Blind Users

Audio-description is a complementary narration to the audio of the audiovisual work that serves to describe the content, appearance, and plot of a scene for visually impaired people. It is a translation tool whose function is limited to the accessibility of blind people in visual environments such as television, cinema, series, theater, or certain live events such as conferences and performances. The aim of this paper is to understand in depth the context of audio-description from the hypothesis that, beyond an accessibility model, audio-description is a cultural tool. Furthermore, this study has the specific objective of establishing a classification of the types of audio-description according to access, understanding "access" as the relationship between the tool and its user.

Interaction with large touch surfaces is still a relatively infant domain, particularly when looking at the accessibility solutions offered to blind users. Their smaller mobile counterparts are shipped with built-in accessibility features, enabling non-visual exploration of linearized screen content. However, it is unknown how well these solutions perform in large interactive surfaces that use more complex spatial content layouts. We report on a user study with 14 blind participants performing common touchscreen interactions using one and two-hand exploration. We investigate the exploration strategies applied by blind users when interacting with a tabletop. We identified six basic strategies that were commonly adopted and should be considered in future designs. We finish with implications for the design of accessible large touch interfaces.

Building Accessible Custom UI Controls: A Comprehensive Guide for 508 Compliance addresses the critical need for developing inclusive web applications through customized user interface components. This technical article explores the implementation of accessible UI controls that serve both standard users and those with

This paper describes the progress of a research project aimed at improving the usability of web search tools for blind users who interact via screen readers and voice synthesizers. In the first stage of research, specific guidelines were proposed for simplifying the interaction with search engines for the blind. To evaluate these criteria, they were applied to Google user interfaces, by reimplementing the search form as well as the results page. Finally, the redesigned interfaces were evaluated through remote testing with 12 totally blind users. The results highlighted how Google, although already accessible, may be further improved in order to simplify interaction for people with impaired vision.

Après plusieurs journées d'études appréhendant le catalogue d'exposition d'arts visuels comme un objet d'étude en soi (Paris 2023 et 2024, Bordeaux 2025), ce titre sous forme de question est volontairement provocateur. Il reprend en effet, pour évidemment le questionner, un partage entre musées des Beaux-arts et musées autres qui a structuré la vision des musées du point de vue de l'action publique, et qui a renvoyé dans une catégorie définie par défaut des musées extrêmement divers et hétérogènes. Il s'agit ici d'interroger les formes, les pratiques et les enjeux liés aux catalogues d'expositions et aux publications liées à celles-ci, dans les musées de société, les écomusées ou les musées de science, mais aussi les catalogues dédiés à des oeuvres d'art de nature essentiellement allographique, c'est-à-dire qui ne se matérialisent pas dans un objet unique ou en un nombre limité d'exemplaires, mais qui s'incarnent sur le temps long dans des objets dont la diversité ne modifie pas l'oeuvre idéale, comme le livre, la partition, et/ou qui s'interprètent sous des formes immatérielles, comme le concert, le spectacle de danse, la représentation théâtrale, etc.

The voice/tool database System is a web-based system connected to a relational backend database that stores voice files (.wav format) along with user demographic information. The database is used to test the ability of an examiner, usually a briefly trained non-linguist, to identify the nationality of the speaker of the recorded voice. Here we provide background on voice recognition biometrics, describe the design and functionality of the pronunciation information system, and present some preliminary results on the nationality classification of voice samples by examiners. We also provide the ability to play the voice files in a speech processing tool for further research in the field.

Software visualization has been almost exclusively tackled from the visual point of view; this means visualization occurs exclusively through the visual channel. This approach has its limitations. Considering previous work for blind people we propose that complementing usual approaches with those techniques used to develop interfaces for non-sighted people can enhance user awareness of logical structures or data types using different perception channels. To achieve better comprehension, we deal with new or augmented interfaces built on top of standard systems for data visualization and algorithm animation. The notion of specific concept keyboards is introduced. As a consequence, modern information and learning systems can be designed in such a way that not only sighted but also blind users can navigate within these systems.

