Conventionally, the accessibility research community centers most of its efforts on designing assistive technologies and systems related to single categories of impairments. Although this approach has contributed to valuable progress and advancements in the field, there is a growing consensus among accessibility researchers that focusing on designing technologies for single impairments oversimplifies disability since this approach may fail to adequately address the real-world experiences of a significant population of users with complex needs. Despite challenges related to conducting research with users living with multiple, profound, or complex disabilities, it is essential in terms of future work that the accessibility research community adopts a more inclusive approach where users with lived experience of multiple disabilities are directly informing and shaping the design of assistive systems and accessible technologies. Therefore, we propose the 2nd International Workshop on Accessibility Research and Users with Multiple Disabilities or Complex Needs. The workshop will act as a forum for participants to share their perspectives related to challenges and opportunities in designing accessible systems that consider the multidimensional needs of users living with multiple disabilities. This workshop intends to challenge current paradigms in the accessibility field, share latest work and foster future collaborations.

With climate change, the frequency and spread of wildfires have intensified globally, bearing disastrous impactson wildlife, the economy, and human well-being. Efforts on broad fronts are required, including proactive publicparticipation. However, studies related to citizen engagement in the context of wildfire management remainlimited. Therefore, there is a need for further studies in this area. This paper reports on ongoing work conductedin the context of an H2020 project called SILVANUS. The study investigates the methods, practices, needs andchallenges related to citizen engagement in wildfire management. The authors have developed a tentative citizenengagement framework, and preliminary results related to citizens' needs and challenges are presented. The studyidentifies relevant topics, training contents, and methods that can be used for public engagement in wildfiremanagement. The paper contributes towards designing future engagement modalities, technologies and trainingmaterials related to wildfire management and potentially even other crises.

The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the preliminary findings in an ongoing study conducted in MuseIT – a Horizon Europe project (Oct. 2022 – Sept. 2025) – that proposes technologies facilitating and widening access to cultural assets in an ‘inclusive way’. The paper reports on the results of a literature review and the first ideation workshop conducted in January 2023. The workshop participants were representatives of cultural institutions and users of cultural institutions, and/or consumers and producers of cultural assets, with a focus on people with disabilities. The findings indicated that digital environment is greatly appreciated by participants with disabilities for both communication with others and for self-expression. Cultural institutions are aware of the variety of needs, including the need for collaborative development of services accessible to all. There remain, however, challenges and unmet needs. To address these, there is a need to involve people with disabilities – who are experts on such needs based on lived experiences – in the design of tools and services aimed at meeting their needs. Furthermore, there is a need for improved understanding of disability and diversity of needs, in projects involved in developing technological systems to facilitate and broaden accessibility.

In this paper we present a software and hardware toolkit called HaptiDesigner, useful for work with creation of haptic patterns and beyond. The toolkit includes two printed circuit boards each with 32 and 40 channels which can also be connected for an extended number of channels. It also includes a PC-based interface for ease of design and the software needed for encoding and storing the related instructions for activation of actuator motors. HaptiDesigner toolkit has been successfully used for the design of meaning bearing patterns for haptic communication. Some examples are provided. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Historically, the accessibility community has focused on designing assistive technologies and systems related to single categories of impairments. While this approach is justifiable and contributes to the advancement of the field, many researchers argue that designing technologies for one impairment at a time contributes to an oversimplification of disability and does not reflect real-world experiences of a significant number of users who live with multiple impairments. How can the accessibility field leverage theories and concepts from other disciplines (e.g. disability studies, medical humanities, social work, engineering, education) to support more appropriate and inclusive technologies for users with complex needs How can future assistive technologies take into consideration a diverse combination of sensory, cognitive, and physical characteristics In this workshop, we invite researchers and practitioners from different disciplines to share their perspectives related to challenges and opportunities in designing accessible systems that consider the multidimensional and often complex needs of users living with multiple impairments. 

Interaction and capturing information from the surrounding is dominated by vision and hearing. Haptics on the other side, widens the bandwidth and could also replace senses (sense switching) for impaired. Haptic technologies are often limited to point-wise actuation. Here, we show that actuation in two-dimensional matrices instead creates a richer input. We describe the construction of a full-body garment for haptic communication with a distributed actuating network. The garment is divided into attachable-detachable panels or add-ons that each can carry a two dimensional matrix of actuating haptic elements. Each panel adds to an enhanced sensoric capability of the human- garment system so that together a 720° system is formed. The spatial separation of the panels on different body locations supports semantic and theme-wise separation of conversations conveyed by haptics. It also achieves directional faithfulness, which is maintaining any directional information about a distal stimulus in the haptic input.

