arXiv subjects

Yichun Zhao

Publications and source records attributed to Yichun Zhao.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Q&A or Document-Based? The Effects of Interface Type on How Screen Reader Users Access Interconnected Documents

Blind and low-vision (BLV) users are increasingly engaging with large language model (LLM) interfaces to access documents, but it is unclear how such systems support or hinder their ability to build interconnected knowledge. To examine this gap, we compared a Question-Answer Interface (QAI) that supports open-ended conversational inquiry, with a Document Interface (DI) based mostly on traditional structured text document navigation. We recruited 16 BLV screen reader users where they used both interfaces to explore two fictional worlds. Data from interaction logs, concept maps, decision-based tasks, and semi-structured interviews provide comparative insights into how interface design supports knowledge construction. Findings show that participants visited more distinct documents with the DI and formed larger and more correct mental models with the DI than with the QAI. They were also more able to apply knowledge they had gained. Simultaneously, many still preferred the QAI and often estimated that they had explored more, formed better mental models and applied their models better when acquiring the information with the QAI, despite this not being the case. Our analysis suggests possible interface design reasons for these differences and highlights some of the risks introduced by using question-answer interfaces to access information spaces.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Semantic Segmentation of Node and Edge Diagrams for Assistive Technology

In this paper, we present a novel set of related models for semantic segmentation of node-link diagrams. These diagrams are frequently used to represent mathematical graphs, relationships between concepts, and flowcharts. Such diagrams are difficult to access non-visually; while some assistive interfaces have been designed for node-link diagrams, they rely upon a machine-readable representation of the diagram, whereas such diagrams will generally be made available as bitmap images. Our compact deep learning models show excellent quantitative and qualitative performance on a large synthetic dataset of node-link diagrams, reaching per-pixel accuracy over 93\%.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2026

"If We Had the Information That We Need to Interpret the World Around Us, We Wouldn't Be Disabled:" Barriers and Opportunities in Information Work among Blind and Sighted Colleagues

Despite recognition of the value of diversity, the way work takes place can fail to support blind or low-vision employees, especially in collaborative work settings. This paper examines how professional teams with diverse visual abilities use information representations (e.g., PDF documents, spreadsheets and charts). A diary study with follow-up individual interviews (23 participants with mixed abilities from 5 teams) and 2 separate focus groups (7 participants from 2 other teams) allowed us to characterize key dimensions of the role of representations in the workplace into four types of interrelated failures and workarounds, influenced by workplace stigmas and shaped by evolving social dynamics towards interdependent information work. We contribute this new empirically supported conceptual understanding of representation use in workplaces that can help design and improve the experiences of mixed-ability teams doing knowledge work in the current technological landscape.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Accessibility-Driven Information Transformations in Mixed-Visual Ability Work Teams

Blind and low-vision (BLV) employees in mixed-visual ability teams often encounter information (e.g., PDFs, diagrams) in inaccessible formats. To enable teamwork, teams must transform these representations by modifying or re-creating them into accessible forms. However, these transformations are frequently overlooked, lack infrastructural support, and cause additional labour. To design systems that move beyond one-off accommodations to effective mixed-ability collaboration, we need a deeper understanding of the representations, their transformations and how they occur. We conducted a week-long diary study with follow-up interviews with 23 BLV and sighted professionals from five legal, non-profit, and consulting teams, documenting 36 transformation cases. Our analysis characterizes how teams perform representational transformations for accessibility: how they are triggered proactively or reactively, how they simplify or enhance, and four common patterns in which workers coordinate with each other to address representational incompatibility. Our findings uncover opportunities for designing systems that can better support mixed-visual ability work.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

Weak Factorizations of the Hardy Spaces in Terms of Multilinear Calder\'on-Zygmund Operators on Ball Banach Function Spaces

In this paper, our main purpose is to establish a weak factorization of the classical Hardy spaces in terms of a multilinear Calder\'on-Zygmund operator on the ball Banach function spaces. Furthermore, a new characterization of the BMO space via the boundedness of the commutator generated by the multilinear Calder\'on-Zygmund operator is also obtained. The results obtained in this paper have generality. As examples, we apply the above results to weighted Lebesgue space, variable Lebesgue space, Herz space, mixed-norm Lebesgue space, Lorentz space and so on.

math.FA↗

arXiv2024

Speech-based Mark for Data Sonification

Sonification serves as a powerful tool for data accessibility, especially for people with vision loss. Among various modalities, speech is a familiar means of communication similar to the role of text in visualization. However, speech-based sonification is underexplored. We introduce SpeechTone, a novel speech-based mark for data sonification and extension to the existing Erie declarative grammar for sonification. It encodes data into speech attributes such as pitch, speed, voice and speech content. We demonstrate the efficacy of SpeechTone through three examples.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