ABSTRACT This research project investigates how to inclusively design and curate a non-permanent de- sign exhibition in a large regional gallery (the National Centre for Craft and Design, UK), focusing on intel- lectual access for blind and partially sighted visitors. There are approximately two million people in the UK who are registered with sight loss. Older people are increasingly likely to experience sight loss and they are the fastest growing visitor group (65–74 years) to UK museums and galleries. The context and rationale for the research, and how the author has collaborated with various stakeholders, including blind and partially sighted participants, through co-creation and co-assessment, is imparted. The resulting multi-sensory exhibition (28 January–23 April 2017), how it was tested and visitors’ reactions is also described.

Named for Gerhardus Mercator, a cartographer who devised a way of projecting the spherical Earth's surface onto a flat surface with straight-line bearings. The Mercator Projection is a mapping between a three-dimensional presentation and a two-dimensional presentation of the same information. The Mercator Environment provides a mapping from a two-dimensional graphical display to a three-dimensional auditory display of the same user interface.

This study casts a spotlight on the accessibility landscape of e-database resources for persons with disabilities in India. It’s well-known that in this information-driven digital era, E-database are immensely useful and beneficial for students, researchers, professionals, academicians, and educators worldwide, as they are repositories of knowledge. Despite their significance, accessibility and usability concerns of these E-database resources persist for persons with disabilities.
The study aims to shed light on the challenges, emphasizing the obstacles that hinder accessibility and usability of e-databases for persons with disabilities in general, with specific focus on person with visual disabilities. Highlighting a research gap in existing literature, it emphasizes the lack of comprehensive data focusing on the usage of e-databases by persons with disabilities in India. It aims to fill this void by providing insights into the specific challenges faced by persons with disabilities when interacting with e-databases.
The primary objective of this research is to provide an insight and perspective on the prevalent
situation of E-database accessibility. The study aims to bridge existing gaps in understanding the specific challenges faced, contributing valuable insights to the discourse on inclusive and accessible e-databases in India.
To achieve a comprehensive understanding, the study adopts a structured methodological approach. It involves surveying 103 persons with disabilities and conducting in-depth interviews with 20 participants across diverse regions.
Finally, this study serves as a crucial starting point for focused advocacy and awareness initiatives to address the accessibility challenges of e-databases for persons with disabilities in India, the study seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the barriers faced by persons with disabilities and contribute valuable insights to the discourse on inclusive and accessible e-databases. The findings and insights garnered through this research pave the way for future endeavours aimed at fostering a more inclusive digital environment, ensuring equal opportunities for persons with disabilities in accessing academic resources and contributing to their educational and professional development.

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

In this article, we are interested in providing a framework to develop games for visually impaired or blind children. In this context, we propose a tool set to ease the creation of such games based on an actor metaphor. As the possible outputs are multimodals (mostly not graphical) we provide an abstract library. The architecture is composed of an engine and a I/O layer. These concepts have led to the achievement of several games. This work is part of the european project TiM (Tactile Interactive Multimedia).

The advent of the WWW has caused a dramatic evolution in getting the information. From the web, most of the people nowadays can get information easily from Internet from anywhere and anytime. These Web sites also become an important tool that the government used to market their institution to prospective customers and, to provide government information and services available on-line. To make these web sites more functional, they must be accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. This study was undertaken with the purpose of identifying the accessibility of e-government websites based on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In addition, the study was also intended to investigate webmaster's knowledge and practices pertaining to accessibility. The result of the analysis indicated that there were no single Malaysian e-government websites that passed the W3C Priority 1 accessibility checkpoints. A follow-up study using interviews unveiled that most webmasters did not fully adhere to the standard of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

The design of a user interface usable by blind people sets specific usability requirements that are unnecessary for sighted users. These requirements focus on task adequacy, dimensional trade-off, behaviour equivalence, semantic loss avoidance and device-independency. Consequently, the development of human-computer interfaces (HCI) that are based on task, domain, dialog, presentation, platform and user models has to be modified to take into account these requirements. This paper presents a user interface model for blind people, which incorporates these usability requirements into the above HCI models. A framework implementing the model has been developed and implemented in an electronic speaking bilingual software environment for blind or visually impaired people and in an educational system for children with special educational needs.

