Promoção da acessibilidade em televisão interativa (iTV). Proposta de um serviço adaptado a utilizadores com défice visual

The currently existing interactive television infrastructures enable the integration of a wide variety of resources and services, enabling users with new interaction and participation experiences. For the majority of viewers, the use of interactive services does not imply significant difficulties, however, for audiences with special needs, for example for people with visual impairment, this task becomes complex, hindering, or even preventing these users to benefit from such services. Portugal is not an exception in this context, since there are a significant number of visually impaired users (VIU) who do not entirely benefit from the capabilities of the current television paradigm. In this framework, the research project that supports this thesis explores the Universal Design problem applied to Interactive Television (iTV) and its main aims are the conceptualization, prototyping and validation of an iTV service adapted specifically for VIU, promoting their digital inclusion. To accomplish these goals, the research was divided into three different stages. In the first stage, from the Grounded Theory, the difficulties and needs of the VIU as consumers of television contents and audio description services was identified; the most appropriate technological platform to support the prototyped service was selected; and a specific set of design principles and guidelines (DPG’s) of interactive television interfaces for this target audience were defined. Initially two interviews were conducted with 20 visually impaired participants, to determine their difficulties and needs as consumers of television contents and audio description services. Thereafter, an interview with an expert responsible for the DTT transition process in Portugal was carried out (initially it was considered that the DTT would be a promising platform and could support the prototype) and a literature review of DPG’s for the development of iTV interfaces for services focused on persons with visual impairment was performed. Based on the results obtained in this stage it was possible to define the functional and technical requirements of the system, as well as its DPG’s, relating to the graphical and interaction components. In the second stage the iTV prototype adapted to VIU ‘Meo ad+’ was conceptualized and developed, using the ‘Portugal Telecom’ IPTV technology platform, following the defined requirements and design principles. Regarding the third stage, it included the prototyped service evaluation by a group of visually impaired participants. This stage was conducted through the Evaluative Study method, enabling, via usability and accessibility tests, complemented by interviews, to understand whether the prototyped service effectively met the needs of this type of users, of the evaluation, having being observed that the participants who were involved in the prototype tests showed satisfaction with the features offered by the system as well as with the design of its interface.