Increasingly, rich and dynamic content and abundant links are making Web pages visually cluttered and widening the accessibility divide for the disabled and people with impairments. The adaptations approach of transforming Web pages has enabled users with diverse abilities to access a Web page. However, the challenge remains for these users to work with a Web page, particularly among people with minimal Web experience and cognitive limitations. We propose that scaffolding can allow users to learn certain skills that help them function online with greater autonomy. In the case of visually cluttered Web pages, several accessibility scaffoldings were created to enable users to learn where core content begins, how text flows in a part of a Web page, and what the overall structure of a Web page is. These scaffoldings expose the elements, pathways, and organization of a Web page that enable users to interpret and grasp the structure of a Web page. We present the concept of an accessibility scaffolding, the designs of the scaffoldings for visually cluttered pages, and user feedback from people who work with our target end-users.

This demonstration will illustrate the key technical and user interface aspects of the Web Adaptation Technology. Various transformations underlying the system will be shown that illustrate how this approach enables a wide range of users with reduced visual, cognitive, and motor abilities to access a large proportion of Web pages using a standard browser.

Technology can play an important role in enabling people to interact with each other. The Web is one such technology with the affordances for sharing information and for connecting people to people. In this paper, we describe the design of two social interaction Web sites for two different social groups. We review several related efforts to provide principles for creating social interaction environments and describe the specific principles that guided our design. To examine the effectiveness of the two sites, we analyze the usage data. Finally, we discuss approaches for encouraging participation and lessons learned.

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The prevalence of audio and video options on computers, coupled with the promise of bandwidth, have many prognosticators predicting a revolution in human communications.But what if the revolution materializes and no users show up?We were confronted with this question when we began deploying and studying the use of a video-based, background awareness application within our organization.Repeatedly, new users raised strong concerns about self-presentation, surveillance, privacy, video snapshots, and lack of audience cues.We describe how we addressed these concerns by evolving the application.As a consequence, we are also redesigning the user interface to the application.

Goals and content: The tutorial discusses how to develop collaborative applications using the WWW Shell as a rapid prototyping and development platform. Using an example collaborative application, we introduce particular development topics to illustrate the suitability of the WWW shell and its use. Also, we discuss recent additions in functionality as well as constraints with the WWW Shell approach.

In Office Information Systems, the primary focus has been to integrate facilities for the communication and management of information. However, the human factors aspects of the design of office systems are equally important considerations if such office systems are to gain widespread acceptance and use. The application of design techniques from Human Factors can help enhance the usability of an office system. In this paper, we describe the user interface of an office system developed by adapting such design techniques.