Web access for users with disabilities is an important goal and challenging problem for web content developers and designers. This paper presents a comparison of different methods for finding accessibility problems affecting users who are blind. Our comparison focuses on techniques that might be of use to Web developers without accessibility experience, a large and important group that represents a major source of inaccessible pages. We compare a laboratory study with blind users to an automated tool, expert review by web designers with and without a screen reader, and remote testing by blind users. Multiple developers, using a screen reader, were most consistently successful at finding most classes of problems, and tended to find about 50% of known problems. Surprisingly, a remote study with blind users was one of the least effective methods. All of the techniques, however, had different, complementary strengths and weaknesses.

The aim of this paper is to determine whether certain volumetric tactile symbols (3D) have a level of tactile recognition similar to those of low relief (2D). This study evaluates a sample of 3D volumetric symbols produced by means of 3D printing for use in tactile maps. An experimental test was conducted on a group of 26 totally blind users with different levels of experience in tactile exploration. Part of the experiment involved analysing the percentage of correct answers as a dependent variable and the volume in the shape of the tactile symbols (3D vs. 2D) as the experimental stimulus. The results obtained indicate that volumetric symbols have a high level of tactile recognition. In addition, the study shows some of the possibilities that are emerging in the design of tactile maps and models with the development of new techniques such as 3D Printing (3DP). The inclusion of 3DP within the field of tactile map design is leading to a reassessment of some of the basic principles of tangible graphic design, such as using only two-dimensional graphic elements to produce tangible graphics. Other categories of design elements such as volumetric design elements (3D) can now be included. This opens up a range of possibilities in the field of tactile maps, providing the designer and/or the Mobility Instructor with a wider range of variations in shape from which to design or select a set of symbols for use in tactile maps

Recently, there has been an increased awareness in the general public, in government and in business that people with disabilities and older people have distinct needs and preferences that must be met in order for them to participate as equal members of environments incorporating information and communications technologies. With this increased awareness has come legislation and company policies stating the necessary provision of accessible systems for disabled and older people in all facets of society.

For the majority of blind people, walking in unknown places is a very difficult, or even impossible, task to perform, when without help. The adoption of the white cane is the main aid to a blind user's mobility. However, the major difficulties arise in the orientation task. The lack of reference points and the inability to access visual cues are its main causes. We aim to overcome this issue allowing users to walk through unknown places, by receiving a familiar and easily understandable feedback. Our preliminary contributions are in understanding, through user studies, how blind users explore an unknown place, their difficulties, capabilities and needs. We also analyzed how these users create their own mental maps, verbalize a route and communicate with each other. Structuring and generalizing this information, we were able to create a prototype that generates familiar and adequate instructions, behaving like a blind companion, one with similar capabilities that understands his "friend" and speaks the same language. We evaluated the system with the target population, validating our approach and orientation guidelines, while gathering overall user satisfaction.

NavTap is a navigational method that enables blind users to input text in a mobile device by reducing the associated cognitive load. In this paper, we present studies that go beyond a laboratorial setting, exploring the methods' ef fectiveness and learnability as well as its influence in the users' daily lives. Eight blind users participated in the pro totype's design (3 weeks) while five took part in the studies along 16 more weeks. All were unable to input text before. Results gathered in controlled weekly sessions and real life interaction logs enabled us to better understand NavTap's advantages and limitations. The method revealed itself as easy to learn and improve, as the users were able to fully control their mobile devices in the first contact within a real life scenario. The users' individual profiles play an impor tant role determining their evolution and, even less capable users (with age-induced impairments or cognitive difficul ties), were able to perform the required tasks, both in and out of the laboratory, with continuous improvements. Nav-Tap dramatically changed the users' relation with mobile devices and improved their social interaction capabilities.

We present a new mobile text-entry method that relies on alphabet navigation and dismisses memorizing, offering visually impaired individuals an easy writing mechanism. Current mobile text-entry interfaces are not suitable for blind users and special braille devices are too heavy, large and cumbersome to be used in a mobile context. With the enormous growth of mobile communications and applications it was urgent to offer visually impaired individuals the ability to operate this kind of devices. Evaluation studies were carried and validated the navigation method as a new mobile text-entry interface for the target population.

