ALEX-supporting low-literacy adults through mobile computing

Cosmin Munteanu, Joanna Lumsden, Hélène Fournier, Rock Leung, Danny D'Amours, Daniel McDonald, Julie Maitland

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Basic literacy skills are fundamental building blocks of education, yet for a very large number of adults tasks such as understanding and using everyday items is a challenge. While research, industry, and policy-making is looking at improving access to textual information for low-literacy adults, the literacy-based demands of today's society are continually increasing. Although many community-based organizations offer resources and support to adults with limited literacy skills, current programs have difficulties reaching and retaining those that would benefit most from them. To address these challenges, the National Research Council of Canada is proposing a technological solution to support literacy programs and to assist low-literacy adults in today's information-centric society: ALEX© – Adult Literacy support application for EXperiential learning. ALEX© has been created together with low-literacy adults, following guidelines for inclusive design of mobile assistive tools. It is a mobile language assistant that is designed to be used both in the classroom and in daily life, in order to help low-literacy adults become increasingly literate and independent.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems(CHI)2010
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Number of pages5
ISBN (Print)9781605589305
Publication statusPublished - 15 Apr 2010
Externally publishedYes
EventACM CHI 2010 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Atlanta, United States
Duration: 10 Apr 201015 Apr 2010

Conference

ConferenceACM CHI 2010 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Abbreviated titleCHI
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAtlanta
Period10/04/1015/04/10

Keywords

  • mobile computing
  • interface design
  • educational interfaces
  • mobile learning
  • assistive technology

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