UML4All Syntax

A main objective of the Cooperate project involved developing a new textual UML notation to address the needs and preferences of visually impaired people. There are many and diverse textual UML notations but only a few of them fulfil the requirements of blind people working with screen readers. During the development of the new textual notation UML4All special attention was paid to accessibility and usability. The UML4All-Syntax is presented with examples on the following web page: www.uml4all.net

For developing the UML4All syntax, we investigated details of other textual notations and compared different approaches. A survey on existing UML notations is available in the following publication: SEIFERMANN, Stephan; GROENDA, Henning. Survey on the Applicability of Textual Notations for the Unified Modeling Language. Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development. Springer International Publishing, 2017, S. 3-24 [link]

In addition, we developed guidelines for creating accessible textual notations in general. These guidelines are published in the Proceedings of the ICHHP'16: PETRAUSCH, Vanessa; SEIFERMANN, Stephan; MÜLLER, Karin. Guidelines for Accessible Textual UML Modeling Notations. In: International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Springer International Publishing, 2016. S. 67-74. [.pdf]  

An evaluation of the UML4All syntax has been also conducted and is accepted for publication at ICCHP'2018: LOITSCH, Claudia; MÜLLER, Karin; SEIFERMANN, Stephan; HENSS, Jörg; KRACH, Sebastian, JAWOREK, Gerhard, STIEFELHAGEN, Rainer: UML4ALL Syntax - A Textual Notation for UML Diagrams. Accepted for publication at the ICCHP 2018