abstract: Individuals with voice disorders experience challenges communicating daily. These challenges lead to a significant decrease in the quality of life for individuals with dysphonia. While voice amplification systems are often employed as a voice-assistive technology, individuals with voice disorders generally still experience difficulties being understood while using voice amplification systems. With the goal of developing systems that help improve the quality of life of individuals with dysphonia, this work outlines the landscape of voice-assistive technology, the inaccessibility of state-of-the-art voice-based technology and the need for the development of intelligibility improving voice-assistive technologies designed both with and for individuals with voice disorders. With the rise of voice-based technologies in society, in order for everyone to participate in the use of voice-based technologies individuals with voice disorders must be included in both the data that is used to train these systems and the design process. An important and necessary step towards the development of better voice assistive technology as well as more inclusive voice-based systems is the creation of a large, publicly available dataset of dysphonic speech. To this end, a web-based platform to crowdsource voice disorder speech was developed to create such a dataset. This dataset will be released so that it is freely and publicly available to stimulate research in the field of voice-assistive technologies. Future work includes building a robust intelligibility estimation model, as well as employing that model to measure, and therefore enhance, the intelligibility of a given utterance. The hope is that this model will lead to the development of voice-assistive technology using state-of-the-art machine learning models to help individuals with voice disorders be better understood. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Computer Science 2020

Digitalization in society is going fast and was accelerated further by the Covid-19 pandemic. By this, many people's everyday tasks were transferred to digital environments. This meant in Sweden that most new internet users in 2020 were people over the age of 75 and people with different types of disabilities. Due to this increase in digitalization and all these new internet users, accessibility online is a subject that has gained higher significance. Since September 2020, all Swedish municipalities' websites must be accessible by law. Municipalities have a great responsibility to make information and necessary services available to the public. The purpose of this study was to investigate how well municipalities succeed with their work with web accessibility as a consequence of the legislation in Sweden and identify where the municipalities meet concrete obstacles in order to comply with the law. The purpose was also to investigate how the work with web accessibility on municipal websites can be simplified, improved, or otherwise enabled for those who work with such issues in the municipalities. To fulfill the purpose, two research question was formed for the study: 1.     In the process of making municipalities’ websites accessible, which are the concrete obstacles that make the work difficult for those who work with such issues in the municipalities?   2.     How can the work with the accessibility of municipal websites be simplified, improved, or otherwise enabled for those who work with such issues in the municipalities? To answer the research questions, two methods were chosen, a web survey and in-depth interviews, which corresponds to a combination of a quantitative and a qualitative method. The web survey was sent out to all municipalities in Sweden with the focus to answer RQ1 and the in-depth interviews were conducted with two accessibility experts with the focus to answer RQ2. Several obstacles were identified relating to lack of resources, lack of competence, lack of understanding of the law and the interpretation of it, attitudes, and old technology. Solutions on how the work can be simplified for those who work with web accessibility were identified relating to attitudes, resources, competence, legislation, and consumer demands. The main conclusions were that even though a municipality comply fully with the law, it does not mean that the website is accessible for all users, hence the law is not comprehensive enough. It also shows that there are several aspects that makes it hard for the municipalities to comply with the law and that most of these aspects also are the areas that needs improvement for the work to be simplified for the municipalities.

