Presentation

Barbara Leporini graduated from high school in book accountancy and programming with full marks in 1992, and in 1997 she got her Master Degree in Computer Science with full marks and honours. In 2003 she obtained her PhD with a dissertation on the following subject: "Criteria to improve web site usability and accessibility when interacting through screen readers: definition, application, and evaluation".

Since the beginning of her PhD project, Barbara has done her research at the CNR of Pisa in the laboratory of " Human Interfaces in Information Systems " of the Institute for Information Science and Technology (ISTI). Currently she is a researcher of the same Institute.

In general, her research activity concerns the problems that disabled people, and particularly blind people, encounter when they try to access information as well as to interact with the technologies. Her investigation, which involves different aspects of the interaction between users and devices (e.g., computers, smartphones, tablets, and any other specific device) aims at promoting a better and stronger integration of disabled people in the society. Through the years, this issue has become more and more important both for research (e.g., see the European research project proposals) and applications (in Italy, see the law 4/2004 on information accessibility for equal opportunities).

In specific and in practice, Barbara works on usability and accessibility, for disabled people, of Web and desktop interfaces, search engines, mobile applications, tools to support blind interaction, and identification systems for the electronic signature.

Beyond research, Barbara has been teaching classes of computer sciences and assistive technologies. She has been also providing technical support for the accessibility and usability at various levels. In particular, she partecipated to boards and groups working on different problems concerning visual impaired people. See her other activities for more details.