Motivation-To provide suitable mobile text-entry interfaces for the disabled, designed considering their capabilities and needs. Research approach-We analyzed 20 blind users and the difficulties they face with traditional text-entry approaches. We designed a new text-entry method, modelled accordingly to the design guidelines retrieved from the user studies and evaluated in comparison to the traditional approach through user evaluation. The navigation model presented shows to be effective both on keypad and touch screen based devices. Findings/Design-Results show that if the user's limitations and capacities are taken into account, the first approach with the mobile device is subtle and the learning curve is accentuated. In opposite to traditional approaches, the theoretical values are likely to be achieved. Research limitations/Implications-As the available set of target users is limited, the user studies were made with five users per group (3 groups/15 users). Originality/Value-The research presents an innovative text-entry method and its comparison with commonly used methods. We also present a solution to provide text input in touch screen mobile devices for blind users. Take away message-If the interaction is designed with the end users in mind, the best theoretical values are likely to be achieved.

For the majority of blind people, walking in unknown places is a very difficult, or even impossible, task to perform, when without help. The adoption of the white cane is the main aid to a blind user's mobility. However, the major difficulties arise in the orientation task. The lack of reference points and the inability to access visual cues are its main causes. We aim to overcome this issue allowing users to walk through unknown places, by receiving a familiar and easily understandable feedback. Our preliminary contributions are in understanding, through user studies, how blind users explore an unknown place, their difficulties, capabilities and needs. We also analyzed how these users create their own mental maps, verbalize a route and communicate with each other. Structuring and generalizing this information, we were able to create a prototype that generates familiar and adequate instructions, behaving like a blind companion, one with similar capabilities that understands his "friend" and speaks the same language. We evaluated the system with the target population, validating our approach and orientation guidelines, while gathering overall user satisfaction.

Motivation-To understand the individual differences with the greatest impact on a blind user's mobile interaction effectiveness and learning abilities. Research approach-We performed a semi-structured interview to 10 specialized professionals (psychologists, occupational therapists, rehabilitation technicians, IT teacher) working closely with blind users. Findings/Design-Results suggest that peripheral sensitivity, spatial ability, blindness onset age, age, intelligence and memory are the characteristics affecting user capabilities the most. Research limitations/Implications-This study offers a wide view on the possible influencing attributes. Empirical studies are required to dissect the impact of each characteristic in mobile blind users' performance. Originality/Value-We contribute with an understanding of the individual differences among the blind population that may affect mobile interaction. Take away message-Individual differences among the blind have greater impact than those between sighted users. Understanding these differences is mandatory.

NavTap is a navigational method that enables blind users to input text in a mobile device by reducing the associated cognitive load. In this paper, we present studies that go beyond a laboratorial setting, exploring the methods' ef fectiveness and learnability as well as its influence in the users' daily lives. Eight blind users participated in the pro totype's design (3 weeks) while five took part in the studies along 16 more weeks. All were unable to input text before. Results gathered in controlled weekly sessions and real life interaction logs enabled us to better understand NavTap's advantages and limitations. The method revealed itself as easy to learn and improve, as the users were able to fully control their mobile devices in the first contact within a real life scenario. The users' individual profiles play an impor tant role determining their evolution and, even less capable users (with age-induced impairments or cognitive difficul ties), were able to perform the required tasks, both in and out of the laboratory, with continuous improvements. Nav-Tap dramatically changed the users' relation with mobile devices and improved their social interaction capabilities.

The emergence of touch-based mobile devices brought fresh and exciting possibilities. These came at the cost of a considerable number of novel challenges. They are particularly apparent with the blind population, as these devices lack tactile cues and are extremely visually demanding. Existing solutions resort to assistive screen reading software to compensate the lack of sight, still not all the information reaches the blind user. Good spatial ability is still required to have notion of the device and its interface, as well as the need to memorize buttons" position on screen. These abilities, as many other individual attributes as age, age of blindness onset or tactile sensibility are often forgotten, as the blind population is presented with the same methods ignoring capabilities and needs. Herein, we present a study with 13 blind people consisting of a touch screen text-entry task with four different methods. Results show that different capability levels have significant impact on performance and that this impact is related with the different methods" demands. These variances acknowledge the need of accounting for individual characteristics and giving space for difference, towards inclusive design.