By means of a proof-of-concept prototype, which is work in progress, we adopted a multidisciplinary approach to develop a smart-textile-based communication system for use by people with deafblindness. In this system, sensor technologies and computer vision are used to detect environmental cues such as presence of obstacles, faces, objects, etc. Focusing on the communication module here, a new ontology connects visual analytics with the user to label detected semantic content about objects, persons and situations for navigation and situational awareness. Such labelled content is then translated to a haptogram vocabulary with static vs. dynamic patterns, which are mapped to the body. A haptogram denotes a tactile symbol composed over a touchscreen, its dynamic nature referring to the act of writing or drawing. A vest made of smart textile, in the current variant equipped with a 4 x 4 grid of vibrotactile actuators, is used to transmit haptograms on the user’s back. Thereby system messages of different complexity -- both alerts and short sentences -- can be received by the user, who then has the option to respond by pre-coded questions and messages. By means of grids with more actuators, displays with higher resolution can be implemented and tested, paving the way for an extended haptogram vocabulary, covering more detailed ontology content.

Introduction. This paper explores the information world of people with deafblindness, i.e., a diverse group of people whose vision and hearing loss are of such severity that it is hard for their impaired senses to compensate for each other.

Method. An extensive interview study conducted in five European countries. It has examined the level, form and accessibility of information available to people with deafblindness. This paper draws on these interviews, and other material and observations, in providing general characteristics and the results presented here. However, the data and quotations presented in this paper are from the interviews conducted by the authors in Sweden.

Analysis. The analysis of the interviews was done using the coding scheme based on the concepts of small worlds and the theory of information world looking for emerging themes. The scheme was flexible and additional themes were included into it during analysis when they emerged from the data.

Results. The study found that while the lives of most people are facilitated by an abundance of information in various forms and often in taken for granted format, this is not the case for those members of the society with deafblindness who need such information the most. The means of signification and information sources are limited for people with deafblindness not only because of dual sensory impairments, but mainly because of the limited opportunities afforded outside their small worlds.

Conclusions. The improvement of information infrastructures aimed at people with deafblindness will benefit the society and its democratic foundations as a whole and will strengthen the participation of people with deafblindness.

Interaction and capturing information from the surrounding isdominated by vision and hearing. Haptics on the other side, widens the bandwidthand could also replace senses (sense switching) for impaired. Haptictechnologies are often limited to point-wise actuation. Here, we show thatactuation in two-dimensional matrices instead creates a richer input. Wedescribe the construction of a full-body garment for haptic communication witha distributed actuating network. The garment is divided into attachabledetachablepanels or add-ons that each can carry a two dimensional matrix ofactuating haptic elements. Each panel adds to an enhanced sensoric capability ofthe human- garment system so that together a 720° system is formed. The spatialseparation of the panels on different body locations supports semantic andtheme-wise separation of conversations conveyed by haptics. It also achievesdirectional faithfulness, which is maintaining any directional information abouta distal stimulus in the haptic input.

The number of scholarly publications on the topic of biosensors has increased rapidly; as a result, it is no longer easy to build an informed overview of the developments solely by manual means. Furthermore, with many new research results being continually published, it is useful to form an up-to-date understanding of the recent trends or emergent directions in the field. This paper utilizes bibliometric methods to provide an overview of the developments in the topic based on scholarly publications. The results indicate an increasing interest in the topic of biosensor(s) with newly emerging sub-topics. The US is identified as the country with highest total contribution to this area, but as a collective, EU countries top the list of total contributions. An examination of trends over the years indicates that in recent years, China-based authors have been more productive in this area. If research contribution per capita is considered, Singapore takes the top position, followed by Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark. While the number of publications on biosensors seems to have declined in recent years in the PubMed database, this is not the case in the Web of Science database. However, there remains an indication that the rate of growth in the more recent years is slowing. This paper also presents a comparison of the developments in publications on biosensors with the full set of publications in two of the main journals in the field. In more recent publications, synthetic biology, smartphone, fluorescent biosensor, and point-of-care testing are among the terms that have received more attention. The study also identifies the top authors and journals in the field, and concludes with a summary and suggestions for follow up research.

In this paper, we introduce the solution proposed by the SUITCEYES project in the form of a haptic intelligent personalized interface (HIPI) that integrates elements from the areas of smart textiles, sensors, semantic technologies, image processing, face and object recognition, machine learning, affective computing, and gamification. We report on recent developments in the project, which include experiments with sensors for detection of obstacles, psychophysical experiments with temperatures and vibrations, development of a number of high performing algorithms for object recognition, and also the design, development, and experimentation with a smart-textile based garment that allows flexible positioning of sensors and actuators.

