Voiceye: A Multimodal Inclusive Development Environment

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People with physical impairments who are unable to use traditional input devices (i.e. mouse and keyboard) are often excluded from technical professions (e.g. web development). Alternative input methods such as eye gaze tracking and speech recognition have become more readily available in recent years with both being explored independently to support people with physical impairments in coding activities. This paper describes a novel multimodal application (“Voiceye”) that combines voice input, gaze interaction, and mechanical switches as an alternative approach for writing code. The system was evaluated with non-disabled participants who have coding experience (N=29) to assess the feasibility of the application in writing HTML and CSS code. Results found that Voiceye was perceived positively and enabled successful completion of coding tasks. A follow-up study with disabled participants (N=5) demonstrated that this method of multimodal interaction can support people with physical impairments in writing and editing code.