research-article

Evaluating prosodic cues as a means to disambiguate algebraic expressions: an empirical study

Authors:

Andreas StefikAuthors Info & Claims

Assets '09: Proceedings of the 11th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility

Pages 139 - 146

https://doi.org/10.1145/1639642.1639668

Published: 25 October 2009 Publication History

Abstract

The automatic translation of written mathematical expressions to their spoken equivalent is a difficult task. Written mathematics makes use of specialized symbols and a 2-dimensional layout that is hard to translate into clear and unambiguous spoken words. Our approach is to use prosody to help listeners follow along to mathematical expressions spoken aloud with text-to-speech synthesized voices. To achieve this, we developed and empirically tested XSL transformation rules that automatically translate mathematical expressions marked-up with Presentation MathML into corresponding markup using the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML). In this paper, we report on the results from an empirical study we conducted that showed that the simple insertion of pauses inside spoken mathematical expressions dramatically improved subjects' ability to disambiguate between two similar algebraic expressions. Result from our study should benefit designers of screen readers and related audio-based tools that produce spoken renderings of mathematical expressions.

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Cited By

Colley MKränzle TRukzio E(2022)Accessibility-Related Publication Distribution in HCI Based on a Meta-AnalysisExtended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491101.3519701(1-28)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491101.3519701
Bansal ABalakrishnan MSorge V(2020)Comprehensive accessibility of equations by visually impairedACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing10.1145/3386280.3386281(1-1)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3386280.3386281
Bansal A(2019)Comprehensive Accessibility of Equations by Visually ImpairedProceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference10.1145/3315002.3332431(1-2)Online publication date: 13-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3315002.3332431
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Evaluating prosodic cues as a means to disambiguate algebraic expressions: an empirical study
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI design and evaluation methods

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cover image ACM Conferences

Assets '09: Proceedings of the 11th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility

October 2009

290 pages

ISBN:9781605585581

DOI:10.1145/1639642

General Chair:
Shari Trewin
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA
,
Program Chair:
Kathleen F. McCoy
University of Delaware, USA

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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SIGACCESS: ACM Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 25 October 2009

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ASSETS09: The 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

October 25 - 28, 2009

Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, USA

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Cited By

Colley MKränzle TRukzio E(2022)Accessibility-Related Publication Distribution in HCI Based on a Meta-AnalysisExtended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491101.3519701(1-28)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491101.3519701
Bansal ABalakrishnan MSorge V(2020)Comprehensive accessibility of equations by visually impairedACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing10.1145/3386280.3386281(1-1)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3386280.3386281
Bansal A(2019)Comprehensive Accessibility of Equations by Visually ImpairedProceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference10.1145/3315002.3332431(1-2)Online publication date: 13-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3315002.3332431
Ludi SSimpson JMerchant WFeng JHuenerfauth M(2016)Exploration of the Use of Auditory Cues in Code Comprehension and Navigation for Individuals with Visual Impairments in a Visual Programming EnvironmentProceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/2982142.2982206(279-280)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2982142.2982206
Frankel LBrownstein B(2016)An Evaluation of the Usefulness of Prosodic and Lexical Cues for Understanding Synthesized Speech of MathematicsETS Research Report Series10.1002/ets2.121192016:2(1-19)Online publication date: 3-Nov-2016
https://doi.org/10.1002/ets2.12119
Kacorri HRiga PKouroupetroglou G(2014)EAR-Math: Evaluation of Audio Rendered MathematicsUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Universal Access to Information and Knowledge10.1007/978-3-319-07440-5_11(111-120)Online publication date: 2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07440-5_11
Pal JVartak AVyas VChatterjee SPaisios NCherian RUnwin TKleine DToyama K(2010)A ratification of meansProceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development10.1145/2369220.2369247(1-11)Online publication date: 13-Dec-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2369220.2369247
Murphy EBates EFitzpatrick DBarreto AHanson V(2010)Designing auditory cues to enhance spoken mathematics for visually impaired usersProceedings of the 12th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility10.1145/1878803.1878819(75-82)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1878803.1878819

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