Accessible Images: From Creation to User Lucia Hasty Rocky Mountain Braille Associates Bryan Gould & Geoff Freed WGBH National Center for Accessible Media Presented by the DIAGRAM Center

1.Introduction 2.Lucia Hasty – Tactile Graphics 3.Bryan Gould – How to Write Descriptions 4.Geoff Freed – User Experience 5.Request for Publisher Interviews 6.DIAGRAM at CSUN 7.Questions & Answers

Tactile Diagrams Also referred to as Tactile Graphics Raised line drawings Found in Braille Textbooks Braille Supplements and Stand-alones

Production Methods Collage and/or tooling - Thermoform copy Microcapsule paper (Swell paper) Computer designed and embossed Commercial production (press braille; resin, ink or powder deposit)

Decision Tree for Tactile Graphics Is the information a repeat of facts in text? Would the information be more meaningful in text form? Does the graphic require the reader to use visual discrimination or visual perception? –If yes, do not produce a tactile graphic.

Would be more meaningful in text form

Decision Tree for Tactile Graphics Is the actual object unavailable to examine by touch? Does the reader need the information to participate in an activity, complete an assignment, understand the concept? –If yes, produce a graphic

Decision Tree for Tactile Graphics From BANA Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics 2010 Braille Authority of North America

How to Write Descriptions The description author should consider three basic questions about each image in order to give effective and efficient description. 1.Why is the image there? 2.Who is the intended audience? 3.If there is no description what will the viewer miss?

Determine What To Describe Before describing an image, the description author must determine what on the page is already accessible and what is not accessible. What is text? Is the text accessible? Is the text navigable? What is an image?

What To Describe Activity Sidebar Main Text Image

What To Describe Title info Text or Image of Text? Text or Image of Text? Image

Recommendation is for a Tactile Diagram. Resulting Alt Text: A diagram shows the circulation of oxygen rich and oxygen poor blood through the heart and lungs.

Four years of NSF-funded research produced guidelines for making STEM images accessible. STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Math STEM Description Guidelines

Brevity Data Clarity Drill-Down Organization Tables, Lists & MathML

Brevity Data Clarity Drill-Down Organization Tables, Lists & MathML

PROSE Recorded rate of violent crimes and property crimes: aggravated assault every 37 seconds, robbery every 1.2 minutes, forcible rape every 5.8 minutes, murder and nonnegligent manslaughter every 31.1 minutes, larceny-theft every 5 seconds, burglary every 15 seconds, motor vehicle theft every 29 seconds.

MARK UP Recorded rate of violent crimes and property crimes: aggravated assault every 37 seconds robbery every 1.2 minutes forcible rape every 5.8 minutes murder and nonnegligent manslaughter every 31.1 minutes larceny-theft every 5 seconds burglary every 15 seconds motor vehicle theft every 29 seconds

PROSE Recorded Rate of Property Crimes A line chart shows the recorded rate of property crimes 1960 to 2007 including larceny theft, burglary and motor vehicle theft. All property crimes increased significantly from 1960 and peaked in the early 1980s. Property crimes fell then rose again over the next decade. Since the late 1980s to 2007, property crime has been on a steady decline, though still higher than in The following data are approximate, with the year followed by the crime rate. All Property Crimes: ,800, ,500, ,500, ,100, ,600, ,300. Larceny-theft: ,000, ,200, ,300, ,200, ,500, ,300. Burglary: , ,100, ,600, ,300, , Motor vehicle theft: , , , , ,

MARK UP Recorded Rate of Property Crimes A line chart shows the recorded rate of property crimes 1960 to 2007 including larceny theft, burglary and motor vehicle theft. All property crimes increased significantly from 1960 and peaked in the early 1980s. Property crimes fell then rose again over the next decade. Since the late 1980s to 2007, property crime has been on a steady decline, though still higher than in The following data are approximate, with the year followed by the crime rate.

Recorded Rate of Property Crimes All Property Crimes 1,800 3,500 5,500 5,100 3,600 3,300 Larceny-theft 1,000 2,200 3,300 3,200 2,500 2,300

Image descriptions can be included in a variety of digital publications… DTB, e-books, PDF, HTML …through a variety prodnote, describedby, visible text, hidden text Accessing image descriptions

Not all description-delivery methods work on all devices Additional considerations while markup might be permitted in the description (depending on the authoring tool), the reader may not interpret the markup correctly plain text vs markup text vs TTS vs audio Accessing image descriptions

Demonstration: Read2go ( iOS DTB reader w/built-in TTS PDF read with Windows screen reader HTML read with any screen reader Accessing image descriptions

Different authoring applications permit different forms of image descriptions DTB: Tobi, Dolphin Publisher, OpenOffice, Poet e-book and PDF: InDesign, OpenOffice, Word HTML Accessing image descriptions

DIAGRAM product matrices: image- description support across many hardware/software devices: Accessing image descriptions

Request for Publisher Interviews! Help DIAGRAM create tools to help you increase efficiency of producing accessible images. Contact:

DIAGRAM at CSUN February 25 – March 2, 2013 – San Diego 2/28: “Born Accessible: Inclusive Publishing” with Larry Goldberg, George Kerscher, and Betsy Beaumon 3/1: “Latest Developments in Math Accessibility” with Dave Schleppenbach, Neil Soiffer, Ed Summers, and Anh Bui

Contact Information Lucia Hasty Rocky Mountain Braille Associates Bryan Gould & Geoff Freed WGBH National Center for Accessible Media DIAGRAM Center Funded by Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) diagramcenter.org