Motivation-Understand how NavTap, an assistive text-entry method, stands in relation to traditional approaches. Research approach-We performed a betweensubjects text-entry study with 12 blind users proficient with MultiTap and five blind users proficient with NavTap. Participants were asked to input ten sentences with different length and complexity. Findings/Design-MultiTap significantly outperformed NavTap when considering text entry speed, confirming its theoretical advantage. However, when considering method effectiveness, NavTap's less experienced participants committed significantly fewer errors, indicating that it is both easier to learn and use, reaffirming it is an alternative for those unable to adjust to demanding adaptations. Research limitations/Implications-Before NavTap appeared its users were unable to input text in a mobile device. Indeed, existing data make it difficult to assess differences between the users of either method. Further, NavTap users had less experience using the method (four months) than MultiTap (years). Originality/Value-We contribute to understanding the limitations and merits of different text-entry approaches for blind people, after extensive usage. Take away message-Different methods have different limitations and values. Selecting a match for a particular user may depend on his individual differences.

Abstract. Touch screen mobile devices are highly flexible and customizable, allowing designers to create inclusive user interfaces that are accessible to a broader user population. However, the knowledge to provide this new generation of user interfaces is yet to be uncovered. Our goal is to thoroughly study mobile touch interfaces, thus providing the tools for informed design. We present an evaluation performed with 15 tetraplegic and 18 able-bodied people that allowed us to identify their main similarities and differences within ...

1—We present a new mobile text-entry method that relies on the Braille alphabet and dismisses memorizing, offering visually impaired individuals an easy writing mechanism. Current mobile text-entry interfaces are not suitable for blind users and special Braille devices are too heavy, large and cumbersome to be used in a mobile context. With the enormous growth of mobile communications and applications it was urgent to offer visually impaired individuals the ability to operate this kind of devices. Evaluation studies ...

There is no such thing as an ultimate text-entry method. People are diverse and mobile touch typing takes place in many different places and scenarios. This translates to a wide and dynamic diversity of abilities. Conversely, different methods present different demands and are adequate to different people/situations. In this paper we focus our attention on blind and situationally blind people; how abilities differ between people and situations, and how we can cope with those differences either by varying or adapting ...

Abstract. Touch-based mobile phones and tablets have started to be shipped with built-in accessibility features, fostering the inclusion of disabled people. Particularly, blind people can use these devices resorting to screen reading software commonly along with a painless exploration approach. However, for a large part of the population, a first approach to these devices is still challenging and a future reigned by touch surfaces presents as daunting. The success with such gadgets varies and is highly dependent on the user's abilities. To ease ...

Mobile devices play an important role on modern society. Their functionalities go beyond the basic communication, gathering a large set of productivity and leisure applications. The interaction with these devices is highly visually demanding disabling blind users to achieve control. Particularly, text-entry, a task that is transversal to several mobile applications, is difficult to accomplish as it relies on visual feedback both from the keypad and screen. Although there are specialized solutions to overcome this problem, those are ...

In contrast to sighted students who acquire mathematical expressions (MEs) from their visual sources, blind students must keep MEs in their memory using the Tactile or Auditory Modality. In this work, we rigorously investigate the ability to temporarily retain MEs by blind individuals when they use different input modalities: Auditory, Tactile, and Auditory–Tactile. In the experiments with 16 blind participants, we meticulously measured the users’ capacity for memory retention utilizing ME recall. Based on a robust methodology, our results indicate that the distribution of the recall errors regarding their types (Deletions, Substitutions, Insertions) and math element categories (Structural, Numerical, Identifiers, Operators) are the same across the tested modalities. Deletions are the favored recall error, while operator elements are the hardest to forget. Our findings show a threshold to the cognitive overload of the short-term memory in terms of type and number of elements in an ME, where the recall rapidly decreases. The increase in the number of errors is affected by the increase in complexity; however, it is significantly higher in the Auditory modality than in the other two. Therefore, segmenting a math expression into smaller parts will benefit the ability of the blind reader to retain it in memory while studying.

