An Initial Investigation into Non-visual Code Structure Overviews: Speech, Non-speech and Spearcons

Joe Hutchinson; Oussama Metatla

doi:10.1145/3170427.3188696

An Initial Investigation into Non-visual Code Structure Overviews: Speech, Non-speech and Spearcons

Joe Hutchinson, Oussama Metatla

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

1 Citation (Scopus)

164 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We investigate a novel, non-visual approach to overviewing object-oriented source code and evaluate the efficiency of different categories of sounds for the purpose of getting an overview of source code structure for a visually-impaired computer programmer. A user-study with ten sighted and three non-sighted participants compared the effectiveness of speech, non-speech and spearcons on measures of accuracy and enjoyment for the task of quickly overviewing a class file. Results showed positive implications for the use of non-speech sounds in identifying programming constructs and for aesthetic value, although the effectiveness of the other sound categories in these measurements are not ruled out. Additionally, various design choices of the application impacted results, which should be of interest to designers of auditory display, accessibility and education.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI 2018
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450356213
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3188696
Publication status	Published - 21 Apr 2018
Event	2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2018 - Montreal, Canada Duration: 21 Apr 2018 → 26 Apr 2018 https://chi2018.acm.org

Conference

Conference	2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2018
Country	Canada
City	Montreal
Period	21/04/18 → 26/04/18
Internet address	https://chi2018.acm.org

Structured keywords

Engineering Education Research Group

Keywords

Accessibility
Programming
Overview
Visualisation
Sonification

Access to Document

10.1145/3170427.3188696

Full-text PDF (accepted author manuscript)
This is the author accepted manuscript (AAM). The final published version (version of record) is available online via ACM at https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3170427.3188696. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.
Accepted author manuscript, 112 KB

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Cite this

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title = "An Initial Investigation into Non-visual Code Structure Overviews: Speech, Non-speech and Spearcons",

abstract = "We investigate a novel, non-visual approach to overviewing object-oriented source code and evaluate the efficiency of different categories of sounds for the purpose of getting an overview of source code structure for a visually-impaired computer programmer. A user-study with ten sighted and three non-sighted participants compared the effectiveness of speech, non-speech and spearcons on measures of accuracy and enjoyment for the task of quickly overviewing a class file. Results showed positive implications for the use of non-speech sounds in identifying programming constructs and for aesthetic value, although the effectiveness of the other sound categories in these measurements are not ruled out. Additionally, various design choices of the application impacted results, which should be of interest to designers of auditory display, accessibility and education.",

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Hutchinson, J & Metatla, O 2018, An Initial Investigation into Non-visual Code Structure Overviews: Speech, Non-speech and Spearcons. in CHI 2018: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., LBW562, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2018, Montreal, Canada, 21/04/18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3188696

An Initial Investigation into Non-visual Code Structure Overviews : Speech, Non-speech and Spearcons. / Hutchinson, Joe; Metatla, Oussama.

CHI 2018: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2018. LBW562.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

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AB - We investigate a novel, non-visual approach to overviewing object-oriented source code and evaluate the efficiency of different categories of sounds for the purpose of getting an overview of source code structure for a visually-impaired computer programmer. A user-study with ten sighted and three non-sighted participants compared the effectiveness of speech, non-speech and spearcons on measures of accuracy and enjoyment for the task of quickly overviewing a class file. Results showed positive implications for the use of non-speech sounds in identifying programming constructs and for aesthetic value, although the effectiveness of the other sound categories in these measurements are not ruled out. Additionally, various design choices of the application impacted results, which should be of interest to designers of auditory display, accessibility and education.

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