Air pollution poses significant health, social, and economic risks, necessitating effective communication to promote awareness and behavioural adaptation. This study explores how combining behavioural and science communication strategies shapes stakeholder participation in co-designing air quality (AQ) communication technologies and how stakeholders engage with, represent and negotiate environmental data and issues. Data was collected across 11 workshops involving 169 participants of different ages, combining education, storytelling, user testing and participatory design to foster learning and dialogue. Findings highlight that AQ communication is entangled with questions of data usability, trust and environmental literacy. Participants emphasised the importance of audience-specific AQ messaging, integrating AQ technical data with comprehensible visualisations, and combining persuasive communication with evidence-based information. Tensions emerged between individual adaptive behaviours and structural barriers, reinforcing the socio-ecological complexity of AQ communication. Challenges included involving underrepresented groups and assessing long-term impacts of interventions. The findings offer insights into how public engagement can be utilised to inform the design of an AQ communication technology to support protective and sustainable behaviours. Future research should explore ways to enhance inclusivity, refine message design for different user groups, and assess the impact of participatory AQ communication initiatives.

In this pilot study, we used a balanced A/B testing method to evaluate how an environment—a Virtual Reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) versus a traditional desktop—affects the performance of 20 participants on a musical pitch-colour association test. We aimed to discern the influence of testing environments on musical pitch-colour associations. Our findings revealed no significant difference in performance between the VR HMD and the traditional desktop conditions. Previous studies highlight VR’s potential, but the results of our investigation—focusing on limited immersive and presence qualities—suggest that working in VR as opposed to a standard desktop environment has no significant influence on musical pitch-colour association test results. This outcome prompts a further investigation into other inherent VR characteristics, such as spatial audio, natural environment simulations, and interactive object manipulation, which could potentially enhance the effectiveness of auditory-visual association tests. This study is the first in a series of studies to explore how VR technologies can be exploited to augment multi-modal testing, with a fully immersive musical pitch-colour association test envisioned.

This paper describes a qualitative study concerning the experiences of blind and visually impaired students learning mathematics in primary schools in Ireland, along with a thematic analysis of the findings. It investigates the instructional challenges and teaching techniques that facilitate an inclusive learning environment through flexible assessment plans. Key focus areas include adapting class collaboration activities, using digital and non-digital materials, and deploying specialized strategies to boost learning skills. This study identified significant barriers, including technology accessibility, classroom mobility, and the need for supportive educational aids such as tactile materials and Braille resources. This paper also discusses the importance of support and assistance, including teacher training, parental involvement, and peer support processes. Based on expert opinions, the study identifies gaps in current solutions and suggests future research and development directions. These include the advancement of User-Centred Design (UCD), the integration of multimodal techniques, and the improvement of collaborative and interactive learning solutions. Furthermore, this study recommends reforming educational policy and comprehensive training programs for educators to ensure that visually impaired students receive an equitable mathematics education. This study lays the groundwork for future advancements in teaching methodologies and assistive technologies, aiming to remove educational barriers and foster academic excellence within blind and visually impaired students.

This demo paper presents a Virtual Reality (VR) application designed to explore innovative methods of learning basic music theory through sound-colour cross-modal associations.Leveraging the immersive capabilities of the latest head-mounted displays, the application provides an interactive and engaging platform with significant potential for music education.The demo marks an initial step in investigating how VR's immersive features can enhance the understanding of sound-colour associations and their role in learning musical concepts, specifically intervals and melodies within the C Major scale.Two groups will participate in the study: a control group will learn using a predefined sound-colour mapping, while the experimental group will create their own personalised mappings through a pre-test in VR, which will be applied in subsequent lessons.The forthcoming study aims to provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of VR and cross-modality in facilitating music theory education.

In the absence of vision, visually impaired and blind people rely upon the tactile sense and hearing to obtain information about their surrounding environment. These senses cannot fully compensate for the absence of vision, so visually impaired and blind people experience difficulty with many tasks, including learning. This is particularly true of mathematical learning. Nowadays, technology provides many effective and affordable solutions to help visually impaired and blind people acquire mathematical skills. This paper is based upon a systematic review of technology-based mathematical learning solutions for visually impaired people and discusses the findings and objectives for technological improvements. It analyses the issues, challenges and limitations of existing techniques. We note that audio feedback, tactile displays, a supportive academic environment, digital textbooks and other forms of accessible math applications improve the quality of learning mathematics in visually impaired and blind people. Based on these findings, it is suggested that smartphone-based solutions could be more convenient and affordable than desktop/laptop-based solutions as a means to enhance mathematical learning. Additionally, future research directions are discussed, which may assist researchers to propose further solutions that will improve the quality of life for visually impaired and blind people.