Transportation plays an essential role in social inclusion and participation, subjective well-being, and overall quality of life. A lack of private transportation options may make individuals with disabilities more dependent on public transportation systems. Despite increased use, people with disabilities continue to report barriers accessing public transportation services. Interestingly, little is known about these barriers at the regional transportation district level. The purpose of this study was to better understand the barriers and perceived accessibility of the Utah Transit Authority’s (UTA) public transportation system for individuals with disabilities living within the UTA service area. Using an online survey, data were collected from 327 individuals with disabilities, family members of individuals with disabilities, or others who work with individuals with disabilities. This study found that individuals with disabilities generally have neutral to somewhat positive (accessible) views of UTA’s transportation services though there are differences based on disability type, modes of services used in general and specifically regarding fixed route service modes, and frequency of ridership are considered; that despite these neutral to somewhat accessible perceptions, barriers to accessing UTA’s fixed route and paratransit services exist, though there are differences based on disability type, modes of fixed route services used, and ridership frequency; and local and national policy changes may be necessary to resolve these barriers. The findings of this study have implications for UTA, other regional transportation districts, local and national transportation policy stakeholders, and the research community. For example, additional research is necessary to fully understand the specific system components which make UTA’s public transportation more accessible than has been indicated in previous studies, including an understanding of how these accessible practices could be generalized to other public transportation providers. Findings from future research could, in turn, be used to improve access to public transportation for individuals with disabilities. It is recognized that this study’s focus on electronic data collection and the potential influence of small subsamples underscores the need for additional research on the topics of perceived accessibility of public transportation and barriers to using public transportation services for individuals with disabilities.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Having representative users, who have the targeted disability, in accessibility studies is vital to the validity of research findings. Although it is a widely accepted tenet in the HCI community, many barriers and difficulties make it very resource-demanding for accessibility researchers to recruit representative users. As a result, researchers recruit non-representative users, who do not have the targeted disability, instead of representative users in accessibility studies. Although such an approach has been widely justified, evidence showed that findings derived from non-representative users could be biased and even misleading. To address this problem, researchers have come up with different solutions such as building pools of users to recruit from. But still, the data is not widely available and needs a lot of effort and resource to build and maintain. On the other hand, online social media websites have become popular in the last decade. Many online communities have emerged that allow online users to discuss health-related subjects, exchange useful information, or provide emotional support. A large amount of data accumulated in such online communities have gained attention from researchers in the healthcare domain. And many researches have been done based on data from social media websites to better understand health problems to improve the wellbeing of people. Despite the increasing popularity, the value of data from social media websites for accessibility research remains untapped. Hence, my work aims to create methods that could extract valuable information from data collected on social media websites for accessibility practitioners to support their design process. First, I investigate methods that enable researchers to effectively collect representative data from social media websites. More specifically, I look into machine learning approaches that could allow researchers to automatically identify online users who have disabilities (representative users). Second, I investigate methods that could extract useful information from user-generated free-text using techniques drawn from the information extraction domain. Last, I explore how such information should be visualized and presented for designers to support the scenario-based design process in accessibility studies.

Metamemory is a person’s knowledge about their own memory. Metamemory judgments are sometimes accurate and sometimes not. Eakin (2005) found a dissociation between metamemory predictions and memory performance under conditions of retroactive interference and attributed this dissociation to the accessibility heuristic. This study investigated whether the accessibility heuristic would be used to make metamemory predictions in the more complex context of the eyewitness memory paradigm. The results indicate that the accessibility heuristic was used to make metamamory predictions. Memory performance was better for control than misled critical items, but people predicted they would perform equally well in both conditions. It appears that in the less austere context of the eyewitness memory paradigm, the amount of information accessible for control and misled items was equal, and therefore, metamemory judgments were equal for control and misled items.

As the web continues to evolve, so does our need for achieving an accessible web for people with disabilities. Content management systems (CMSs) have well observed accessibility problems with generated content, and in recent years, several features have been proposed in order to minimize or eliminate these problems. This study investigated CMSs in current use to find common accessibility problems and evaluated a set of features proposed by Acosta, T. et al. in 2018, targeting these problems. The study initially found a general lack of information, guidance and technical support provided by CMSs to editors promoting the generation of accessible content. The results indicate that even editors highly aware of accessibility may not be able to create accessible content due to the limitations of their systems. The study also received positive feedback towards the evaluated features from professionals, indicating that the features are of practical value and may help the editor by minimizing or eliminating common accessibility problems in content generated through CMSs. / Webben fortsätter att utvecklas, och det gör också vårt behov av att göra webben tillgänglig för personer med funktionshinder. Innehållshanteringssystem (CMS) har flera kända tillgänglighetsproblem med dess genererande innehåll och under de senaste åren så har ett antal tillgänglighetsfunktioner föreslagits för att minimera eller eliminera dessa problem. Den här studien undersökte CMS som används idag för att hitta vanliga tillgänglighetsproblem och evaluerade en samling av föreslagna funktioner av Acosta, T. et al. som riktade sig mot dessa problem. Studien fann i början en generell brist på information, vägledning och tekniskt stöd från CMS till redaktörer som främjar skapandet av tillgängligt innehåll. Resultaten visar att även redaktörer som är medvetna om tillgänglighet inte alltid har möjligheten att skapa tillgängligt innehåll på grund av begränsningarna i deras system. Studien fick också positiv återkoppling av de utvärderade funktionerna från yrkesverksamma inom området, vilket indikerar att funktionerna har ett praktiskt värde och kan hjälpa redaktören genom att minimera eller eliminera vanliga tillgänglighetsproblem i innehåll som skapats via CMS.

