Laura South

Laura South

Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Williams College

Publications

Design Considerations for Photosensitivity Warnings in Visual Media

Published in ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, 2024

When digital content is tested for photosensitive safety and is found to contain seizure-inducing strobes or flashing lights, warnings about photosensitive risk are usually shown to the user prior to viewing the content. These photosensitivity warnings are an important accessibility feature for people with photosensitive epilepsy, allowing them to avoid interacting with content that may trigger seizures. However, little is known about how these warnings should be structured to maximize effectiveness in helping with people PSE navigate visual media safely. The design space for photosensitivity warnings is vast and includes questions such as what details to include about strobing light sequences or the content itself, where to place warnings within an interface, and what methods to use to extract information about the strobing light sequences (e.g., crowdsourced or automated methods). In this work, we contribute an interview study with five people who have been diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy about design considerations for photosensitivity warnings on digital platforms. To guide our interviews, we assembled examples of both crowdsourced and automated warnings about seizure-inducing content in films. Crowdsourced warnings were drawn from the DoesTheDogDie online forum and automated warnings were presented in the form of a high fidelity sketch demonstrating what an automated system for photosensitivity warnings might look like when deployed by a film streaming platform. We contribute design guidelines for the structure, content, and data sourcing of photosensitivity warnings for visual media based on the findings of our interviews.

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Vis Repligogy: Towards a Culture of Facilitating Replication Studies in Visualization Pedagogy and Research

Published in EuroVis, 2024

Replication studies are crucial to strengthening the data visualization field and ensuring its foundations are solid and methods accurate. Although visualization researchers acknowledge the epistemological significance of replications and their necessity to establish trust and reliability, the field has made little progress to support the publication of such studies and, importantly, provide methods to the community to encourage replications. Therefore, we contribute Vis Repligogy, a novel framework to systematically incorporate replications within visualization course curricula that not only teaches students replication and evaluation methodologies but also results in executed replication studies to validate prior work.

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Beyond Vision Impairments: Redefining the Scope of Accessible Data Representations

Published in Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2024

The increasing ubiquity of data in everyday life has elevated the importance of data literacy and accessible data representations, particularly for individuals with disabilities. While prior research predominantly focuses on the needs of the visually impaired, our survey aims to broaden this scope by investigating accessible data representations across a more inclusive spectrum of disabilities. After conducting a systematic review of 152 accessible data representation papers from ACM and IEEE databases, we found that roughly 78% of existing articles center on vision impairments. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive review of the remaining 22% of papers focused on underrepresented disability communities.

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Barriers to Photosensitive Accessibility in Virtual Reality

Published in ACM CHI Conference Proceedings, 2024

Virtual reality (VR) systems have grown in popularity as an immersive modality for daily activities such as gaming, socializing, and working. However, this technology is not always accessible for people with photosensitive epilepsy (PSE) who may experience seizures or other adverse symptoms when exposed to certain light stimuli (e.g., flashes or strobes). How can VR be made more inclusive and safer for people with PSE? In this paper, we report on a series of semi-structured interviews about current perceptions of accessibility in VR among people with PSE.

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The Effect of Orientation on the Readability and Comfort of 3D-Printed Braille

Published in ACM CHI Conference Proceedings, 2024

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is a low-cost method of 3D printing that is used to produce tactile graphics and interfaces for people with visual impairments. Orientation is known to impact the structure and quality of 3D-printed braille and text, but the relationship between print orientation and user comfort has not been empirically examined. We conducted two mixed-methods studies to evaluate the performance of braille printed at different angles in terms of reading time and subjective preference. Participants were faster and preferred reading braille printed vertically or at a high degree (e.g., 75°) over horizontally printed braille.

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Unraveling the Design Space of Immersive Analytics: A Systematic Review

Published in IEEE VIS 2023 Conference Proceedings (Full Paper), 2023

Immersive analytics has emerged as a promising research area, leveraging advances in immersive display technologies and techniques, such as virtual and augmented reality, to facilitate data exploration and decision-making. This paper presents a systematic literature review of 73 studies published between 2013-2022 on immersive analytics systems and visualizations, aiming to identify and categorize the primary dimensions influencing their design.