We describe the development of a speech-driven user interface system, TalkMaths, which enables the dictation of mathematical expressions into electronic documents without the user needing extensive knowledge of any specialized markup language. This system should be of value to many students and teachers, particularly those with disabilities-for whom typing mathematical text is currently very difficult.

Programming today requires one to be able to code textually but it also requires a quite amount of visual design. Both of these have left blind people in very dicult position when talking about programming. There has been some eort in general to produce methods and tools that would enable blind persons to use computers but none of them has been specialized to aid the blinds in various programming issues. In this paper we will discuss the methods that are used to aid blinds to use computers, we will analyze how and in which amount they can be used to help blind persons in programming, we will discuss how applicable they are regarding textual and visual programming work. Finally we will also mention main disadvantages that blind come across and give some ideas for their resolution.

Rafael Rodríguez Victoria (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana) -Reflexiones en torno a un fragmento de Flores de filosofía. Códice evorense CXXI/ 2-19 Maria Belen Randazzo (Universidad Nacional del Sur) -"Fijo fuiste y padre serás, qual fesieres tal avrás": representaciones de las relaciones familiares en el refranero medieval María Celeste Carrettoni (Universidad Nacional de La Plata) -Geoffrey Chaucer y las representaciones literarias femeninas. Relaciones intertextuales en tres obras de su producción madura

Today wikis are becoming increasingly widespread, and offer great benefits in a variety of collaborative environments. Therefore, to be universally valuable, wiki systems should be easy to use for anyone, regardless of ability. This paper describes obstacles that a blind user may encounter when interacting via screen reader with Wikipedia, and offers some suggestions for improving usability.

The EU-supported TeDUB (Technical Drawings Understanding for the Blind) project is developing a software system that aims to make technical diagrams accessible to blind and visually impaired people. It consists of two separate modules: one that analyses drawings either semi-automatically or automatically, and one that presents the results of this analysis to blind people and allows them to interact with it. The system is capable of analysing and presenting diagrams from a number of formally defined domains. A diagram enters the system as one of two types: first, diagrams contained in bitmap images, which do not explicitly contain the semantic structure of their content and thus have to be interpreted by the system, and second, diagrams obtained in a semantically enriched format that already yields this structure. The TeDUB system provides blind users with an interface to navigate and annotate these diagrams using a number of input and output devices. Extensive user evaluations have been carried out and an overall positive response from the participants has shown the effectiveness of the approach.

The results from previous experiments using structured musical stimuli to communicate coordinate locations within a graphical grid, navigation of an auditory cursor and simple shapes are used as a basis for further exploratory research to communicate diagrams. An experimental framework program (called AudioGraph) provided a platform for investigating musical information processing for blind users. Under this platform, simple arrangements of shapes (forming diagrams) were communicated to users using structured musical stimuli. Meaningfully arranged graphical shapes (at least for the visual sense) were communicated in the absence, and in the presence of a particular perceptual context or different perceptual contexts. The results indicated that perceptual context played an important role in the interpretation of the structured musical stimuli that communicated simple diagrams. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of the results, the role of context and the use of structured musical stimuli to communicate graphical information to visually impaired users.

This dissertation investigates the discourse on video game accessibility specifically for individuals with visual impairments, distinct from other physical challenges. It highlights the ambiguity of the term "accessibility" in gaming, often conflated with game difficulty or playability for those with sensory impairments. The focus on visual impairments is justified by the unique challenges each disability presents and the potential of audio design to enhance accessibility for visually impaired players. Despite advancements in audio spatialization and the enhanced auditory skills of visually impaired individuals, video game development remains predominantly visuocentric, exacerbating accessibility barriers. The dissertation proposes that integrating sound design from the early stages of game development can improve accessibility and inclusivity. It explores fully accessible audio games, critiques the current late-stage accessibility fixes by studios, and presents innovative solutions to reframe accessibility as a core design principle rather than a post-production adjustment.

