Web accessibility is one of the most important aspects of building a website. It is important for web developers to ensure that their website is accessible according to WCAG standards for people with different range of abilities. Chapter 5 compares a set of ten WCAG tools and their results in terms of ease of comprehension and interpretation by web developers for two websites. After careful evaluation of two websites using the ten tools, results noted that, both websites lacked color contrast between background and foreground; lack of sign language alternatives; opening of pop-ups without proper warnings and so on. Further, results from comparative analysis of selected web accessibility tools noted that, there is no single tool that can be found ideal in all aspects. However, from my study, Utilitia Validator by Utilitia SP. z O.O was considered the most feasible tool. I then demonstrated how simulation of user interaction can capture usability and accessibility issues that are not detected through only syntactic analysis of website content. Further a Common User Profile format was presented to compare and contrast accessibility systems and services; and to simulate and personalize interaction for users with different range of abilities. It can be noted that by rectifying and incorporating issues and alternate suggestions by simulation study and Common User Profile format respectively, developers can improve both websites making it accessible to maximum audience. Finally, a case study on personalization of contents of a Geo-Tagging website using the Common User Profile format was presented.

Besides developing accessible gaze-controlled interfaces for users with SSMI, chapter 6 presents my research contributions beyond physically impaired users. I investigated the use of eye gaze-controlled interfaces for situationally impaired pilots in military aviation environment. The study focused on developing gaze-controlled intelligent and adaptive Multi-Functional Displays (MFD) with hotspot and automatic zooming techniques using two algorithms. I designed bespoke hardware as a working prototype of a configurable head up display and designed and implemented new algorithms to control an on-screen cursor through an operator’s eye gaze. Results noted that participants could undertake pointing and selection tasks at an average time of 2.43 seconds for Head Down Display and 1.9 seconds for Head Up Display. Additionally, the gaze-controlled interface statistically significantly increased the speed of interaction for secondary mission control tasks when compared to touchscreen (2.8 seconds) and joystick-based (2.67 seconds) target designation system. The gaze-controlled system was then tested inside an aircraft both on the ground and in different phases of flight with military pilots. Results showed that they could undertake representative pointing and selection tasks in less than two seconds, on average. I further used eye tracking not just for improving response time and pointing and selection times, but as a metric to estimate pilots’ cognitive load while performing complex tasks inside an aircraft. Ocular parameters were investigated to automatically estimate pilots’ cognitive load and found rate of fixation to be significantly different for different flying conditions. Further results from the study can be used for real time estimation of pilots’ cognitive load, providing suitable warnings and alerts to the pilot in cockpit, and training of military pilots on cognitive load management during operational missions. I then used eye tracking to understand reading ability of children of different age groups due to learning disability; and to understand how aging affects user experience on mobile phones while performing complex tasks, and estimate cognitive workload using ocular parameters. Results from both studies noted that students with poor reading ability took significantly longer time (2.1 minutes) to read the same length of text than others (0.37 minutes). A significant correlation between number of fixations, backward eye gaze movements and subjective rating scores indicated the students’ reading abilities. Further, the proposed analysis can be subsequently used to diagnose early sign of dyslexia among students. Finally, I noted that aging has a bigger effect on performance of using mobile phones irrespective of any complex task given to them. Participants aged between 50 to 60+ years had difficulties in completing tasks and showed increased fixation rate (1.78 seconds) and cognitive workload. They took longer fixation duration (592.04 seconds) to complete tasks which involved copy-paste operations. The study also identified design implications and provided design recommendations for designers and manufacturers.