Alternative text (alt text) is one of the most prevalent Web accessibility barriers affecting a wide range of media. Despite manifold efforts addressing its absence, recent work highlighted that unsuitable alt text is equally problematic and is underpinned by a lack of understanding and guidelines on what constitutes suitable alt text. In this work, we present an empirical exploratory study that investigates perceptions of Web content creators and visually impaired users on suitable alt text to bridge the functional gap between experiences and best available practice. Following a qualitative approach, 11 Web content creators and 11 visually impaired users were interviewed, and findings are reported on Web accessibility via screen readers and reasons for its deprioritization, WCAG conformance, and perceptions on alt text authorship, and suitability. The first much-needed trainability and suitability recommendations for alt text suitability are further proposed, and avenues for future work are discussed.

Decision making is a core cognitive process of human behaviour that is often affected by stress. Whilst we make several decisions on a daily basis, firefighters in particular are called to make important decisions in a split second and within life-threatening settings. Stress can therefore impact their ability to perform and carry out their job. The implications of stress are similarly important in other settings requiring high-vigilance. In this paper, we aim to contribute to efforts to better train firefighters in decision making in stressful situations through a serious game solution. The game was designed based on the Stress Exposure Training (SET) approach and in accordance with typical stressors identified in the literature. Those were then mapped to relevant game mechanics. The evaluation of the resulting game was twofold: A. to assess its ability to increase participants’ stress level, and B. to investigate whether decision making performance would be improved for participants under stress. The proposed framework and the prototype were evaluated through empirical research that consisted of the participants’ self-reported stress levels using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults (STAI) and the participants’ physiological measurements, namely galvanic skin response (GSR) and heart rate (HR). Our results demonstrate the potential of serious games to assist towards training of firefighters to make better decisions under stressful situations. Our findings are of wider importance as they contribute to ongoing efforts to improve decision making under stress in a variety of settings and scenarios.

Designers are often faced with the challenge of following web accessibility guidelines that are complex and ambiguous, and therefore hard to use. This is evidenced by the low percentage of public websites that comply fully with web accessibility standards worldwide. Lack of engagement among designers to follow established web accessibility guidelines is often accounted for this issue. In this paper, we address designers’ lack of engagement through a serious game called GATE which is based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). We followed a User-Centred approach by identifying user types of designers through an online survey. We then mapped these user types and the WCAG to relevant game mechanics. The resulting game was evaluated with designers for its perceived effectiveness, user engagement, and user satisfaction using a mixed methods approach. Our results demonstrate the potential of GATE which offers designers an innovative and engaging solution towards the wider adoption of web accessibility guidelines.

Current authentication processes overwhelmingly rely on audiovisual data, comprising images, text or audio. However, the use of olfactory data (scents) has remained unexploited in the authentication process, notwithstanding their verified potential to act as cues for information recall. Accordingly, in this paper, a new authentication process is proposed in which olfactory media are used as cues in the login phase. To this end, PassSmell , a proof of concept authentication application, is developed in which words and olfactory media act as passwords and olfactory passwords, respectively. In order to evaluate the potential of PassSmell, two different versions were developed, namely one which was olfactory-enhanced and another which did not employ olfactory media. Forty-two participants were invited to take part in the experiment, evenly split into a control and experimental group. For assessment purposes, we recorded the time taken to logon as well as the number of failed/successful login attempts; we also asked users to complete a Quality of Experience (QoE) questionnaire. In terms of time taken, a significant difference was found between the experimental and the control groups, as determined by an independent sample t-test. Similar results were found with respect to average scores and the number of successful attempts. Regarding user QoE, having olfactory media with words influenced the users positively, emphasizing the potential of using this kind of authentication application in the future.

Among the key components of designing accessible products and services for disabled users is accessibility testing and support. The VERITAS FP7 project has developed a platform that consists of several tools that provide automatic simulation feedback and reporting for built-in accessibility support at all stages of ICT product development. In this explorative pilot study, we evaluated the usability and technology acceptance of using three of these tools in the design of accessible GUI-based ICT products in five application domains. A sample of 80 designers/developers (12 female; 68 male) evaluated the three tools by filling in the standard SUS and TAM questionnaires. Results revealed good usability and technology acceptance for all three tools as a novel accessibility testing method. The VERITAS platform can offer an intuitive solution in accessibility design and can ensure that ICT products are designed for all.

Mobility impaired people constitute a significant portion of the adult population, which often experience back pain at some point during their lifetime. Such pain is usually characterized by severe implications reflected on both their personal lives, as well as on a country's health and economic systems. The traditional 2-D representations of the human body often used can be limited in their ability to efficiently visualize such pain for diagnosis purposes. Yet, patients have been shown to prefer such drawings. However, considering that pain is a feeling or emotion that is subjective in nature, the pain drawings could be consequently regarded as a subjective means of communicating such pain. As a result, the study described in this paper proposes an alternative, which encompasses a 3-D pain visualization solution, developed in a previous work of ours. This alternative is complemented with the upcoming technique of pressure mapping for more objectivity in the pain data collection. The results of this study have shown that the proposed approach is a promising solution for the purpose intended, and it could generally prove to be a significant complementary method in the area of medical practice for the mobility impaired community.

A large number of the adult population suffers from some kind of back pain during their lifetime. Part of the process of diagnosing and treating such back pain is for a clinician to collect information as to the type and location of the pain that is being suffered. Traditional approaches to gathering and visualizing this pain data have relied on simple 2-D representations of the human body, where different types of sensation are recorded with various monochrome symbols. Although patients have been shown to prefer such drawings to traditional questionnaires, these pain drawings can be limited in their ability to accurately record pain. The work described in this paper proposes an alternative that uses a 3-D representation of the human body, which can be marked in color to visualize and record the pain data. This study has shown that the new approach is a promising development in this area of medical practice and has been positively received by patients and clinicians alike.