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Spindex (Speech Index) Improves Auditory Menu Acceptance and Navigation Performance

Published: 01 April 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Users interact with mobile devices through menus, which can include many items. Auditory menus have the potential to make those devices more accessible to a wide range of users. However, auditory menus are a relatively new concept, and there are few guidelines that describe how to design them. In this paper, we detail how visual menu concepts may be applied to auditory menus in order to help develop design guidelines. Specifically, we examine how to optimize the designs of a new contextual cue, called “spindex” (i.e., speech index). We developed and evaluated various design alternatives for spindex and iteratively refined the design with sighted users and visually impaired users. As a result, the “attenuated” spindex was the best in terms of preference as well as performance, across user groups. Nevertheless, sighted and visually impaired participants showed slightly different responses and feedback. Results are discussed in terms of acoustical theory, practical display design, and assistive technology design.

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing
ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing  Volume 3, Issue 3
April 2011
88 pages
ISSN:1936-7228
EISSN:1936-7236
DOI:10.1145/1952383
Issue’s Table of Contents
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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Publication History

Published: 01 April 2011
Accepted: 01 December 2010
Revised: 01 December 2010
Received: 01 June 2010
Published in TACCESS Volume 3, Issue 3

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Author Tags

  1. Auditory menus
  2. assistive technology
  3. spindex

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  • (2022)A Survey of Natural Design for InteractionProceedings of Mensch und Computer 202210.1145/3543758.3543773(240-254)Online publication date: 4-Sep-2022
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