TADA: Making Node-link Diagrams Accessible to Blind and Low-Vision People

Diagrams often appear as node-link representations in many contexts, such as taxonomies, mind maps and networks in textbooks. Despite their pervasiveness, they present significant accessibility challenges for blind and low-vision people. To address this challenge, we introduce Touch-and-Audio-based Diagram Access (TADA), a tablet-based interactive system that makes diagram exploration accessible through musical tones and speech. We designed and developed TADA informed by insights gained from an interview study with 15 participants who shared their challenges and strategies for accessing diagrams. TADA enables people to access a diagram by: i) engaging in open-ended touch-based explorations, ii) allowing searching of specific nodes, iii) navigating from one node to another and iv) filtering information. We evaluated TADA with 25 participants and found that it can be a useful tool for gaining different perspectives about the diagram and participants could complete several diagram-related tasks.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

Interactive Sonification for Health and Energy using ChucK and Unity

Sonification can provide valuable insights about data but most existing approaches are not designed to be controlled by the user in an interactive fashion. Interactions enable the designer of the sonification to more rapidly experiment with sound design and allow the sonification to be modified in real-time by interacting with various control parameters. In this paper, we describe two case studies of interactive sonification that utilize publicly available datasets that have been described recently in the International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD). They are from the health and energy domains: electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha wave data and air pollutant data consisting of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone. We show how these sonfications can be recreated to support interaction utilizing a general interactive sonification framework built using ChucK, Unity, and Chunity. In addition to supporting typical sonification methods that are common in existing sonification toolkits, our framework introduces novel methods such as supporting discrete events, interleaved playback of multiple data streams for comparison, and using frequency modulation (FM) synthesis in terms of one data attribute modulating another. We also describe how these new functionalities can be used to improve the sonification experience of the two datasets we have investigated.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

Tools and Tasks in Sensemaking: A Visual Accessibility Perspective

Our previous interview study explores the needs and uses of diagrammatic information by the Blind and Low Vision (BLV) community, resulting in a framework called the Ladder of Diagram Access. The framework outlines five levels of information access when interacting with a diagram. In this paper, we connect this framework to include the global activity of sensemaking and discuss its (in)accessibility to the BLV demographic. We also discuss the integration of this framework into the sensemaking process and explore the current sensemaking practices and strategies employed by the BLV community, the challenges they face at different levels of the ladder, and potential solutions to enhance inclusivity towards a data-driven workforce.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2022

Hardy Spaces Associated with Some Anisotropic Mixed-Norm Herz Spaces and Their Applications

In this paper, we introduce anisotropic mixed-norm Herz spaces $\dot K_{\vec{q}, \vec{a}}^{α, p}(\mathbb R^n)$ and $K_{\vec{q}, \vec{a}}^{α, p}(\mathbb R^n)$ and investigate some basic properties of those spaces. Furthermore, establishing the Rubio de Francia extrapolation theory, which resolves the boundedness problems of Calderón-Zygmund operators and fractional integral operator and their commutators, on the space $\dot K_{\vec{q}, \vec{a}}^{α, p}(\mathbb R^n)$ and the space $K_{\vec{q}, \vec{a}}^{α, p}(\mathbb R^n)$. Especially, the Littlewood-Paley characterizations of anisotropic mixed-norm Herz spaces also are gained. As the generalization of anisotropic mixed-norm Herz spaces, we introduce anisotropic mixed-norm Herz-Hardy spaces $H\dot K_{\vec{q}, \vec{a}}^{α, p}(\mathbb R^n)$ and $HK_{\vec{q}, \vec{a}}^{α, p}(\mathbb R^n)$, on which atomic decomposition and molecular decomposition are obtained. Moreover, we gain the boundedness of classical Calderón-Zygmund operators.

math.FA↗

arXiv2022

Characterizations of Mixed Herz-Hardy Spaces and their Applications

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and investigate some basic properties of mixed homogeneous Herz-Hardy spaces $H\dot{K}_{\vec{p}}^{α, q}(\mathbb{R}^n)$ and mixed non-homogeneous Herz-Hardy spaces $HK_{\vec{p}}^{α, q}(\mathbb{R}^n)$. Furthermore, we establish the atom and molecular decompositions for $H\dot{K}_{\vec{p}}^{α, q}(\mathbb{R}^n)$ and $HK_{\vec{p}}^{α, q}(\mathbb{R}^n)$, by which the boundedness for a wide class of sublinear operators on mixed Herz-Hardy spaces is obtained. As a byproduct, the dual spaces of mixed homogeneous Herz-Hardy spaces are deduced.

math.FA↗