Loading…

Enhancing Screen Reader Intelligibility in Noisy Environments

People with blindness or severe low vision access mobile devices using screen readers. However, noisy environments can impair screen reader intelligibility. During mobility, this could disorient or even endanger the user. To address this issue, we propose three screen reader speech compensation tech...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on human-machine systems 2023-08, Vol.53 (4), p.1-10
Main Authors: Ahmetovic, Dragan, Galimberti, Gabriele, Avanzini, Federico, Bernareggi, Cristian, Ludovico, Luca Andrea, Presti, Giorgio, Vasco, Gianluca, Mascetti, Sergio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:People with blindness or severe low vision access mobile devices using screen readers. However, noisy environments can impair screen reader intelligibility. During mobility, this could disorient or even endanger the user. To address this issue, we propose three screen reader speech compensation techniques based on environmental noise: speech rate slowing, adaptive volume increase, and adaptive equalization. Through a study with 12 participants in three simulated noise scenarios, we evaluate screen reader intelligibility and the perceived distraction from the soundscape, with and without compensations. Four of the proposed compensations, in particular those that pair speech rate reduction with volume or equalization adaptation, significantly improve screen reader's speech intelligibility in all the considered scenarios, and the compensations do not have a significant impact on the distraction from the soundscape.
ISSN:2168-2291
2168-2305
DOI:10.1109/THMS.2023.3280030