Project summary

	Project no.: PN-IV-P7-7.1-PTE-2024-0434; Contract no.: 9PTE/2025
	Principal Investigators: Radu-Daniel Vatavu (University of Suceava, Romania) and Adrian Onu (ASSIST Software)
	Funded by UEFISCDI, Romania
	Funding scheme: PNCDI IV - P5.7 - Technological transfer
	Running period: January 2025 - December 2026 (24 months)

Abstract

In this project, we propose the A(I)BILITIES technology and cloud platform, which leverages the following key principles: digital accessibility (access to digital information and digital devices must be equitable), ability-centered design (users' specific abilities should be treated as design requirements for digital devices to enable personalized accessibility), and generative AI in the form of AI as a Service (equitable access to personalized accessibility services, adapted to the specific abilities of individual users, should be available for the entire community through cloud-based services).

Objectives

Our specific objectives are:

1. Development of the A(I)BILITIES technology and its validation at TRL6 level for the automatic generation of accessibility solutions by adapting digital device interfaces to individual user abilities.
2. Integration and demonstration of the A(I)BILITIES technology as a cloud-based platform, validated at TRL6 level, to facilitate equitable access to personalized solutions for users with disabilities.
3. Ensuring the sustainability of the project results and its continuity through effective dissemination within the scientific community, the industrial sector, organizations for people with disabilities, and the general public.

Team (University of Suceava)

Radu-Daniel Vatavu, Principal Investigator   Ovidiu-Andrei Schipor, Researcher   Ovidiu-Ciprian Ungurean, Researcher  Laura-Bianca Bilius, Postdoctoral Researcher  Mihail Terenti, Postdoctoral Researcher

Publications and scientific dissemination

Irina Petrariu, Laura-Bianca Bilius, Liviu Mitrofan, Sebastian Crintea, Robert Croitor, Tudor Horomnea. (2026). A Comparative Study of Regression Techniques for Touch-based Input and Adaptive User Interfaces. Proceedings of DAS '26, the 18th International Conference on Development Application Systems (Suceava, Romania), 6 pages PDF | DOI

Radu-Daniel Vatavu, Ovidiu-Ciprian Ungurean. (2026). Imagine, Interact: Eliciting Accessible Interactions from Users with Motor Impairments via Imagined Input Devices. Proceedings of CHI '26, the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Barcelona, Spain). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article no. 1197, 18 pages PDF | DOI | ACCEPTANCE RATE: 25.3% (1702/6730) | ARC CORE A*

Radu-Daniel Vatavu, Irina Petrariu, Tudor Horomnea, Ovidiu-Ciprian Ungurean. (2026). Modeling Touch Input for Users with Motor Impairments: Empirical Insights into Training Size Requirements. Proceedings of CHI EA '26, the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Barcelona, Spain). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article no. 473, 6 pages PDF | DOI | ACCEPTANCE RATE: 38.2% (789/2068) | ARC CORE A*

Mihail Terenti, Ovidiu-Ciprian Ungurean, Radu-Daniel Vatavu. (2025). Design Explorations in Distal Haptics for Touchscreen Input and Users with Upper-Body Motor Impairments. Proceedings of C&C '25, the ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition (Virtual, UK). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 409-413 PDF | DOI | ACCEPTANCE RATE: 58.1% (25/43)

Alexandra-Elena Guriță, Radu-Daniel Vatavu. (2025). Good Accessibility, Handcuffed Creativity: AI-Generated UIs Between Accessibility Guidelines and Practitioners' Expectations. Proceedings of DIS '25, the ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (Madeira, Portugal). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1197-1209 PDF | DOI | ACCEPTANCE RATE: 24.2% (176/726) | ARC CORE A

Mihail Terenti, Laura-Bianca Bilius, Ovidiu-Ciprian Ungurean, Radu-Daniel Vatavu. (2025). Empowering Accessible Gesture Input Design with Gesture-A11Y. Proceedings of W4A '25, the 22nd International Web for All Conference (Sydney, Australia). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 74-79 PDF | DOI |  Best Communication Paper Candidate

Mihail Terenti, Laura-Bianca Bilius, Ovidiu-Ciprian Ungurean, Radu-Daniel Vatavu. (2025). Gesture-A11Y: A Large-Scale Hub for Accessible Gesture Input. Proceedings of W4A '25, the 22nd International Web for All Conference (Sydney, Australia). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 48-50 PDF | DOI |  Accessibility Challenge Judges' Award

Alexandra-Elena Gurita, Radu-Daniel Vatavu. (2025). When LLM-Generated Code Perpetuates User Interface Accessibility Barriers, How Can We Break the Cycle? Proceedings of W4A '25, the 22nd International Web for All Conference (Sydney, Australia). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 124-134 PDF | DOI

Mihail Terenti, Radu-Daniel Vatavu. (2025). Distal-Haptic Touchscreens: Understanding the User Experience of Vibrotactile Feedback Decoupled from the Touch Point. Proceedings of CHI '25, the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Yokohama, Japan). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article no. 500, 19 pages PDF | DOI | ACCEPTANCE RATE: 24.9% (1249/5020) | ARC CORE A*

Radu-Daniel Vatavu, Bogdan-Florin Gheran. (2025). Intermanual Deictics: Uncovering Users' Gesture Preferences for Opposite-Arm Referential Input, from Fingers to Shoulder. Proceedings of CHI '25, the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Yokohama, Japan). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article no. 283, 16 pages PDF | DOI | ACCEPTANCE RATE: 24.9% (1249/5020) | ARC CORE A*

Alexandra-Elena Gurita, Radu-Daniel Vatavu. (2025). Breaking Bad (Design): Challenging AI User Interface Accessibility Guardrails. Proceedings of CHI EA '25, the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Yokohama, Japan). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article no. 624, 7 pages PDF | DOI | ACCEPTANCE RATE: 32.0% (32/100) | ARC CORE A*

Alexandra-Elena Gurita, Radu-Daniel Vatavu. (2025). Insights and Implications of Evaluating Accessibility Compliance in AI-Generated Web Interfaces. Companion Proceedings of WWW '25, the ACM on Web Conference (Sydney, Australia). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 996-1000 PDF | DOI | ARC CORE A*