Based on the ontology developed in the ongoing SUITCEYES EU-funded project to bridge visual analytics for situational awareness and navigation with semantic labelling of environmental cues, we designed a set of static and dynamic haptograms to represent concepts for two-way communication between deafblind and non-deafblind users. A haptogram corresponds to a tactile symbol drawn over a touchscreen, its dynamic nature referring to the act of writing or drawing, where the touchscreen can take several forms, including a smart textile screen designated for specific areas on the body. In its current version, our haptogram set is generated over a 4 x 4 matrix of cells and is displayed on the back of the user, tested for robustness at the receiving end. The concepts and concept sequences simulating simple questions and answers represented by haptograms are focused on ontology content for now but can be scaled up.

Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) aims to involve a multitude of stakeholders in discussions involving technology. However, all technological assessment is mediated through concepts. Development of concepts regarding technology rich futures has been lively but confusing for many stakeholders. Utilizing bibliographic data from Web of Science, this article overviews and discusses ten influential concepts that have played an important role during the 2000s. It is argued that the lively and dynamic concept production leads to numerous problems for a CTA approach.

The expansion of social media use has enabled massive and rapid spreadability of content, which is often referred to as virality. Earlier studies have examined various aspects of virality such as the attributes of stories that become viral. In this on-going study we aim to make a better sense of the role of interpersonal influences in the spreadability of viral social media content. In this, we are inspired by Tarde’s views on interpersonal processes and the notion of imitation. Considering the recent mass migrations, and numerous viral stories that have related to the plight of refugees, we chose a group of Syrian refugees consisting of men and women as the participants for this study. In twelve in-depth qualitative interviews we learned about the participants’ views on viral stories as well as the way in which their interpersonal influences may play a role in their interaction with viral stories. The findings show that the views on migrant-related viral stories varied among the participants, but a common view seemed to be somewhat of scepticism about the agenda behind the spread of these stories. As part of the study, we identified four key interpersonal influences including community conversation, formative consciousness, community boundaries, and retrospective experiences. A main conclusion in the study is that although back-end technical issues, content attributes, emotions and so on may play a role in virality, still human agency, connections and interpersonal ties play a major role in shaping the process that leads to content spreadability, hence virality.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and engage with connections between the evolving technology of the Internet of Things (IoT) and notions of convenience. In particular, the concept of alpha convenience is introduced in order to articulate the broad scope of Internet “any-everything” connectivity, here called “alpha convenience.” Design/methodology/approach – The recommendations of Constructive Technology Assessment are followed in order to evaluate technology before implementation. The seven value drivers articulated by Fleisch (2010) are utilized in order to envision-specific aspects. Findings – Three critical aspects relating to alpha convenience are identified and discussed: gossiping technology, personalization and the disempowered smartphone user. It is argued that extreme forms of convenience shift traditional areas of human agency onto technology. It is also noted that alpha convenience tends to develop as ubiquitous feature of future society, making it difficult, if not impossible, to opt out. Research limitations/implications – The paper focusses on one powerful concept, although the IoT is merely one of several terms used to deliberate the role of next-generation information technology and society. Notable competitors include semantic web, ubiquitous computing, pervasive computing and ambient intelligence. Social implications – The IoT is predicted to be an intrusive feature into everyday life and the paper identifies important aspects. Originality/value – This is the first critical discussion of the IoT and convenience. The paper aims at conceptual innovation. Overall, there is a substantial lack of critical scrutiny of the emerging ideas of the IoT.

The objective of this document is to provide background information relating to the production of training material and the training page hosted as part of the PERICLES website. The rationale behind this process is also described and justified.

The production of the training material is based on aligning the outputs of the project’s research with a user-friendly design. This process helps to determine the topics and types of material to be created and collected that will most efficiently and appropriately serve the needs and abilities of the target groups. This involves an analysis of the target group that might be both interested in and have the necessary background to understand the research topics and tools developed and examined during the project. Other considerations include the way the material could be used and how the use can be supported through the look and feel of the material.

The design of our modular training page is based on a format that has been proven successful in other settings (e.g. at the Swedish National Agency for Education). Within this online training package each module is self-explanatory and can be used without the need for additional input or explanation from the content authors. The information provided within each module helps the user to identify whether the module and its contents are of relevance. The underlying structure also helps the authors to cover the topics that need to be covered and provide the content in a way that will fit with the pedagogical ideas embedded in the design of the package.

