Week 6 Update - Better Late than Never!

Hi all,

Alex here with a rather late week 6 rundown. We apologize for the delay; there was a mix-up in which week it was in an earlier post, causing us to think that week 6 had already been written! We're computer scientists and software engineers researching new and innovative technology to help visually impaired students, yet we can't keep track of the date; but enough about that!

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The key talking points for week 6 can be split into two categories: conferences and surveys.

First, the conferences will be discussed!

We are preparing for the possibility of presenting a poster and/or a paper at several conferences. Our project adviser has identified several conferences (some coming up soon, and some not until the fall) for which we can likely get funding for at least one team member to present. Some of these conferences are specifically catered to the presentation of research with the purpose of utilizing technology to assist users with disabilities; others, such as the Richard Tapia Conference, are conducted with the intent of celebrating/acknowledging diversity in computing (including those with disabilities).

The possibility of presenting at these conferences is an extremely exciting prospect for the AL team, as this would be our first exposure to a professional research/conference environment. Therefore, we have been doing our homework in this regard! Our preparations so far have included:

• Writing an abstract and introduction for our poster and/or paper.
  
• Amassing a collection of research papers that related to our own research in various aspects. These included research on the accessibility of touch screen and mobile devices, as well as research that dealt with VI- and/or blind-user friendly versions of various technologies.
  
• Data mining these research papers for references, ideas, inspiration, and leverage points.
• Keeping a precise list of references that point to which data was mined from which paper, for the purpose of making this information usable in several of our own papers

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Second, the pre- and post-surveys for our upcoming usability tests will be covered. We accomplished a great deal with regards to these surveys, including many fundamental and functional changes. Our progress can be summarized as such:

• Received feedback on the surveys from our project adviser (CREU faculty member).
• Implemented a large number of fundamental formatting/wording changes, based on our project adviser's feedback.
• Changed the way in which our surveys were to be given to the users and conducted.
  
• Modified the survey documents to exist as forms that would automatically parse themselves into a spreadsheet (as opposed to the previous pencil and paper versions).

Mainly, we revised the surveys and decided to change the way in which they are to be given. Instead of having the users fill-out the surveys themselves, we will ask them the questions and copy their responses on our own into an online form. Their data will then be sent into a spreadsheet for easy interpretation and management. This will help clarify the any potential obscurities in our questions, and will also help to make sure that the users answer the questions in the way that most benefits our study.

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That's it for week 6! Stay tuned for an additional update on this week (week 7).

Until next time...
- Alex