My previous research involved diagnosing ocular diseases such as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS) with novel VR-based tests. Astronauts during long duration spaceflight undergo some ocular structural and functional changes and my research focused on creating a portable system to detect such changes reliably. My current research interest is with building a set of tools for content developers that help them assess and improve the accessibility of their contents. My postdoctoral fellowship at SKERI will primarily involve developing A11yOS (read Accessibility Operating System) under the mentorship of Dr. James Coughlan.
Individuals with comparable visual test results and diagnoses may have very different residual visual capacities and corresponding experiences. The ability to deliver personalized visual feedback tailored to each user's contextual needs is made possible by the considerable computational and rendering capabilities of modern extended reality (XR) devices. A11yOS, a near-eye head-mounted video pass-through display (HMVPD) framework will consist three modules that jointly help developers test the accessibility of their new assistive product with a diverse set of simulated perceptual loss and help target users identify the best settings for their usage. My goal is to open the framework for public contribution once it has been validated on color deficient and central field loss subjects. I am looking to collaborate with color vision experts and occupational therapists.