The choice of material and format used in the training material is strongly linked to the nature of the topic, be it demonstrations, screencasts and user guidelines for tools, presentations and short texts for more overview and introductory material, or articles and videos for more theoretical topics requiring a more descriptive, narrative type of communication.

The creation of modules is a work-in-progress, as many of the results are still to be finalised. Currently, we have completed two modules that are representative of the research and development outcomes.

- “Dynamics of knowledge organisation” studies the involvement and application of semantics in Digital Preservation and focuses on two different but potentially interrelated approaches: (a) vectors, matrices, and vector fields; (b) graph-based structures and ontologies. This module clearly belongs in the category of theoretical research; therefore, a lot of effort has been made to communicate this in an attractive way, with webcast seminars for example.

- “Sheer curation” is a good example of a technical development outcome. The module provides the context that leads to demonstrating the tools (PET and PeriCAT). This context has been presented in a way that can be used without the tools, as it provides high-level introductions to related topics, state of the art in the related research and practice, and overviews of current technologies etc.

Other modules are in development on topics including Appraisal; Digital Ecosystem Models; Recent Developments in the Conservation of Digital Art; Policies & Policy Creation and management using the Policy Editor; Earth and Space Data for the Future; and Modelling and Planning Repository systems.

This collection of modules forms a repository of useful learning material for students and trainers and fosters long-term use of PERICLES results for training purposes in a self-learning environment. In parallel to this, other suitable materials are presented in tutorials and in current and upcoming academic programmes as exemplified below.

We describe ongoing research where the aim is to apply recent results from the research field of information fusion to bibliometric analysis and information retrieval. We highlight the importance of ‘uncertainty’ within information fusion and argue that this concept is crucial also for bibliometrics and information retrieval. More specifically, we elaborate on three research strategies related to uncertainty: uncertainty management methods, explanation of uncertainty and visualization of uncertainty. We exemplify our strategies to the classical problem of author name disambiguation where we show how uncertainty can be modeled explained and visualized using information fusion. We show how an information seeker can benefit from tracing increases/decreases of uncertainty in the reasoning process. We also present how such changes can be explained for the information seeker through visualization techniques, which are employed to highlight the complexity involved in the process of modeling and managing uncertainty in bibliometric analysis. Finally we argue that a further integration of information fusion approaches in the research area of bibliometrics and information retrieval may results in new and fruitful venues of research.

This deliverable is the first in the work package to report on the results of the assessment. Since the start the work in WP7 was done in close collaboration with the “Dissemination” and “Technology transfer”  work packages (WP8 and 9) and is a part of the knowledge transfer activities formed by these three  work packages. 

The deliverable also provides a training plan for the years 2015 and 2016. The implementation of this  plan  has  already  started  with  a  first  training  workshop  on  automated  metadata  extraction  and  encapsulation during the IDCC conference 2015. As the training plan (see section 5) takes a central  role  in outlining  the path  for  the upcoming WP activities  it has been  formulated  in a way  to allow  readability even in isolation from the rest of this document.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate concepts that are used in depicting futurevisions of society, as afforded by technology, to map the extent of their use, examine the level of theirdominance in different research areas and geographic boundaries, identify potential overlaps, analysetheir longitudinal growth, and examine whether any of the identified concepts has assumed anoverarching position.Design/methodology/approach – In total, 14 concepts, each of which is used to depict visions offuture information infrastructures, were identified. More than 20,000 scholarly documents relatedto 11 of these concepts (those with 20 or more documents) are analysed by various qualitative/quantitative methods.Findings – The concepts most referred to are Semantic Web and ubiquitous computing(all years), and “internet of things” (Year 2013). Publications on some newer concepts (e.g. “digital living”,“real world internet”) are minimal. There are variations in the extent of use and preferred concepts basedon geographic and disciplinary boundaries. The overlap in the use of these terms is minimal and none ofthese terms has assumed an overarching umbrella position.Research limitations/implications – This study is limited to scholarly publications; itwould be relevant to also study the pattern of usage in governmental communications and policydocuments.Social implications – By mapping multiplicity of concepts and the dispersion of discussions, theauthors highlight the need for, and facilitate, a broader discussion of related social and societalimplications.Originality/value – This paper is the first to present a collective of these related concepts and mapthe pattern of their occurrence and growth.Keywords Internet, Information science, World Wide Web, Information society,Digital communications, Information strategyPaper type General review

