Talk by Aurea Gisela Reyes Cruz

Aurea Gisela Reyes Cruz, a new PhD student in the lab, will introduce her work and background.

Accessibility and Inclusive Design for Voice User Interfaces

Design for Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) has become more relevant in recent years due to the enormous advances of speech technologies and their growing presence in the market and our everyday lives (e.g. Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant). However, modern VUIs still present many interaction challenges to solve.
Likewise, in recent decades great efforts have been made to close the digital accessibility gap for people with different disabilities, and calls for inclusive design approaches have increased concurrently. The purpose of my PhD research is to understand how people with disabilities use VUIs in their everyday lives and the impact they have on accessibility in real-world settings, investigating the problems they encounter and the ways they cope with particular environments. I aim to determine possible areas for improving VUI design, in terms of accessibility and overall user experience.