Transactive Memory System (TMS) is a mental representation of the distribution of knowledge between the members of a team. Can an Embodied Conversational Agent perform as well as a Human when intervening as a leader to support the development of the team’s TMS? And, if yes, are there differences in the way the team perceives their respective interventions? In this paper, a perceptive online study is conducted on how Human leader interventions affect the perception of a team’s TMS. The results are compared to the ones from a previous study evaluating an Embodied Conversational agent leader rather than a human one. Both the agent and the human adopt nonverbal behaviors characterizing 2 leadership styles: Transformational (TFL) and Transactional (TAL). TFL is expected to stimulate team members curiosity and creativity in problem-solving; instead, TAL emphasizes the role of the leader in supervising the team, providing it with feedback when needed. The results show that the intervention from both the agent and the human are perceived to potentially improve the perceived TMS of a team. Another interesting insight is that the TFL style works better when performed by the Human, where both the TAL and TFL style perform well when realized by the agent.

Aphasia is an acquired loss or impairment of the language system that can occur after stroke. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can provide an option for the delivery of intensive aphasia rehabilitation but the users' views (i.e. people with aphasia) must be considered. There is no consensus measure of self-reported feedback in ICT-delivered aphasia rehabilitation and existing ICT usability questionnaires do not present questions in an accessible format for people with aphasia. This research employed a co-design process in which a group of adults with aphasia and the researchers collaborated in design workshops. The final product is an online feedback questionnaire that is accessible for people with aphasia. It provides relevant and meaningful self-reported feedback on participant engagement in ICT-delivered aphasia rehabilitation. This feedback is important when planning and monitoring aphasia rehabilitation.

Aphasia refers to an acquired loss or impairment of the language system that can occur post stroke. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can provide an option for the delivery of intensive aphasia rehabilitation but further research is required to support this. A crossover research design can provide a robust methodology for investigating the effectiveness of an ICT-delivered aphasia rehabilitation programme. However, if using a control programme in a crossover design it must be carefully considered. It should be distinct from the intervention but not easily distinguished as a "sham" programme. This can pose challenges for researchers. The design, development and pilot of a control programme for a crossover aphasia rehabilitation research design is presented here.

Learner style data is increasingly being incorporated into adaptive eLearning (electronic learning) systems for the development of personalized user models. This practice currently relies heavily on the prior completion of questionnaires by system users. Whilst potentially improving learning outcomes, the completion of questionnaires can be time consuming for users. Recent research indicates that it is possible to detect a user's preference on the Global / Sequential dimension of the FSLSM (Felder-Silverman Learner Style Model) through a user's mouse movement pattern, and other biometric technology including eye tracking and accelerometer technology. In this paper we discuss the potential of eye tracking technology for inference of Visual / Verbal learners. The paper will discuss the results of a study conducted to detect individual user style data based on the Visual / Verbal dimension of the FSLSM.

The aim of this study is to evaluate Neuro Sky's Mindset headset as a minimally invasive method of measuring the attention and meditation levels of a subject. Two psychologically-based tests were conducted to assess the suitability of the headset to measure and categorise a user's level of attention and meditation.

Non-speech sounds and haptics have an important role in enabling access to user assistance material in ubiquitous computing scenarios. Non-speech sounds and haptics can be used to cue assistance material that is to be presented to users via speech. In this paper, we report on a study that examines user perception of the duration of a pause between a cue (which may be non-speech sound, haptic, or combined non-speech sound plus haptic) and the subsequent delivery of assistance material using speech.

In the special education context of children with autism, the design of educational software needs to focus on their unique learning styles. In this study, results of a survey in Irish Primary Schools, and interviews with tutors, indicate that characteristics of learners with autism need to be more integrated into the design process. An interaction model, based on Norman's and Abowd and Beale's models, provides a basis for mapping special user requirements and instructional strategies onto a model suited to the learner with autism. We propose this extended interaction model as a basis for design guidelines for effective educational software for these special needs learners.

Synthetic speech is widely used to enable blind people to receive output from computer systems.However, speech is slow to use compared with vision and places far higher demands on shortterm memow.These problems are particularly apparent when exploring farge data structures such as lists and tables.An experiment was conducted in which subjects were asked to memorise and recite lists of filenames.Analysis showed that subjects organised the material to aid recall and used a range of prosodic devices to convey this organisation to the listener.A practical list-reading program was developed which replicates-as far as possible the methods of organisation and spoken presentation used by the subjects.This program was evaluated in a practical task, in comparison with an existing speech-based system for blind users.The results showed that subjects performed the task significantly faster using the demonstration system and also reported lower levels of effort and mental demand.Penuissiou to mnlie digitnl/llnrd copk of all or pn~l ofthis m:ltrrin] for pUSOfMl or ckwrootll use is gnuled wilhoul 01: provided rhn[ the cop& are 1101 made or dislrihuled Ibr prolit or commercial ndv;ullage, llle copyright uotice, lhe tille ofthe publicaliou and ils dntz nppc:nr, and notice is giVeI thnl copyright is by pemiitxion ol'll~e ACh1.Iuc.To copy othenvise, to republish, IO post 011 serws or lo rcdislribuk IO lists.requires specific pemlission niid/or fee.ACM Muliimcdin 97 ,$i?~U/t?bfff1s/?i/7g/on (l,YA