NSF Convergence Accelerator Track H: Bridging the Fragmentation of Information Access - An Integrated, Multimodal System for Inclusive Content Creation, Conversion, and Delivery

Saint Louis University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

Lack of access to information in a readily available, refreshable format is one of the most pressing challenges faced by persons with disabilities (PWDs) today. Consider the various data representations that were shared during the COVID-19 pandemic to inform the public on population spread; the numerous charts, graphs, and equations that flood Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) textbooks in U.S. classrooms; or the barrage of visual presentations that are given in professional, social, or news media outlets. Much of the information presented through today’s technologies is visual, widening an already persistent information access gap that is not inclusive to individuals relying on nonvisual access, such as those with blindness or visual impairments (BVI). The fall-out of the information-access problem is starkly evident from the independence, education, and employment statistics of this community: 30% of individuals with BVI do not travel independently outside of their home, only around 11% of the BVI population have earned a bachelor’s degree, and the under/unemployment rate of working age BVI individuals has hovered between 60-70% for decades. These unacceptable statistics are not limited to the BVI community but are widespread across the PWD community, which encompasses approximately 61 million adults in the United States. While there are many contributing factors, one of them is a fragmented accessibility model that has only provided sporadic access to specific information, in specific situations, using specific (and often expensive) approaches. This project breaks down existing accessibility silos, converging across ideas, approaches, and technologies, to create the AIMS (Automated, Integrated, Multimodal Software) system that provides inclusive content creation, conversion, and delivery in a unified, integrated framework across various platforms and file formats. This project serves national interests by advancing inclusive approaches to information access and ensuring the inclusion of PWDs in the rapid digital transformation of content across educational and professional settings. The societal impacts of this work support PWDs in being independent and active contributors in highly underrepresented STEM domains. This project brings together a first-of-its-kind team to address information access as a consolidated initiative from beginning to end, including leading academic researchers in the accessible information domain, cutting-edge startup companies in multisensory information access, an industry-leading hardware manufacturer of tactile graphics, a leading publishing and assessment company, and consultants from the world's largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization. In Phase I, the team will build on partner innovations to create a unified framework for authoring accessible materials; converting inaccessible materials into accessible equivalents; and delivering the accessible materials in an inclusive method that is agnostic to underlying tasks, contexts, platforms, and modality. Using this integrated framework, the team will develop a proof-of-concept AIMS system with a focus on individualswith BVI in Phase I. The output of the AIMS system will generate both a digital, multimodal rendering and a physical, embossed rendering which can be printed on commercially available embossers already deployed within educational and vocational settings worldwide. This proof-of-concept will be iteratively evaluated with educational stakeholders and will be scaled across partners in Phase II toward developing an access ecosystem that works across tasks, contexts, hardware, and modalities and extends beyond individuals with BVI to the broader PWD community. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.