Alternative Interfaces Group

How can we produce systems that are easy to use by a range of users with differing abilities?

CURRENT USER INTERFACES to interactive applications are heavily oriented towards visual presentation of data, with input typically via mouse manipulation of visual objects. This style of interaction has a number of limitations, but it is clearly particularly inappropriate for people who are blind or partially sighted. We are therefore exploring alternative interactive modalities, in particular the use of gesture and sound to handle input, output and feedback. Our current exemplars include a multimodal mathematics editor for visually disabled users and screen 'widgets' with auditory enhancements. These require sophisticated devices such as data gloves, three-dimensional sound and speech generators and haptic interactors with force feedback. A goal of this work is to develop alternative interface systems that can work in concert with more traditional modalities.

The Work

The research in this group is somewhat different to most of the rest of the department. We are interested in designing products of use to people with a variety of disabilities without compromising the scientific foundations of the research. For more information about each project, please see the personal pages of the staff involved.

The People

The Alternative Interfaces Group is an informal subgroup of the HCI Research Group at the University of York. After lean year or two, the group is growing again, and as soon as we can get all the people and our new digital camera in the same place at the same time, we will post a picture here.

• Alistair Edwards BSc Hons (Warwick) MSc (Penn. State) PhD (Open)
  Alistair is the leader of the team as well as being a lecturer in the department of Computer Science. He is interested in everything his students do and lots more besides.
  Email: alistair@cs.york.ac.uk
• Fauzi Saman BSc (Western Michigan), MSc (Western Michigan)
  Fauzi has just started a PhD looking at how to design interfaces for illiterate users, in particular interfaces to cashpoint machines (ATMs).
  Email: fauzi@cs.york.ac.uk
  
• Chris Newell MSc (Huudersfield)
  Chris is currently working part-time on a PhD in which he plans to create a piece of theatre. You can find out more about his ideas on his web site.
  Email: newell@cs.york.ac.uk
• Dawn Cliff
  Dawn is the Project Officer for University of York Tactile Images, a part of the Independent Touch Project.
  Email: dawn@cs.york.ac.uk

Former members

Above is a photograph of most of the (not particularly large) Alternative Interfaces Group - as it was in 1998.

Alistair Edwards BSc (Warwick) MSc (Penn. State) PhD (Open)

Alistair is the leader of the team as well as being a lecturer in the department of Computer Science. He is interested in everything his students do and lots more besides.
Email: alistair@cs.york.ac.uk

Dr David Bennett BSc (Exon), DPhil (York)

David was a research student and is interested in non-visual visual programming. He is now a lecturer at Christ Church University College, Canterbury..
Email: djb12@cant.ac.uk

Prof Steve Brewster BSc (Hatfield), DPhil (York)

aka Dr Sounds long since completed his DPhil and become a lecturer at Glasgow University where he has too many classes to teach.
Email: stephen@dcs.gla.ac.uk.

Dr Ben Challis Grad.Dip (Mus), MSc (York), DPhil (York)

Ben is looking at how multiple communication modes can be used in teaching music to blind children. He is now a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan University.
Email: b.challis@lmu.ac.uk

Dr Alan Creak BA (Cambridge), PhD (Leeds)

Alan visited the department from Auckland. He is interested in rehabilitation computing.
Email: alan@cs.auckland.ac.nz

Dr John Hankinson BA (Cantab), MPhil (Cantab), DPhil (York)

John has looked at ways in which a musically structured approach to audio design can improve non-speech audio communication for people with speech and language disabilities. He is now working for SDL International, a company which translates and localizes products, but his research pages remain on-line.
Email: JHankinson@sdlintl.com

Philip Harling BEng (York)

Philip was a research student, interested in gesture-based interfaces as well as anything to do with British Sign Language.
Email: philiph@dircon.co.uk

Dr Evangelos Mitsopoulos BSc (Athens), DPhil (York)

Evangelos was a research student and Research Associate and is interested in non-visual multi-modal interfaces. His research was suspended while he undertook his national service. His research pages are still on line.
Email: emitsopoulos@yahoo.co.uk

Dr Ian Pitt BA (Exeter), MSc, DPhil (York)

...is now in Cork, Ireland having passed through Magdeburg.
Email: ianp@cs.ucc.ie.

Dr Roger Spooner BSc (Edinburgh) DPhil (York)

Roger was a research student and is interested in writing assistance for dyslexic people. Now working for Picsel
Email: roger.spooner@picsel.com

Dr Robert Stevens BSc (Bristol) MSc (York) DPhil (York)

Robert was a research associate and is interested in speech and non-speech based interfaces. He is now working in Bioinformatics at the University of Manchester.
Email: rstevens@cs.man.ac.uk

Other Sites of Interest

• Sensory Disabilities Research Unit, using technology for disabled and elderly people.
• Dundee MicroCentre, developing computer applications for various people.
• The Drake Music Project - making music accessible to people with disabilities.
• A photo of York University Campus

Disclaimers

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Opinions expressed within the pages of this server are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of York.

13^th December 2002