Virtual world learning environments have great potential to enhance education, yet the specific factors that attract students are relatively under-researched. Drawing on insights from a qualitative analysis of student reactions to the Second Life environment, we identified five main factors that influence student attitudes toward using a technology in education: ease of use, usefulness, likabil...

As Europe becomes greyer and thus more reliant on health support, smart healthcare applications will play an increasingly important role in dayto-day life. These technologies will both deliver significant improvements in health care and simultaneously have higher requirements of user interactivity. This will involve both careful and attentive presentations of information and appropriate and eff...

In this article, we analyse the distinguishing features of web-based communities. In many situations the technology is still an access barrier for people with special needs. With the appropriate technological support, users with special needs may meet the social requirements which are traditionally considered success factors for web-based communities. To guarantee that democratic participation ...

This paper focuses on designing accessible mobile learning interactions involving disabled people using a newly developed Technology Enhanced Interaction Framework. The framework was developed to help design technological support for communication and interactions between people, technology, and objects particularly when disabled people are involved. A review of existing interaction frameworks ...

TV can be regarded as the most far-reaching media in Brazil. Its presence is noticed in 90% of Brazilian homes and it is the main source of information for a major part of the population. The moment of definition and consolidation of the digital TV technology provides us with a unique opportunity for analyzing and discussing this media accessibility. Making sure that TV contents and devices are...

I am interested in designing, building, and evaluating technology to address high-impact social problems such as environmental sustainability, personal health and well-being, and computer accessibility. My dissertation is motivated by evidence that there is often a profound disconnect between our everyday behaviors and the effects those behaviors have on our health and the environment around us...

Several technology breakthroughs are needed to achieve the goals of universal accessibility and usability. These goals are especially challenging in the case of geo-referenced statistical data that many U.S. government agencies supply. We present technical and user-interface design challenges in accommodating users with low-end technology (slow network connection and low-end machine) and users ...

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to analyse the continuing problem of web accessibility for disabled people as a critical information systems issue. Design/methodology/approach – The ways in which the web is used by disabled people, and problems that can arise, are described and related to the development of critical disability theory from older models of disability, including the medic...

A Remote Accessibility Assessment System (RAAS) that uses three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction technology is being developed; it enables clinicians to assess the wheelchair accessibility of users' built environments from a remote location. The RAAS uses commercial software to construct 3-D virtualized environments from photographs. We developed custom screening algorithms and instruments for ...