n this paper, a reception study is conducted to explore how humor is handled in an audio-described film. A fragment from the Spanish film Pagafantas is selected and shown to two groups of participants: one composed of blind people, and one formed by sighted people. A quantitative tool is used in order to carry out the study. Two questionnaires are designed to (1) define the profile of the participants and (2) assess the reception of the humor present in the selected clip. Our main results include evidence that the blind audience detects a slightly reduced number of humorous elements. Simultaneously, both groups provide a practically identical general assessment of the humorousness present in the chosen audiovisual product. This study tries to contribute to the mapping of the functioning of humor in audio description, a topic that is in clear need of descriptive and receptive research.

Keywords: Audiovisual translation; Audio description; Humour; Reception studies; Film studies; Disability studies.

In this issue, two regular articles appear. First, Juan José Martínez Sierra examines how humour reception is affected when people with total blindness are exposed to a film through the intermediary of an audio description, by comparison to how sighted people are affected. “This study tries to contribute to the mapping of the functioning of humor in audio description, a topic that is in clear need of descriptive and receptive research”, considering that “audio description (AD) is a practice to help blind people and those with some sort of visual impairment to have access to audiovisual material such as films, television programs, and even theatre and opera. AD uses the absence of dialogue to verbally describe every visual or acoustic detail that is considered relevant”. This study is exploratory, and conducted on a small scale. “Our study shows that both groups have enough material to enjoy, even if it reflects a slightly higher number of humorous moments detected by the [sighted persons] group”.
The second regular article is about a tantalizing subgenre of Arabic literature, spanning a period from the Middle Ages to the first half of the 20th century. These are journeys to the hereafter, and yet, they are neither mystical, nor hagiographical, which some other journeys to the hereafter are instead, in either the Islamic tradition, or through the medium of the Arabic language, or both. A typology of motifs about the hereafter if first considered, and then two medieval authors are considered: the Syrian Abū-l ‘Alā’ al-Ma‘árrī and the Andalusian Ibn Shuhayd. The bulk of the paper is a summary and discussion of to a modernist poetry work of 1931, the cultural, social, and political satire Thawra fī al-Jaḥīm (Revolution in Hell) by the former Young Turk politician from Iraq, turned monarchic Iraq’s elderly yet maverick poet Jamīl Ṣidqī az- Zahāwī. He places Socrates, Aristotle, Kindi, Ibn Sina, Dante, Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Newton, Spinoza, Rousseau, Voltaire, Rénan, Darwin, and Thomas Huxley, as well as Omar Khayyam, in Hell as a compliment. Eventually, the denizens of Hell conquer Paradise. “There does exist an Islamic doctrine of the Annihilation of Hell (al-fanā’ an-nār), but az-Zahāwī’s message was different, secularist, and subversive in that regard. Like Giordano Bruno, az-Zahāwī in his poem was arguing for justification through works (it is good deeds that are salvific, rather than orthodox belief as being the only criterion): in one section, we refer indeed to Bruno’s satire The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast”.
The editorial in this journal issue is followed by an obituary, or rather of the commemoration of an event. The deceased was not a scholar, but rather a comedian. This was Nazar Mohammad, known in Afghanistan as Kasha Zwan. A video that went viral shows him, kidnapped, inside a car, on the back seat between two Taleban fighters armed with submachine guns. He stares intently at one of them, and talks in a foolish tone, apparently the one of the character whom he used to impersonate, and trying to make him laught. Laugh that captor did, and heartily so, at rather than with his victim, but then the two kidnappers turned to doing their intended business, which was torture starting with slaps, which was an appetiser for the assassination.
The comedian looked dejected, as it was clear to him that he failed to save his life when he tried to make use of his professional talent. The Taleban members inside the car are shown talking excitedly to men standing outside the car, in Pashto, which I do not understand, but apparently boasting about the identity of the man they had kidnapped: in fact, they kept naming that comedian to their interlocutors. After the murder, the Talebans as an organisation acknowledged that the killing was carried out by their members.
As it is well known, later on, with the fall of Kabul, men were photographed falling to their doom off American airplanes they had grasped, hoping to be flown to safety. Not as well known is the fact that a political pundit on the Near East related in elation to a Lebanese TV channel that the scenes of the fall of Kabul made him certain that the same would happen to Israel, only “we” would not let them flee through an airport: they (the Jewish inhabitants) would have to swim all the way to Cyprus if they are to survive. Even though that other horrible video is also easily accessible, the BBC senior management insisted on retaining his services, arguing his activities other than for the BBC are not of concern to the corporation; they only relented when a parliamentary commission was announced in Britain, that would investigate such attitudes of that broadcasting corporation.
This is worth noticing, because you and I may be horrified by all three filmed events: the final, failed comedic performance of Kasha Zwan before he was beaten as a prelude to his murder; the people at Kabul airport falling off airplanes; and the pundit elated feeling encouraged that that people failing to survive attempts to flee Afghanistan would be the model for something much more extreme. It is sobering to consider that there are respected media corporations whose senior decision-makers cannot be horrified by the chilliest performance of a pundit whose services they insist on continuing to use.
As usual, I thank the unnamed referees, who, like the contributors, have made this journal issue possible.

