I am an independent researcher with a strong focus on HCI, accessibility of user interfaces, and education. Address: Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, United States
Various approaches to providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces have been re... more Various approaches to providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces have been researched extensively in the past 15 years. While graphical user interfaces keep evolving, accessibility is still facing many obstacles that stem from the fact that desktop environments and applications are usually not designed with accessibility in mind. Existing screen readers on MS Windows and X Windows are adequate as short-term solutions, although they generally do not provide access to any arbitrarily chosen application. The higher degree of freedom within the X Windows system further complicates the problem. This paper proposes a long-term solution based on abstract user interface descriptions. Building upon past and current research into user interface description languages, this approach is not only promising for providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces. It also promotes the “Design-for-All ” principle by decoupling presentation and application logic. 1
Equivalent Representations of Multi-Modal User Interfaces Through Parallel Rendering (Equivalente representaties van multi-modale gebruikersomgevingen via parallele weergave)
Doctoral dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Docto... more Doctoral dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Engineering. Even though GUIs have been in existence since 1974, blind users still face many obstacles when using computer systems with a GUI. Over the past few years, our daily life has become more and more infused with devices that feature this type of UI. This continuing trend increasingly impacts blind users primarily due to the implied visual interaction model. Furthermore, the general availability of more flexible windowing systems such as the X Window System has increased the degree of complexity by providing software developers with a variety of graphical toolkits to use for their applications. Alternatives to the GUI are not exclusively beneficial to the blind. Daily life offers us various opportunities where presenting the UI in a different modality may be a benefit. After all, a disability is a condition that imposes constraints on daily life, and often those same constra...
Abstract UIs as a long-term solution for non-visual access to GUIs
Various approaches to providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces have been re... more Various approaches to providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces have been researched extensively in the past 15 years. While graphical user interfaces keep evolving, accessibility is still facing many obstacles that stem from the fact that desktop environments and applications are usually not designed with accessibility in mind. Existing screen readers on MS Windows and X Windows
Equivalent representations of multimodal user interfaces
Universal Access in the Information Society, 2013
ABSTRACT While providing non-visual access to graphical user interfaces has been a topic of resea... more ABSTRACT While providing non-visual access to graphical user interfaces has been a topic of research for over 20 years, blind users still face many obstacles when using computer systems. Furthermore, daily life has become more and more infused with devices that feature some kind of visual interface. Existing solutions for providing multimodal user interfaces that ensure accessibility are largely based on either graphical toolkit hooks, queries to the application and environment, scripting, model-driven user interface development or runtime adaptation. Parallel User Interface Rendering (PUIR) is a novel approach based on past and current research into accessibility, promoting the use of abstract user interface descriptions. Based on a single consistent conceptual model, PUIR provides a mechanism to render a user interface simultaneously in multiple modalities. Each representation of the UI provides equivalent semantics to ensure that collaboration between users of different modalities is facilitated. The possible application of this novel technique goes well beyond the realm of accessibility, as multimodal interfaces become more popular and even needed. The design presented here has been implemented as a prototype for testing and further research in this fascinating area of HCI.
Parallel User Interface Rendering (PUIR) is a novel approach to providing non-visual access to gr... more Parallel User Interface Rendering (PUIR) is a novel approach to providing non-visual access to graphical user interfaces, leveraging abstract user interface descriptions. Rather than deriving the alternative rendering as a second generation instance, PUIR provides non-visual renderings as first generation presentations alongside the graphical rendering, thereby preserving the interaction semantics across presentations.
Abstract UIs as a long-term solution for non-visual access to GUIs
Various approaches to providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces have been re... more Various approaches to providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces have been researched extensively in the past 15 years. While graphical user interfaces keep evolving, accessibility is still facing many obstacles that stem from the fact that desktop environments and applications are usually not designed with accessibility in mind. Existing screen readers on MS Windows and X Windows
Parallel User Interface Rendering (PUIR) is a novel approach to providing non-visual access to gr... more Parallel User Interface Rendering (PUIR) is a novel approach to providing non-visual access to graphical user interfaces, leveraging abstract user interface descriptions. Rather than deriving the alternative rendering as a second generation instance, PUIR provides non-visual renderings as first generation presentations alongside the graphical rendering, thereby preserving the interaction semantics across presentations.
Various approaches to providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces have been re... more Various approaches to providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces have been researched extensively in the past 15 years, and yet accessibility is still facing many obstacles. Graphical environments such as X Windows offer a high degree of freedom to both the developer and the user, complicating the accessibility problem even more. Existing technology is largely based on either a combination of graphical toolkit hooks, queries to the application and scripting, or model-driven user interface development. Both approaches have limitations that the proposed research addresses. This paper builds upon past and current research into accessibility, and promotes the use of abstract user interfaces to providing non-visual access to GUIs.
Abstract UIs as a long-term solution for non-visual access to GUIs
Various approaches to providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces have been re... more Various approaches to providing blind users with access to graphical user interfaces have been researched extensively in the past 15 years. While graphical user interfaces keep evolving, accessibility is still facing many obstacles that stem from the fact that desktop environments and applications are usually not designed with accessibility in mind. Existing screen readers on MS Windows and X Windows
While providing non-visual access to graphical user interfaces has been the topic of research for... more While providing non-visual access to graphical user interfaces has been the topic of research for over 20 years, blind users still face many obstacles when using computer systems. The higher degree of flexibility for both developers and users poses additional challenges. Existing solutions are largely based on either graphical toolkit hooks, queries to the application and environment, scripting, or model-driven user interface development or runtime adaptation. Parallel user interface rendering (PUIR) is a novel approach based on past and current research into accessibility, promoting the use of abstract user interface descriptions. PUIR provides the mechanism to render a user interface simultaneously in multiple forms (e.g. visual and non-visual).
Abstracting the Graphical User Interface for Non-Visual Access
... CHI 94 Celebrating Interdependence, 1994. [3] W. Keith Edwards, Elizabeth D. Mynatt, and Ka... more ... CHI 94 Celebrating Interdependence, 1994. [3] W. Keith Edwards, Elizabeth D. Mynatt, and Kathryn Stockton. Providing access to graphical user interfaces not graphical screens. ... ACM Press, 2002. [6] Holly S. Vitense, Julie A. Jacko, and V. Kathlene Emery. ...
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Papers by Kris Van Hees