3b5 oncept coded graphic symbol

Concept Coded Graphic Symbol support in
OpenOffice.org
from basic functionality to UI refinement
for different user needs
Mats Lundälv
DART, Sahlgrenska Univ. Hospital
Göteborg, Sweden

Content:

• Graphic symbol support – why within ÆGIS ?
– and why in OpenOffice.org ?
• The foundation of the symbol support: Concept Coding and the
Concept Coding Framework - CCF
• A brief presentation of the first alpha version
• Preliminary results from the Pilot testing with users and experts
• Plans for coming versions
• Conclusions and Outlook

Mats Lundälv, DART, Sahlgrenska Univ. Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden

Graphic symbol support
– why within ÆGIS ?
– and why in OpenOffice.org ?
• ÆGIS has the goal of contributing to the foundation of open and
standardised infrastructures for general accessibility in ICT services
• ÆGIS took the important decision to include the challenging needs
of people with cognitive and communication impairments in this
overall ambition
• Access to communication and language is the key to human
development and participation
• Multimodal language support – including graphic symbols – is
fundamental for this accessibility goal
• OpenOffice.org as a free and open source office suite of growing
adoption is an ideal platform for the manifestation of a free stock
component for graphic symbol support
• But ...


The foundation of the symbol
support: ...
… though strong motivations for language and graphic symbols
support, this is not quite enough for inclusion in ÆGIS:
• If we had just thrown in a couple of graphic symbol libraries and
made symbols appear in documents based on quick fix solutions,
this would not be sustainable – even if looking impressive
• Luckily we came into ÆGIS with a suitable open technology
foundation for multimodal and multilingual language support in the
baggage: The Concept Coding Framework (CCF)*
• This makes the CCF based graphic symbol support –
manifested as an OO.org extension – a natural and vital
part of the ÆGIS project
* defined in the WWAAC project - www.wwaac.eu


Concept Coding and the
Concept Coding Framework - CCF


A brief presentation of the first
alpha version
• Screen captures of the CCF Symbol Support Plugin 1st alpha version in action:


alpha version (2)
• The Concept Coding Options menu :


alpha version (3)
Full Document Scanning & Multiple symbols options:
• Top: Full Document Scanning; On + Multiple Symbols; Off
• Bottom: Full Document Scanning; Off + Multiple Symbols; On


alpha version (4)
Symbol representations and text language options:
• Left: English + ARASAAC (Bliss as second choice – one chosen for
“English” as no ARASAAC found)
• Right: Swedish + Bliss (ARASAAC as second option – none chosen)


Preliminary results from the Pilot
testing with users and experts
 Much positive interest and reactions (among those familiar with this range of
needs) to having this kind of functionality available in a standard office
environment such as OpenOffice.org Writer.
 Not really functional for end-users at this point, but with a great potential
 Should be made available in more environments – on the web etc.
 Unsatisfactory insertion of symbol representations before the corresponding words
– should be above words – and/or display outside the text and/or on demand
 Unsatisfactory frequency of erroneous symbol representations
 Need for the user to be able to conveniently see and choose between alternative
concepts and symbol representations
 Unsatisfactory slow symbol lookup speed – should ideally be close to instantaneous
 The obvious request for added natural language support from the Spanish and
Belgian pilot test sites
 Request for added support for Sclera Pictos symbols from the Belgian participants
 Request for smooth interaction with text-to-speech synthesis reading support


testing with users and experts (2)

Swedish Users:
 For those familiar with symbols – this feature was very interesting
 Bliss-users seemed to have the greatest benefit
 Users who didn't benefit themselves often mentioned other persons
they thought would use this.
 Several also thought - useful when reading English texts.


testing with users and experts (3)
Swedish Experts Focus Groups:
 Positive and even enthusiastic appreciation of the potential.
(Only one individual without previous contact with the use of graphic symbol
support was spontaneously unsure if useful)
… potentially useful for many kinds of users, including: Users with more general or specific cognitive
impairments, AAC users, users with language development delays, some users with writing/reading
difficulties, and also more widely for early writing/reading acquisition and early 2nd language learning;
Useful for reading comprehension support, support for early writing, “graphic spell-checker”, etc.
 On the other hand none of them thought that the extension is practically useful at
the current early stage – Three major shortcomings:
 Insertion of symbols in the text – inserted symbols should be placed above
the words
 Lacking handling of ambiguous and/or incorrect symbol representations
- rate of incorrect suggested representations too high
- there must be a user-friendly interface for inspecting
symbol alternatives and selecting a desired one
 speed of symbol look-up needs to be substantially faster
… also: easier access to settings needed

Plans for coming versions
Preliminary revised design goals:
• Based on suggestions from the pilot testers and experts, as well as from
implementation experiences, it is likely that the support for choosing
between several available symbol representation options will be offered
within a side panel, supporting selection by pointing and clicking together
with keyboard navigation and selection – see Preliminary design sketch (1).
• For users who primarily need temporary graphic symbol representation
support while composing text, an option will possibly be offered to turn off
the symbol insertion, while still maintaining the display of matching symbols
in a side panel as of Preliminary design sketch (1).
• An alternative option is considered; providing on-demand symbol display on
“mouse-over” of words in a text, that is; by pointing to words for which
a symbol representation display is desired – primarily for reading
comprehension support – see Preliminary design sketch (2).


Preliminary revised
design sketch (1)

Possible interface for display and selection of alternative concepts
and symbol representations


Preliminary revised
design sketch (2)

Tentative interface for on demand mouse-over display of
concepts and symbol representations of words


Conclusions and Outlook
• It will be possible to provide a reasonably well functioning basic open source
multilingual and multimodal language support in the form of a free extension
for concept coded graphic symbol representation of text within OpenOffice
Writer, possibly also within Impress and other applications of OO.org.
• The levels of refinement that may be achieved in disambiguation of language
modality transformations and user interface and interaction support remain to
be further investigated, prototyped and tested.
• The further developed Concept Coding Framework technology will be made
available for application in other areas, first for AAC support on mobile
platforms within ÆGIS, but hopefully soon in several external environments.
• The current state-of-the-art special needs and educational software with
corresponding functionality will not in any way be made redundant, but an
important complement may be provided, opening for wider application in
standard open source as well as proprietary environments.


Acknowledgements - References
• This work is partially funded by the EC FP7 project
ÆGIS - Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure,
Standards, Grant Agreement No. 224348.
http://www.aegis-project.eu

• The WWAAC project: www.wwaac.eu
• CCF: www.conceptcoding.org
• The SYMBERED project: www.symbolnet.org
• Blissymbolics Communication International (BCI): www.blissymbolics.org
• ARASAAC pictografic symbols: www.catedu.es/arasaac/
• Sclea Pictos: www.sclera.be
• Lundälv,M.;Farre,B.;Brännström,A.;Nordberg,L. (2010) Open-Source Concept Coded Graphic Symbol support in OpenOffice.org.
ETAPS FOSS-AMA March 2010 (www.slideshare.net/aegisproject/1-opensource-concept-coded-graphic-symbol-support-in-
openofficeorg)


3b5 oncept coded graphic symbol

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