Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Today, many individuals with vision impairments around the world cannot access to Internet-based services due to the lack of compatibility and interoperation between their assistive devices or applications with interactive services on the Internet. Despite the omnipresence of networked services in our society, no support for BVI accessibility has ever been taken into account in the design and implementation of network protocols, standards, and/or architecture, from the physical to the application layers. Current networks have no function to support BVI needs, blocking or limiting the access of BVI to digital information as well as to many surrounding Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This DG application proposes to address new algorithms, models, concepts, and theory to analyze BVI behaviors, predict their interactions, and then optimize and augment network capacity to enable BVI accessing to 5GB services, just like sighted people. Unlike prior research which focuses on simple applications or personal device support,  this research targets a broader perspective which collectively controls many distributed network elements and microservices. We plan to open a new research direction on networked BVI accessibility (contrary or complementary to the personal-device BVI accessibility approach) designed to underpin two unexplored questions in the field: i) What is the role of telecommunication networks in BVI inclusivity? and ii) Can we bridge the digital divide between BVI and sighted people in the 5GB area? This will mobilize and enable the introduction of new standards, technologies, and working groups for BVI accessibility within international organizations such as ITU, IEEE and IETF. The objective of this research program is to systematically introduce BVI accessibility to network design and management, and building knowledge in the interactions of BVI with their environment through network support. Three research themes are designed to achieve the objective. The first theme will revisit network architecture and design, optimize network resources with respect to BVI requirements, adapt network operations to support BVI in real-time, and improve BVI protection from physical and cyber risks. The second theme will introduce new protocols, media representations, and BVI awareness to networks. The third theme will contribute an efficient tool to BVI re-adaptation, health science and many other potential fields such as military, mining, and deep-see exploration. Our long-term objective is to bridge the digital divide in the 5G-and-beyond era by adding BVI awareness features to network infrastructures. By enabling a scalable and affordable provisioning of connectivity services to people with BVI along with the rapid growth of 5GB infrastructures, the impact of this research will be significant, both in terms of fundamental methodologies and advancement of technologies.