[Access Lunch] [Accessibility Lunch] - 10/6 NSH 3001 @ 1 PM

[Peya Mowar]

Hi everyone, We have Prerna Khanna, a Computer Science PhD candidate at  
Stony Brook University, joining us remotely for the upcoming accessibility  
lunch. Please find the talk details below: Title: Making Smartphones  
Accessible to Blind Users Using Wearables Abstract: Blind users interact  
with their smartphones predominantly using screen readers such as TalkBack  
for Android and VoiceOver for iOS to read out content and navigate  
touchscreen interfaces. However, touchscreen interactions are challenging  
for blind users due to the need for two-handed interactions (conflicting  
with cane or guide dog use), vulnerability to shoulder-surfing attacks, and  
gesture overloading. This talk explores how we can overcome these  
challenges by moving core interactions beyond the screen and leveraging  
gestural input from commodity wearables. I will first present AccessWear, a  
system-level framework that uses novel input virtualization to seamlessly  
map smartwatch gestures to touch events. This approach enables blind users  
to control any mobile application without requiring a single line of code  
change from developers. Our central premise is that while wearable gestures  
enable touch-screen-free input, existing recognition models fail for blind  
users. These models are designed and trained on sighted users, and fail to  
capture the unique motion properties of blind users. This gap calls for  
specialized algorithms that reflect how blind users perform gestures in  
everyday settings. Next, I will show how we characterized the unique motion  
properties of blind user gestures and used these insights to develop a  
robust, specialized recognition approach that works without per-user  
training. Building on this foundation, I extend gestural input beyond  
simple navigation to support complex, fine-grained interaction tasks for  
blind users. With GestureVoice, I will show how gestures can be combined  
with voice commands to support fine-grained interactions such as text  
editing, which is one of the most difficult tasks for blind users on mobile  
devices. This multimodal system reduces text editing time significantly for  
blind users. We will meet in NSH 3001 for this fascinating talk! Thanks and  
regards, Peya

Accessibility Lunch Seminar
Monday Oct 6, 2025 ⋅ 1pm – 2pm
Eastern Time - New York

Location
NSH 3001, Newell-Simon Hall, Hamerschlag Dr, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA	
https://www.google.com/maps/search/NSH+3001,+Newell-Simon+Hall,+Hamerschlag+Dr,+Pittsburgh,+PA+15213,+USA?hl=en

	
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Joining notes
Meeting host: pmowar at andrew.cmu.edu

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Attachments
Accessibility Lunch Schedule 2024  
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1k1Pmh9jo-N7S73Fi10y-5tEynvhw3xLbPf-NMAjTSxU

CMU Accessibility Lunch Seminar SeriesAbout: This seminar series explores  
the evolution and future directions of accessibility research and practice.  
Each week, we discuss diverse facets of accessible and assistive  
technologies, featuring speakers from academia, industry, and beyond. The  
seminar is organised by the Accessibility Research Group at Carnegie Mellon  
University.Peya Mowar is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.Join Zoom  
Meeting:https://cmu.zoom.us/j/99964141383?pwd=Y5FQgNzM8RpRsgZ2bX7bn5A6C3Vz6L.1 Meeting  
ID: 999 6414 1383 Passcode: a11y

Guests
accessibility-lunch at lists.andrew.cmu.edu
Atieh Taheri
Annie Donahoe
Kimberly Norris
Aaron Steinfeld
gkchen at andrew.cmu.edu
Eryn Ma
Allison Sennott


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