CONSTRUCCIÓN DE NUEVAS CIUDADANÍAS EN JUVENTUDES RURALES
En El Salvador, el área rural ha sufrido diferentes transformaciones después de los acuerdos de paz y los diferentes procesos de modernización que se han impulsado desde los gobiernos de turno. La realidad de las juventudes que viven en estos contextos se conoce poco y se construyen políticas y proyectos desde una perspectiva, generalmente, urbana. En este sentido, la investigación ha tenido como objetivo descubrir los significados y sentidos que generan y mantienen en su vida diaria las juventudes rurales, de la comunidad Copapayo en el municipio de Suchitoto, en relación con la construcción del concepto de nuevas ciudadanías. Ver la ciudadanía desde los jóvenes implica reconocer que hay una diversidad que depende de realidades individuales y colectivas, los jóvenes sienten y piensan de variadas maneras. Por tanto, es necesario reconocer esas expresiones que se desarrollan en los diferentes contextos de los cuales surgen. Los jóvenes se hacen ciudadanos cuando irrumpen en la esfera pública, ejercen los derechos que van adquiriendo y reclaman su participación en la toma de decisiones colectivas; es decir, realizan una serie de prácticas que van dando forma a una peculiar experiencia cívica. Esta investigación busca rescatar la lectura de los sujetos sobre la manera en la que construyen nuevas ciudadanías desde su territorio treinta años después de la firma de los acuerdos de paz. En el estudio, se ha llevado a cabo un primer acercamiento con los jóvenes de la comunidad a través de la herramienta de trayectorias de vida y los resultados que se presentan son parte de la primera fase del estudio. Para efectos de esta investigación, se ha seleccionado el contexto rural de la comunidad de Copapayo en Suchitoto, departamento de Cuscatlán ya que posee características particulares como ser una comunidad rural, tener un alto grado de organización y su antecedente de ser una repoblación constituida por diferentes personas sobrevivientes de la represión por parte del ejército durante el conflicto armado de El Salvador. El estudio se realiza treinta años después de la firma de los acuerdos de paz en este lugar que particularmente vivió un proceso de reconstrucción después de la masacre en 1983 la cual no fue documentada en el Informe de la Comisión de la Verdad.

This article introduces two new mobile touchscreen text entry techniques. One is timeout-based and the other is pressure-based. Also, this work examines the effects of tactile feedback on text entry techniques. Empirical comparisons between conventional and proposed techniques show that the new techniques, as well as tactile feedback, enhance overall text entry performance.

This paper presents a short review of the history surrounding the development of haptic feedback systems, from early manipulators and telerobots, used in the nuclear and subsea industries, to today's impressive desktop devices, used to support real-time interaction with 3D visual simulations, or Virtual Reality. Four examples of recent VR projects are described, illustrating the use of haptic feedback in ceramics, aerospace, surgical and defence applications. These examples serve to illustrate the premise that haptic feedback systems have evolved much faster than their visual display counterparts and are, today, delivering impressive peripheral devices that are truly usable by non-specialist users of computing technology.