With increasing numbers of scholarly publications, and multiplicity of publication-types and outlets, overviews of research fields have become a challenge. We bring together bibliometric methods, information retrieval, information fusion, and data visualization within a new project, INCITE - Information Fusion as an E-service in Scholarly Information Use, with the aim to develop improved methods and tools addressing emerging user-needs. In this paper we report on ongoing research within that project. (a) We elaborate on a qualitative user-study in which the emerging needs of researchers in the age of big data are explored. The study is based on interviews and dialogue with seven scholars at different academic levels. Data analysis was informed by adaptive theory, in accordance to which iterative pre-coding, provisional codes, and memo-writing were used to reach a more abstract level of analysis. A number of challenges related to the multiplicity of information sources and extent of data were identified including difficulties in keeping track of all the relevant sources; the inability to utilize extensive sets of data being taken for granted; and using data reduction strategies that at times go against the scholar’s own ideals of scholarly rigor. In analysing these difficulties, we have identified potential solutions that could facilitate the process of forming overviews of different research areas. (b) An example of such a solution is presented, which is builds on the Dempster-Shafer Theory and is designed to allow for interactive individual ranking of information sources in the process of a coordinated search across different information sources.

This article is a review of the book: Athique, Adrian. Digital media and society: an introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013. ix, 295 pp. ISBN: 978-0-7456-6229-9. The book Digital Media and Society provides an overview of an extensive range of issues related to digital media and society. The main body of the book comprises a short introductory section, four different parts each subdivided into four different chapters, and a postscript. The book addresses a broad and impressive range of topics related to digital media from presenting numerous central theoretical perspectives to issues as diverse as online shopping, online dating, cyber criminality, cloud computing, information economy, surveillance, public participation, and more. The book is jammed packed with many current and interesting issues of concern and includes an impressive review of an extensive range of related scholarly publications. The style of the book makes it a great textbook for students of sociology or communication and media studies. All in all, the book is ambitious and impressive, it includes an extensive account of contemporary scholarly work in related fields, and it was easy and enjoyable to read. The book is warmly recommend to other readers.

This thesis is an empirically based, theoretical discussion of the process of decision making in relation to Library Management Systems (LMS). Although the conceptualization of the LMS decision process in rational terms, common in many LMS selection models, may be useful in different respects, here the process is viewed from a social constructivist stance. It is argued that due to the complexities involved, the potential choice of an LMS does not necessarily reflect the superiority of the chosen LMS based on objective inherent qualities. Nevertheless, libraries continually choose new systems and in many of these selection processes, the chosen system is perceived as the optimal choice. In this study, therefore focus is placed on examining the way in which this shared perception is constructed. Three theoretical views are adopted as the research framework, including Brunsson’s views on the process of decision making and its consequences, Collins’s views on methodological symmetry and construction of conceptual order, and finally Giddens’s views on duality of structure and the social order. Observations, interviews, and document studies are the methods employed in four different case studies that each lasted from 10 months to two years. In this study an array of different factors were found to be influential during the long process of the LMS decision making. It was also found that although the norms of rationality were striven for, and shared perceptions of rationality were constructed, the complexities involved did not allow a true rational choice by determination of all the options, projection of future needs, evaluation of the identified options, and selection of the optimal outcome. Instead, the different activities and happenings during the process helped construct a shared perception of the possible courses of action and optimality of the decision outcomes. Based on this study and with the help of the theoretical framework, it was suggested that an LMS choice is only one potential consequence of the LMS decision process; other consequences include legitimization, action, responsibility, and constructions of conceptual and social order. Through this study, the importance of the day-to-day actions and interactions (at micro level) and their wider implications for the construction of shared perceptions and shaping and reshaping of social structures are highlighted. This thesis contributes towards an alternative conceptualization of the process of LMS decision making. It may also have implications for the library practice, LMS related research, and educational programs within LIS.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present current and ongoing research investigating new ways of working across geographic distances and time within library and information science (LIS). Design/methodology/approach – A total of four studies were conducted focusing on: the design of a virtual research environment (VRE) to facilitate the sharing of data collection instruments among students, researchers and professionals; new ways professionals and researchers can collaborate; collaborative decision making in the context of purchasing a library management system; and collaboration among LIS professionals. Findings – Early results show that VREs within LIS can build on previous VRE research which focused on other domains. However, there are several unique characteristics of LIS that place requirements on VREs and which are not yet implemented within VREs and that offer unique opportunities for VREs to enhance LIS research, education and practice. Originality/value – This paper reports on ongoing research and preliminary findings of unique studies investigating how VREs could enhance LIS research and professional practice, and how LIS research and practice can inspire the next generation of VREs.

A review of the book 'Planning and implementing electronic records management - a practical guide', by Kelvin Smith, where some of its strengths and weaknesses are highlighted.