option given that system developers can leverage the power of a scalable infrastructure without the need to purchase or directly manage hardware or IT resources themselves; all at relatively reduced costs. But as this trend towards the cloud continues, reliable software engineering methodologies that readily lend themselves to the development of cloud applications will become increasingly important. The goal of this experience report is not to evaluate the results of the Feed Analyzer project, either quantitatively or qualitatively, from the perspective of a working software system. The goal of the project itself was to evaluate the applicability of agent-based software engineering methodologies to the relatively new realm of cloud services. Consequently, the overarching purpose of this experience report is to contribute to the body of knowledge relative to the process of deploying agent-based systems to cloud platforms.