A Comunicação Alternativa (CA) é a área de conhecimento que pesquisa símbolos, recursos, técnicas e estratégias para desenvolver ou aprimorar a comunicação de pessoas com impossibilidade ou dificuldade de falar e/ou escrever. Tanto usuários como profissionais (terapeutas ocupacionais, fonoaudiólogos e professores) têm necessidade de organizar os recursos de CA no formato de pranchas de comunicação. A construção de pranchas de comunicação é uma atividade que envolve a seleção de elementos gráficos (símbolos gráficos, imagens, desenhos e fotografias), de acordo com as necessidades e objetivos das pessoas que se utilizarão deste recurso. A partir desse cenário, o objetivo desta tese é analisar como um sistema de busca semântica de imagens (pictogramas), capaz de mapear o contexto semântico de domínio específico, poderá aprimorar o SCALA e ampliar o conhecimento acerca de uma Tecnologia Assistiva de Comunicação Alternativa. A partir do objetivo, propôs-se o desenvolvimento de um sistema de busca (SCALAi*) capaz de mapear o contexto semântico de imagens de domínio específico, visando especificar a ontologia, e integra-la a um sistema de busca semântica de imagens, para a construção de pranchas de comunicação no sistema SCALA A metodologia de pesquisa foi de abordagem mixta: pesquisa qualitativa com engenharia de software com o método de Quase Experimento. A pesquisa de cunho tecnológico utilizou a metodologia de Design Centrado no Contexto de Uso para o desenvolvimento do SCALAi*. As oficinas de formação que alicerçaram o Quase Experimento foram realizadas em laboratórios de informática, com a participação de um público de participantes heterogêneo. Os dados foram coletados por meio de instrumentos de observação e protocolos de avaliação respondidos pelos participantes. Os resultados permitiram o desenvolvimento tecnológico do sistema denominado SCALAi* que permite a busca semântica em sistema de Comunicação Alternativa, a construção de uma ontologia de contextos de uso aplicável a sistema de CA, a comprovação da eficiência do sistema de busca nas interações e tempos de construção das pranchas de comunicação e a qualificação do processo de construção, seja em quantidade de pictograma seja em sua organização lógica. A inclusão do SCALAi* em sistema de Comunicação Alternativa se mostrou adequada e eficiente para os usuários, com muita ou nenhuma experiência, em atividades de construção de pranchas comunicação. / The Alternative Communication (AC) is the area of knowledge that researches symbols, resources, techniques and strategies to develop or improve the communication of people with impossibility or difficulty speaking and/or writing. Both users and professionals (occupational therapists, speech therapists and teachers) need to organize CA resources in the form of communication boards. The construction of communication boards is an activity that involves the selection of graphic elements (graphic symbols, images, drawings and photographs), according to the needs and objectives of the people who will use this resource. From this scenario, the aim of this thesis is to analyze how a semantic image search system (pictograms), capable of mapping the specific domain semantic context, can improve the SCALA and increase the knowledge about an Assistive Technology of Alternative Communication. From the objective, the development of a search system (SCALAi*) was proposed, capable of mapping the semantic context of specific domain images, aiming at specifying the ontology, and integrating it into a semantic image search system the construction of communication boards in the SCALA system. The research methodology was a mixed one: qualitative research with software engineering with the Quase Experiment method The research of a technological nature used the methodology of Design Centered in the Context of Use for the development of SCALAi*. The training workshops that founded the Quase Experiment were carried out in computer labs, with the participation of a heterogeneous audience of participants. The data were collected through observation instruments and evaluation protocols answered by the participants. The results allowed the technological development of the system called SCALAi* that allows the semantic search in Alternative Communication system, the construction of an ontology of contexts of use applicable to the CA system, the verification of the efficiency of the search system in the interactions and times of construction of communication boards and the qualification of the construction process, whether in quantity of pictogram or in its logical organization. The inclusion of SCALAi* in the Alternative Communication system proved to be adequate and efficient for users, with or without experience, in communication board construction activities.

abstract: Societal infrastructure is built with vision at the forefront of daily life. For those with severe visual impairments, this creates countless barriers to the participation and enjoyment of life’s opportunities. Technological progress has been both a blessing and a curse in this regard. Digital text together with screen readers and refreshable Braille displays have made whole libraries readily accessible and rideshare tech has made independent mobility more attainable. Simultaneously, screen-based interactions and experiences have only grown in pervasiveness and importance, precluding many of those with visual impairments. Sensory Substituion, the process of substituting an unavailable modality with another one, has shown promise as an alternative to accomodation, but in recent years meaningful strides in Sensory Substitution for vision have declined in frequency. Given recent advances in Computer Vision, this stagnation is especially disconcerting. Designing Sensory Substitution Devices (SSDs) for vision for use in interactive settings that leverage modern Computer Vision techniques presents a variety of challenges including perceptual bandwidth, human-computer-interaction, and person-centered machine learning considerations. To surmount these barriers an approach called Per- sonal Foveated Haptic Gaze (PFHG), is introduced. PFHG consists of two primary components: a human visual system inspired interaction paradigm that is intuitive and flexible enough to generalize to a variety of applications called Foveated Haptic Gaze (FHG), and a person-centered learning component to address the expressivity limitations of most SSDs. This component is called One-Shot Object Detection by Data Augmentation (1SODDA), a one-shot object detection approach that allows a user to specify the objects they are interested in locating visually and with minimal effort realizing an object detection model that does so effectively. The Personal Foveated Haptic Gaze framework was realized in a virtual and real- world application: playing a 3D, interactive, first person video game (DOOM) and finding user-specified real-world objects. User study results found Foveated Haptic Gaze to be an effective and intuitive interface for interacting with dynamic visual world using solely haptics. Additionally, 1SODDA achieves competitive performance among few-shot object detection methods and high-framerate many-shot object de- tectors. The combination of which paves the way for modern Sensory Substitution Devices for vision. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Computer Engineering 2020

Organization and word processing software programs empower students with disabilities to become more independent in their writing. In this article, the authors describe techniques for incorporating organizational programs and word processing features into the writing process. Beneficial features include word prediction, voice output, spell checker, thesaurus, and grammar checker. The authors provide classroom activities designed to increase the students' use of organizational and word processing software programs to enhance writing.

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