Hello everyone,
I'm Michele, a new member to this list and also a PhD student at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in the Information Systems department where we often conduct research in the areas of assistive technology and accessibility. My research focus is using technology to assist people with vision impairments with clothing and fashion questions. Over the next few months I will be conducting 2 studies and hoped some of you would be interested in participating (if applicable) or send this to someone who would.
The first study is open to all users proficient in English as participants will use the iPhone application VizWiz to receive near real-time answers to clothing and fashion questions from sighted volunteers. Participants can use the system to ask questions such as "Is this okay for a formal party?" or "Does this shirt go with this tie?" and even use the application while shopping. This study will run for approximately 6 months and we will hold a cash prize raffle each week to help compensate our participants. For this study you must have access to either an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to run the application.
The other study is for people who are local or not too far from the DC Metro area including Maryland, DC, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and parts of Pennsylvania. For this I will be meeting with participants to conduct a one-on-one interview about clothing tags and discuss some prototypes we've created. We have monetary compensation for this as well and only expect it to take approximately 1 hour on a single day.
If you are interested in one or both of these studies or have any further questions, please contact me at [email protected]. We're looking to start the VizWiz study by August 1st but can work with people's schedules as needed. The only qualifications (besides a compatible device for the VizWiz study) are being at least 18 years of age and having a vision impairment (that is, visual acuity of 20/200 or less that cannot be fully corrected with corrective lenses).
Thank you for your time and consideration. Please forward this along as well!
Regards,
Michele Burton
PhD Student, Human-Centered Computing, UMBC
www.michele-burton.com
IRB Reference Number Y12AH12164
