Metadata
- Source
- FLOE-564
- Type
- Task
- Priority
- Major
- Status
- Resolved
- Resolution
- Fixed
- Assignee
- N/A
- Reporter
- Michelle D'Souza
- Created
2019-01-24T10:32:39.973-0500 - Updated
2019-02-04T14:34:25.719-0500 - Versions
- N/A
- Fixed Versions
- N/A
- Component
-
- FLOE Website
Description
Emily Moore shared this and it would make a great Floe news article:
John Blanco published Resistance in a Wire yesterday, complete with sound, description, and alternative input.
This simulation, along with her cousin Ohm’s Law, has served as a primary teacher over the past two years, guiding us towards a deep understanding of effective design and development of sounds and description for sims. Last summer we thought we had learned all she had to teach us, but RIAW had other ideas. I believe there were a record number of release candidates created for this sim, and many hours of dedicated effort by the QA team, John, Michael K, and Jesse to bring an accessible version of RIAW to the world.
She is now off to teach the world about resistance (using lovingly crafted words, and marimbas!), taking a sabbatical from research with us. I’m sure she’ll be back someday with more insights to share. For a brief walk-through of a11y work on this sim, see below.
A brief history of accessible Resistance in a Wire\
- July 2017 - Initial design discussions started
- Initial research questions for sound included:
- Cueing with Sound:
- How do we effectively cue a change in one variable, while interacting with a second variable?
- How do students interpret increasing a slider value, while hearing a decrease in another variable?
- Do we need to layer two sounds in this case? If so, what qualities of sounds help us convey that we’re increasing/decreasing one value while a corresponding value is simultaneously increasing/decreasing?
- Interaction: What types of sound support cueing mentioned above, and work equally well when interaction can be done continuously (e.g., when using a continuous slider with a mouse) and in discrete steps (e.g., when using a continuous slider incrementally with keyboard)?
- Cueing with Sound:
- Initial research questions for sound included:
- August 2017: Development started
- For a blast from the past, here’s a very nice video of one of the first sound examples (skip to minute 1:02)
- Sept 2017-May 2018: Well over 100 learners have been interviewed and/or surveyed regarding their use of this sim, in its many iterations.
- Summer 2018 - first release candidate for this sim was created.
- Jan. 21, 2019 - published to the world, accessible to many learners with disabilities, using elegant visual, auditory, and interaction design.