CodeWalk: Facilitating Shared Awareness in Mixed-Ability Collaborative Software Development

COVID-19 accelerated the trend toward remote software development, increasing the need for tightly-coupled synchronous collaboration. Existing tools and practices impose high coordination overhead on blind or visually impaired (BVI) developers, impeding their abilities to collaborate effectively, compromising their agency, and limiting their contribution. To make remote collaboration more accessible, we created CodeWalk, a set of features added to Microsoft's Live Share VS Code extension, for synchronous code review and refactoring. We chose design criteria to ease the coordination burden felt by BVI developers by conveying sighted colleagues' navigation and edit actions via sound effects and speech. We evaluated our design in a within-subjects experiment with 10 BVI developers. Our results show that CodeWalk streamlines the dialogue required to refer to shared workspace locations, enabling participants to spend more time contributing to coding tasks. This design offers a path towards enabling BVI and sighted developers to collaborate on more equal terms. © 2022 ACM.

Mixed Abilities and Varied Experiences: A group autoethnography of a virtual summer internship

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many people to convert their daily work lives to a "virtual"format where everyone connected remotely from their home. In this new, virtual environment, accessibility barriers changed, in some respects for the better (e.g., more flexibility) and in other aspects, for the worse (e.g., problems including American Sign Language interpreters over video calls). Microsoft Research held its first cohort of all virtual interns in 2020. We the authors, full time and intern members and affiliates of the Ability Team, a research team focused on accessibility, reflect on our virtual work experiences as a team consisting of members with a variety of abilities, positions, and seniority during the summer intern season. Through our autoethnographic method, we provide a nuanced view into the experiences of a mixed-ability, virtual team, and how the virtual setting affected the team's accessibility. We then reflect on these experiences, noting the successful strategies we used to promote access and the areas in which we could have further improved access. Finally, we present guidelines for future virtual mixed-ability teams looking to improve access. © 2021 ACM.

Point-of-care ultrasound findings among dialysis patients with COVID-19

Background: Dialysis patients are vulnerable in the COVID-19 pandemic due to advanced age, comorbidities, and obligate travel with frequent healthcare contacts. Pointof- care cardiac and lung ultrasound (US) has been used to enhance the physical exam in dialysis patients and is a potent tool for assessment COVID-19, comparing favorably to computed tomography. Here we report findings of focused cardiac and lung US among dialysis patients in an acute care setting. Methods: This is a cohort of dialysis patients who presented to our institution in Spring of 2020 with COVID-19. All patients started dialysis prior to the index acute care visit. Focused 5-view cardiac assessment and 12-zone lung US were obtained according to published protocols. Results: 25 patients were included. 88% were African American. 64% were female. Mean age was 61.96 and body mass index was 25.8 kg/ m2. 56% had history of heart failure, 28% lung disease. 15 (60%) were discharged with mean length of stay 10 days. 36% required invasive mechanical ventilation and 56% intensive care unit admission. 23 patients had cardiac US. 17 had an ejection fraction (EF) >55%, 3 had EF 30-55%, 1 had EF <30%. 23 had inferior vena cava (IVC) assessment, 18 had a normal or collapsed IVC, and 5 had a full, non-collapsing IVC. 3 had pericardial effusion. 4 had right-ventricular dysfunction. 25 completed anterior lung US zones and 12 also had posterior lung US. In at least 1 lung zone 16 (64%) had confluent B-lines, 16 (64%) consolidations, 16 (64%) isolated B-lines, and 17 (68%) pleural thickening. 8 had pleural effusions (3 bilateral). Conclusions: We showed a high prevalence of thickened pleural lines, subpleural consolidations, and multifocal or confluent B-lines among dialysis patients with COVID-19. Most had a normal or collapsed IVC and intact cardiac function. Pleural and pericardial effusions were uncommon. More study is needed to determine whether US findings can help guide fluid management in dialysis patients. (Figure Presented).

Point-of-care ultrasound findings in patients with COVID-19 and AKI

Background: More than one third of patients presenting with COVID-19 in the United States develop acute kidney injury (AKI) and many require dialysis. AKI portends a poor prognosis particularly if dialysis is required. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a valuable tool for the evaluation of AKI particularly for assessment of volume status. Here we describe clinical and ultrasonographic characteristics of COVID-19 patients with AKI. Methods: This cohort includes prospectively enrolled adult patients with confirmed COVID-19 who developed AKI as part of their hospital encounter in April and May of 2020. Ultrasounds were performed using a published 12-point lung and limited 5-view cardiac protocol. The diagnosis of AKI was determined by a nephrologist. The institutional review board at the University of Pennsylvania approved this study. Results: 33 patients were included. 79% were African-American. 56% were female. Median age was 65 and average BMI 30±9. 29% had CKD, 47% had diabetes, 68% had hypertension and 24% had heart failure. 12 experienced stage 1 AKI, 4 had stage 2 AKI, 17 had stage 3 AKI, and 10 required dialysis. 16 patients (52%) had a diagnosis of acute tubular injury. 18 (53%) had significant proteinuria, 24 (71%) had hematuria, and 20 (59%) had pyuria. 73% required ICU admission, 15 were discharged and 5 died. 25 of 33 had a left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) assessment, 22 had an EF >55%, 4 had an EF 30-55% and 1 had an EF <30%. 23 had an assessment of their inferior vena cava (IVC). 8 had a normal IVC, while 6 had a full, non-collapsing IVC and 9 had a flat IVC. 5 had pericardial effusion. 2 had right-ventricular dysfunction. The lung US assessments included an average of 10 of the 12 specified zones, favoring the anterior zones. An average of 3.8 zones per scan showed scattered b-lines, 3.1 zones showed confluent b-lines and 1.0 zone showed consolidations. 3 patients had pleural effusion. Conclusions: Our study describes cardiac and lung US findings in patients who experience AKI during their COVID-19 course. Most patients had multifocal b-line findings. Most had normal ejection fractions but there was wide variation in IVC distension. More studies are needed to determine if ultrasound can guide fluid management or identify reversible causes of AKI.