Tactile graphics with a voice

Abstract

Textbook figures are often converted into a tactile format for access by blind students. These figures are not truly accessible unless the text within the figures is also made accessible. A common solution to access text in a tactile image is to use embossed Braille. We have developed an alternative to Braille that uses QR codes for students who want tactile graphics, but prefer the text in figures be spoken, rather than in Braille. Tactile Graphics with a Voice (TGV) allows text within tactile graphics to be accessible by using a talking QR code reader app on a smartphone. To evaluate TGV, we performed a longitudinal study where ten blind and low vision participants were asked to complete tasks using three alternative picture taking guidance techniques: 1) no guidance, 2) verbal guidance, and 3) finger pointing guidance. Our results show that TGV is an effective way to access text in tactile graphics, especially for those blind users who are not fluent in Braille. In addition, guidance preferences varied with each of the guidance techniques being preferred by at least one participant.

How accessible is my visualization? Evaluating visualization accessibility with Chartability

“…Despite this promising work emerging, we also want to acknowledge a spectrum of other work that exists at the intersection of accessibility and data visualization that does not serve the goals of our project. There is significant research that explores automatic or extracted textual descriptions [CJP∗19,BRS18,CZK∗19,CZK∗20, LLJ∗20, OH20, QKD∗21, SF18] and haptic graphs and tactile interfaces [Ald08, BPW15, BH12, BHR∗21, GS11, GSF83, JDI∗15, JRW∗07,LTJ86,Schb,SZFA16,BMD∗16]. These research projects produce artifacts that are high‐cost for individual use, some are not robust enough to interpret complex visualizations effectively, and several have not included people with disabilities.…”

Tecnologias assistivas para auxiliar deficientes visuais na criação e leitura de conteúdos gráficos: uma revisão sistemática da literatura

“…Os dispositivos com feedback auditivo fornecem informações sobre o gráfico de maneira sonora, utilizando voz sintetizada ou apenas pistas sonoras para orientar leitura e a navegação dentro do gráfico. Dentre estas soluções pode-se citar TGV [Baker et al, 2016], TGH [Fusco e Morash, 2015] e TacTILE [He et al, 2017].…”

Pictures in Your Mind

“…The Tactile Graphics Helper [17] plays prerecorded audio when the finger is over predefined labels and is triggered by voice commands. Tactile Graphics with a Voice [2] is an app for smartphones and Google Glass that reads labels indicated by QR codes. Similar in spirit is the commercial product ORCam 3 , a glasses-mounted camera, that detects text touched by a single extended, upward-facing finger, and reads this text using OCR technology.…”

“…Depicted shapes can be geometrically formed in bas-relief and painted textures can be made tactile as surface variations. The importance of this technique is demonstrated by the increasing number of art shows all over the world incorporating tactile reliefs 2 and technical developments [15,16,43] in order to create such reliefs. Though primarily created for BVI people, kinesthetic learning has been found to be important for people who struggle with logical and analytical thinking, such as those with learning and cognitive differences and disabilities.…”

“…As stressed throughout the literature (e.g., [14]), verbal description is a very important 1 By precisely recreating the painting in relief, it is pixel by pixel the same when viewed from above, which cannot be achieved in full 3D works in which backs and sides would need to be "hallucinated" and the overall impression would significantly change. 2 Examples for art shows that incorporated tactile reliefs include The "Museo Tattile di Pittura Antica e Moderna Anteros" of the Istituto F. Cavazza in Bolognia [20] (http://www.cavazza.it/?q=node/315); Irish Museum of Modern Art: "Altered Images," 2010 (http://topografik.co.uk/altered-images-index); Berlinische Galerie: "Wien Berlin," 2014 [6]; Prado: "Touching the Prado," 2015 (https://www.museodelprado.es/en/whats-on/exhibition/touching-the-prado/29c8c453-ac66-4102-88bd-e6e1d5036ffa); Canadian Museum for Human Rights: "Sight Unseen," 2016 (https://humanrights.ca/exhibit/sight-unseen).…”