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Augmented Reality for Scholarly Publication of 3D Visualizations in Astronomy: An Empirical Evaluation

Published in IEEE VIS 2023 Conference Proceedings (Short Paper), 2023

We present a mixed methods user study evaluating augmented reality (AR) as a visualization technique for use in astronomy journal publications. This work is motivated by the highly spatial nature of scientific visualizations employed in astronomy, including spatial reasoning tasks for hypothesis generation and scientific communications.

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The State of the Art in BGP Visualization Tools: A Mapping of Visualization Techniques to Cyberattack Types

Published in IEEE VIS 2022 Conference Proceedings (Full Paper), 2022

Internet routing is largely dependent on Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). However, BGP does not have any inherent authentication or integrity mechanisms that help make it secure. Visualization tools provide an attractive alternative in lieu of traditional security approaches. The purpose of this study is to provide an initial formalization of methods and visualization techniques for BGP cybersecurity analysis.

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Photosensitive Accessibility for Interactive Data Visualizations

Published in IEEE VIS 2022 Conference Proceedings (Full Paper), 2022

Accessibility guidelines place restrictions on the use of animations and interactivity on webpages to lessen the likelihood of webpages inadvertently producing sequences with flashes, patterns, or color changes that may trigger seizures for individuals with photosensitive epilepsy. Online data visualizations often incorporate elements of animation and interactivity to create a narrative, engage users, or encourage exploration. In this paper, we examine the role of animation and interaction in data visualizations within the context of photosensitive accessibility and contribute a model for ensuring photosensitive safety without compromising design integrity.

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Effective Use of Likert Scales in Visualization Evaluations: A Systematic Review

Published in Eurovis/Computer Graphics Forum, 2022

Likert scales are often used in visualization evaluations to produce quantitative estimates of subjective attributes, such as ease of use or aesthetic appeal. However, the methods used to collect, analyze, and visualize data collected with Likert scales are inconsistent among evaluations in visualization papers. In this paper, we examine the use of Likert scales as a tool for measuring subjective response in a systematic review of 134 visualization evaluations published between 2009 and 2019.

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Detecting and Defending Against Seizure-Inducing GIFs in Social Media

Published in ACM CHI 2021 Conference Proceedings (Full Paper), 2021

Despite recent improvements in online accessibility, the Internet remains an inhospitable place for users with photosensitive epilepsy, a chronic condition in which certain light stimuli can trigger seizures and even lead to death in extreme cases. In this paper, we explore how current risk detection systems have allowed attackers to take advantage of design oversights and target vulnerable users with photosensitivity on popular social media platforms.

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Generating Seizure-Inducing Sequences with Interactive Visualizations

Published in IEEE VIS 2020 Poster, 2020

Interactive visualizations are often built to draw the eye towards pertinent information with attention-grabbing pops of color and patterns. These techniques, though helpful in engaging the average user and nudging them towards important information, can be harmful to users with photosensitive epilepsy, who may experience seizures when exposed to content with flashes, transitions to and from saturated red, or repeated patterns.

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DebateVis: Visualizing Political Debates for Non-Expert Users

Published in IEEE VIS 2020 Conference Proceedings (Short Paper), 2020

Political debates provide an important opportunity for voters to observe candidate behavior, learn about issues, and make voting decisions. In this paper we contribute reflections and results of an 18-month design study through an interdisciplinary collaboration with journalism and political science researchers. We characterize task and data abstractions for visualizing political debate transcripts for the casual user, and present a novel tool (DEBATEVIS) to help non-expert users explore and analyze debate transcripts.

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Ethical Considerations of Photosensitive Epilepsy in Mixed Reality

Published in CHI 2020 Workshop: Exploring Potentially Abusive Ethical, Social and Political Implications of Mixed Reality Research in HCI, 2020

As public interest in virtual and augmented reality increases, so do the risks faced by users with photosensitive epilepsy, a neurological condition where seizures are triggered by specific kinds of light stimuli. In this workshop paper we draw from photosensitive epilepsy research to create recommendations for simple steps mixed reality developers can take to minimize photosensitive risk in their systems in addition to issuing a broader call for further research into understanding photosensitive epilepsy in the context of mixed reality.

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