DEEP is a novel bidirectional Italian sign language (LIS)-to-Italian automatic translation system. Sign languages are notoriously hard to recognize by a computer vision system, and it is also quite difficult to generate signs in a smooth and comprehensible way. DEEP focuses on two case study scenarios: pharmacy and passport/identity office, providing a vertical, high-quality dataset, and implementing two pipelines that permit to translate LIS to Italian (with a BLEURT of 0.72), and Italian to LIS (generating a very good avatar, as reported by several deaf subjects and LIS interpreters). While the LIS-to-Italian pipeline implements a generic LIS-to-Italian translator, the Italian-to-LIS pipeline is limited as Italian-to-LIS translation is based on a list of know sentences. Despite this limitation, we argue the whole system could be a pragmatic and useful choice for several scenarios.

Developing effective subtitle guidelines for extended reality (XR) is essential to ensure accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing users. This study synthesizes existing 2D guidelines and addresses 3D-specific challenges, focusing on subtitle placement in virtual space and guiding methods for off-screen sound localization.

A prototype was developed in Unity, simulating a business meeting with ten use cases implementing a broad range of guiding methods in combination with different subtitle placements. We adopt a comprehensive approach, testing multiple techniques to provide a full understanding of their effectiveness and usability.

Our results indicate a statistically significant preference for world-spaced subtitles, particularly when paired with what we refer to as icon bubbles, which enhanced spatial awareness and speaker identification while reducing cognitive load. In contrast, screen-spaced subtitles proved less effective in multi-speaker scenarios due to difficulties in speaker association. Additionally, user preferences for subtitle formats varied by context, suggesting that effectiveness may differ across XR applications, such as entertainment and education.

These findings highlight the necessity for scenario-specific, adaptable, and intuitive subtitle systems to enhance accessibility in immersive XR environments.

Flex Picture eBook utilizes interactive images, containing multiple levels of complexity which are adaptable to the demands of visually impaired children. However, creating these images requires a lot of time and technical knowledge. To reduce this workload, a plugin suite for Adobe Illustrator was developed, that allows artists to create these illustrations inside of the software they are used to. With these tools, they are able to imbue their work with multi-layer switching functionality, giving their users the ability to select one of 5 levels of accessibility, as well as allowing zooming on elements they selected. This software also gives artists the ability of animating complex movements. All this can be done inside of Illustrator, without having to leave the software.

This paper focuses on the guidelines developed for the creation of these images, as well as the software that was developed to make the production of the illustrations possible.

This research focuses on the accessibility of email applications for blind and low vision (BLV) users, specifically examining non-visual features such as voice input/output, pre-recorded audio, and alternative text descriptions. The survey aims to understand how BLV individuals use these features to access, compose, and manage emails, and to identify the barriers and challenges encountered. The findings will contribute to a deeper understanding of how to improve the design of accessible email applications, moving beyond reliance on visual interfaces and focusing on auditory and other non-visual accessibility solutions. The results of this study will provide critical insights for designers and developers to create more inclusive email applications BLV individuals to interact with screen readers and AI.

360-degree media is growing in prevalence in fields such as education, tourism, architecture, and leisure. However, they can impose significant challenges for persons with disabilities if accessibility is overlooked. The goal of this study was to compile accessibility requirements for 360-degree environments into a single set of guidelines that can serve as a tool for comprehensive accessibility testing. Based on these guidelines, we could found major barriers during an accessibility evaluation of the current accessibility state of three educational learning platforms: ThingLink, Uptale, and ImmerseMe.