Download - 3b5 oncept coded graphic symbol

Concept Coded Graphic Symbol support in OpenOffice.org

from basic functionality to UI refinement for different user needs

Mats Lundälv

DART, Sahlgrenska Univ. Hospital

Göteborg, Sweden

Mats Lundälv, DART, Sahlgrenska Univ. Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden

Content:

• Graphic symbol support – why within ÆGIS ? – and why in OpenOffice.org ?

• The foundation of the symbol support: Concept Coding and the Concept Coding Framework - CCF

• A brief presentation of the first alpha version

• Preliminary results from the Pilot testing with users and experts

• Plans for coming versions

• Conclusions and Outlook


Graphic symbol support – why within ÆGIS ? – and why in OpenOffice.org ? • ÆGIS has the goal of contributing to the foundation of open and

standardised infrastructures for general accessibility in ICT services

• ÆGIS took the important decision to include the challenging needs of people with cognitive and communication impairments in this overall ambition

• Access to communication and language is the key to human development and participation

• Multimodal language support – including graphic symbols – is fundamental for this accessibility goal

• OpenOffice.org as a free and open source office suite of growing adoption is an ideal platform for the manifestation of a free stock component for graphic symbol support

• But ...


The foundation of the symbol support: ...

… though strong motivations for language and graphic symbols support, this is not quite enough for inclusion in ÆGIS:

• If we had just thrown in a couple of graphic symbol libraries and made symbols appear in documents based on quick fix solutions, this would not be sustainable – even if looking impressive

• Luckily we came into ÆGIS with a suitable open technology foundation for multimodal and multilingual language support in the baggage: The Concept Coding Framework (CCF)*

• This makes the CCF based graphic symbol support –manifested as an OO.org extension – a natural and vital part of the ÆGIS project

* defined in the WWAAC project - www.wwaac.eu


Concept Coding and the Concept Coding Framework - CCF


A brief presentation of the first alpha version• Screen captures of the CCF Symbol Support Plugin 1st alpha version in action:


A brief presentation of the first alpha version (2)

• The Concept Coding Options menu :



Full Document Scanning & Multiple symbols options:

• Top: Full Document Scanning; On + Multiple Symbols; Off

• Bottom: Full Document Scanning; Off + Multiple Symbols; On



Symbol representations and text language options:

• Left: English + ARASAAC (Bliss as second choice – one chosen for “English” as no ARASAAC found)

• Right: Swedish + Bliss (ARASAAC as second option – none chosen)


Preliminary results from the Pilot testing with users and experts Much positive interest and reactions (among those familiar with this range of

needs) to having this kind of functionality available in a standard office environment such as OpenOffice.org Writer.

Not really functional for end-users at this point, but with a great potential

Should be made available in more environments – on the web etc.

Unsatisfactory insertion of symbol representations before the corresponding words – should be above words – and/or display outside the text and/or on demand

Unsatisfactory frequency of erroneous symbol representations

Need for the user to be able to conveniently see and choose between alternative concepts and symbol representations

Unsatisfactory slow symbol lookup speed – should ideally be close to instantaneous

The obvious request for added natural language support from the Spanish and Belgian pilot test sites

Request for added support for Sclera Pictos symbols from the Belgian participants

Request for smooth interaction with text-to-speech synthesis reading support


Preliminary results from the Pilot

testing with users and experts (2)

Swedish Users:

For those familiar with symbols – this feature was very interesting

Bliss-users seemed to have the greatest benefit

Users who didn't benefit themselves often mentioned other persons they thought would use this.

Several also thought - useful when reading English texts.


Preliminary results from the Pilot testing with users and experts (3)

Swedish Experts Focus Groups:

Positive and even enthusiastic appreciation of the potential. (Only one individual without previous contact with the use of graphic symbol support was spontaneously unsure if useful)… potentially useful for many kinds of users, including: Users with more general or specific cognitive impairments, AAC users, users with language development delays, some users with writing/reading difficulties, and also more widely for early writing/reading acquisition and early 2nd language learning; Useful for reading comprehension support, support for early writing, “graphic spell-checker”, etc.

On the other hand none of them thought that the extension is practically useful at the current early stage – Three major shortcomings:

Insertion of symbols in the text – inserted symbols should be placed above the words

Lacking handling of ambiguous and/or incorrect symbol representations - rate of incorrect suggested representations too high- there must be a user-friendly interface for inspecting symbol alternatives and selecting a desired one

speed of symbol look-up needs to be substantially faster

… also: easier access to settings needed


Plans for coming versions

Preliminary revised design goals:

• Based on suggestions from the pilot testers and experts, as well as from implementation experiences, it is likely that the support for choosing between several available symbol representation options will be offered within a side panel, supporting selection by pointing and clicking together with keyboard navigation and selection – see Preliminary design sketch (1).

• For users who primarily need temporary graphic symbol representation support while composing text, an option will possibly be offered to turn off the symbol insertion, while still maintaining the display of matching symbols in a side panel as of Preliminary design sketch (1).

• An alternative option is considered; providing on-demand symbol display on “mouse-over” of words in a text, that is; by pointing to words for which a symbol representation display is desired – primarily for reading comprehension support – see Preliminary design sketch (2).


Preliminary revised design sketch (1)

Possible interface for display and selection of alternative concepts

and symbol representations


Preliminary revised design sketch (2)

Tentative interface for on demand mouse-over display of

concepts and symbol representations of words


Conclusions and Outlook

• It will be possible to provide a reasonably well functioning basic open source multilingual and multimodal language support in the form of a free extension for concept coded graphic symbol representation of text within OpenOffice Writer, possibly also within Impress and other applications of OO.org.

• The levels of refinement that may be achieved in disambiguation of language modality transformations and user interface and interaction support remain to be further investigated, prototyped and tested.

• The further developed Concept Coding Framework technology will be made available for application in other areas, first for AAC support on mobile platforms within ÆGIS, but hopefully soon in several external environments.

• The current state-of-the-art special needs and educational software with corresponding functionality will not in any way be made redundant, but an important complement may be provided, opening for wider application in standard open source as well as proprietary environments.


Acknowledgements - References

• This work is partially funded by the EC FP7 project ÆGIS - Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards, Grant Agreement No. 224348.http://www.aegis-project.eu

• The WWAAC project: www.wwaac.eu

• CCF: www.conceptcoding.org

• The SYMBERED project: www.symbolnet.org

• Blissymbolics Communication International (BCI): www.blissymbolics.org

• ARASAAC pictografic symbols: www.catedu.es/arasaac/

• Sclea Pictos: www.sclera.be

• Lundälv,M.;Farre,B.;Brännström,A.;Nordberg,L. (2010) Open-Source Concept Coded Graphic Symbol support in OpenOffice.org.

ETAPS FOSS-AMA March 2010 (www.slideshare.net/aegisproject/1-opensource-concept-coded-graphic-symbol-support-in-

openofficeorg)

http://www.aegis-project.eu/



http://www.wwaac.eu/

http://www.conceptcoding.org/

http://www.symbolnet.org/

http://www.blissymbolics.org/

http://www.catedu.es/arasaac/

http://www.sclera.be/

http://www.slideshare.net/aegisproject/1-opensource-concept-coded-graphic-symbol-support-in-openofficeorg















