Manipulating Text in Screenless Environments
Davide Bolchini
On-screen keyboards support text entry on mobile devices by displaying a visual layout of letters but continue to pose significant accessibility challenges for individuals who are blind or visually impaired (BVI), especially on-the-go. This project, supported by funding from the NSF and a Google Faculty Research Award, aims to identify and validate novel forms of entirely screenless, fully auditory keyboards for text manipulation, benefiting individuals who are blind and addressing scenarios where traditional mobile keyboards are impractical, socially unacceptable, or inconvenient to use.
Building Mutual Expertise for Physical Accessibility in Workplaces
Davide Bolchini and Erin Brady
Workplace accessibility problems often stem from employers' limited awareness of the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities. Facilitating knowledge exchange between employees with disabilities and employers enables them to jointly identify technological solutions for workplace accessibility issues. This research seeks to offer insights into how disabilities influence workplace experiences, assess knowledge exchange strategies on accessibility, and explore technology design to enhance these experiences through mutual expertise.
Building Research Capacity by Technological Interventions in Support of Mixed-Ability Workplaces
Francesco Cafaro and Erin Brady
This project uses Conceptual Metaphor Theory from cognitive linguistics to investigate the context and challenges present in mixed-ability settings, where individuals with and without disabilities collaborate. Our ultimate goal is to enhance accessibility in these work environments by identifying and designing technological interventions that support inclusivity and productivity in mixed-ability workplaces.
Designing Autonomy Preserving Interactions in Intelligent Assistants for Older Adults
Aqueasha Martin-Hammond and Davide Bolchini
Intelligent assistants (IAs) hold promise in aiding older adults with daily care tasks. However, current approaches lack in providing older adults with a sense of control over their data and interactions, particularly in health-related tasks. This project aims to enhance the design of intelligent assistants for older adults by identifying tailored design strategies, evaluating their impact on autonomy and acceptance, and ultimately improving older adults' sense of autonomy when using these systems for health-related activities at home.
Conversational User Interfaces to Support Older Adults' Social Wellness
Aqueasha Martin-Hammond
This project aims to explore how conversational user interfaces such as voice assistants and chatbots can assist older adults in maintaining social connections and enhancing their social wellness. Applying social-behavioral theories, this project seeks to develop strategies for creating personalized conversational interfaces that leverage real-world social connections and motivate older adults to engage in social activities.
Health Freedom Path to Wellness: A Culturally-Relevant and Patient-Centered mHealth Intervention to Promote Cardiovascular Health Equity
Aqueasha Martin-Hammond
African Americans (AAs) and urban communities experience disproportionately high rates of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This project aims to develop a mobile health (mHealth) tool to support CVD prevention and self-management for these high-risk populations, and providing educational and behavioral interventions.
Family Resilience Technologies: Augmenting Caregiving Coordination Systems for Health Crisis Response
Andrew Miller
Social technologies are commonly used for workplace collaboration. In our project, we repurpose these tools to enhance family resilience during health crises, such as a child's cancer diagnosis and hospitalization. In partnership with researchers, patients, and family caregivers at IU’s Riley Hospital for Children, we are designing and prototyping caregiving coordination tools for family caregivers. Our system strengthens families' capacity to withstand and rebound from disruptive life challenges.
The NeoRoo mobile app: a prototype to support Kangaroo Mother Care in low/middle-income countries
Saptarshi Purkayastha
Premature birth and neonatal mortality pose substantial global health challenges, especially in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We developed a mobile health (mHealth) platform that integrates a wearable biomedical device (NeoWarm) and an Android-based mobile application (NeoRoo). We aim to implement and scale this approach to enhance the quality of care for premature and low birthweight infants.
Vision-Based Hand Gesture Recognition for Rehabilitation and Assistive Communication
Karl MacDorman
n this project, we developed algorithms for vision-based hand gesture recognition. These algorithms are designed to support rehabilitation by guiding patients with hand injuries through therapeutic exercises to restore hand function. They can also support assistive communication systems, providing contactless interfaces for teleconferencing, presentations, home appliances, robots, and drones.
VR-mediated Speech-Language Assessment and Rehabilitation Therapy for Individuals with Speech Language Conditions
Hee-Tae Jung
This project aims to address the global challenge of speech-language conditions, which often result from acquired brain injuries or developmental disorders. Led by IU Indy, this collaborative effort is developing innovative, user-friendly VR-based tools to improve accessibility and effectiveness of assessment and rehabilitation services. This endeavor is particularly important due to the limited availability of professionals and support personnel in this field, which often hinders individuals' access to essential services.
VR-assisted Motor Rehabilitation Therapy for Individuals with Acquired Brain Injury
Hee-Tae Jung
Practicing activities of daily living is essential for improving and maintaining motor function after brain injuries. However, conducting rehabilitation therapy in real-world settings can pose risks, such as accidental cuts or burns during food preparation. In collaboration with the IU Center for Neurorehabilitation and Robotics, we are developing a VR system to provide effective motor rehabilitation therapy by simulating real-life activities in a safe environment.