This dissertation presents an integrated framework that was developed to examine trajectories of neighborhood change, mechanisms of suburban diversity, and the relationships between neighborhood change and employment accessibility. First, this dissertation extends the study of neighborhood change to a greater time and spatial span, systematically examining the trajectories of neighborhood change at the census tract level. The results show that neighborhood change is complicated and exhibits various trajectories. The dominant patterns do not always conform to classical models of neighborhood change, providing counterpoints to some long-established assumptions. This dissertation also provides evidence of the mechanisms through which metropolitan and suburban characteristics influence suburban diversity. Most importantly, it highlights a remarkable increase in suburban diversity with respect to neighborhood composition. Finally, this dissertation investigates the relationships between neighborhood change, spatial transformation, and employment accessibility in the North Carolina Piedmont region during the last three decades. Spatial patterns of the neighborhood distributions suggest that job accessibility varies by neighborhood typology. A detailed analysis of the trajectories of neighborhood change shows interesting patterns in both central city and suburban ecological succession and transformation. These geographical shifts of neighborhoods were shown to be associated with changes in job accessibility to a certain extent. In sum, by introducing an integrated framework including social, spatial, and employment factors, this dissertation develops a more balanced understanding of neighborhood change in the United States. / Ph. D.

Accessibility is a very important criterion to make online learning inclusive to students with different abilities. According to Burgstahler, Corrigan and McCarter (2004) unless design of the courses are accessible to all students, including those with disabilities, the ultimate goal of distance learning to make education available to everyone cannot be accomplished. However, accessibility is rarely a priority for online course developers and students with disabilities are not considered as a large group (Treviranus and Roberts, 2006). This exploratory case study investigated the experiences of the students with visual impairment in online learning environments with regards to media used in their courses with the intent of providing suggestions for accessible media design. Media included text, visuals (pictures, diagrams, charts, and graphs), audio, and multimedia (video and animation) used in online learning environments. This study used a purposive sampling technique and participants who are visually impaired, who had an online course experience, and who are older than 18 years old were included in the study. A semi-structured interview protocol was developed and participants were asked about challenges they experienced and what worked well for them in terms of media in online learning environment. Because of the lack of scientific research examining design of online learning for students with visual impairment, this dissertation fills an important research gap and also makes contributions to the field of Instructional Design and Technology by providing students' perspectives and suggestions for accessible design. Suggestions provided in this study is valuable in terms of designing accessible online courses and that there is a lack of information and guidance for answering the needs of students with visual impairment in online learning environments. / Ph. D.

Yes / The national ebook audit highlighted the fact that many students who are print-impaired are also unable to use off-the-peg ebooks, so must rely on specific requests for texts in formats accessible to their particular needs (alternative formats or alt-formats) . We set out to investigate the scale of this issue and its effect on student learning.

Este estudo visa à criação e aplicação de um índice de acessibilidade de aeroportos que considera vários perfis de usuários (passageiro com e sem bagagem, estrangeiro, idoso e gestante, cadeirante e deficiente visual) que possuem diferentes restrições de mobilidade. O método tem início com uma seleção de indicadores que surgiram da identificação de potenciais problemas que os passageiros podem enfrentar ao acessar o aeroporto. Os indicadores são agrupados de acordo com o modo de transporte disponível para acesso ao aeroporto: táxi, carona, automóvel próprio, automóvel de aluguel, ônibus regional e ônibus especial. Em seguida os indicadores são avaliados através de pesquisas e levantamentos de campo e recebem pontuações de acordo com o seu desempenho. Por fim, os escores dos indicadores são ponderados e um valor final é calculado para cada aeroporto. Para aplicação e avaliação do índice foram selecionados, em São Paulo, os aeroportos Congonhas, Guarulhos e Viracopos; no Rio de Janeiro, Galeão e Santos Dumont, e em Brasília, o aeroporto Juscelino Kubitschek. Em uma escala que vai de zero a um, os aeroportos estudados apresentaram resultados com uma amplitude de 0,16. O maior valor encontrado foi 0,629 para o aeroporto Santos Dumont e o menor valor foi 0,469 para o aeroporto de Guarulhos. Isto evidencia que há muitos aspectos a serem melhorados no que diz respeito à acessibilidade dos aeroportos no Brasil. / This study aims to create an index of accessibility to airports that takes into account several profiles of users (passengers with and without luggage, foreigners, elderly and pregnant women, wheelchair users and visually impaired users) that have different mobility constraints. The method starts with a selection of indicators that emerged from the identification of potential problems that passengers may have when accessing the airport. The indicators are grouped according to the transportations modes available for access the airport: taxi, ride with a third party, own car, rental car, regional bus and shuttle bus. The indicators are then evaluated through surveys and field observations and scored according to their performances. Finally, the scores of the indicators are weighted and an overall score is calculated for each airport. For implementation and evaluation of the index, six important Brazilian airports were selected. In São Paulo, the airports of Congonhas, Guarulhos and Viracopos; in Rio de Janeiro, Galeão and Santos Dumont; and, in Brasília, the airport Juscelino Kubitschek. In a scale that goes from zero to one, the studied airports showed results with an amplitude of 0.16. The highest value was 0.629 for Santos Dumont airport and the lowest value was 0.469, for Guarulhos airport. The results highlight the fact that many aspects must still be improved regarding accessibility to Brazilian airports.