Tactile Graphics Research Josh Scotland

Terminology Accessibility: Amount to which a product is available to the population Braille: Language read tactually with characters containing 6 dots Tactile Graphics: Images in a tactile form that are used by low vision students

Braille Alphabet

Tactile Graphics

Translation Process Scan the image TGA text extraction Optical character recognition Braille Translation Adobe Illustrator Embossing Tiger Embosser

The TGA

Translation Process

Pros / Cons Cons Lower quality Pros Quick Customizable Transportable Much cheaper!

Audio Augmentation of Tactile Images for Greater Accessibility Summer ‘09 Research Audio Augmentation of Tactile Images for Greater Accessibility

Issue #1 Braille character sizes Limitation of information 12 vs. 29 pt fonts

Size of Braille

Size of Braille

Issue #2 “There are approximately 57,696 legally blind children in the U.S. Out of those school-age children, only 10 percent use Braille as their primary reading medium.”1 1 American Printing House for the Blind (2008), "Facts and Figures on Americans with Vision Loss", American Foundation for the Blind, http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=15&DocumentID=4398, 2009-04-16

Solution: Audio Having audio in conjunction with tactile graphics increases accessibility by solving these two issues: Limitation of information: Less clutter, more info Braille illiteracy: Accessible to the 90% that can’t read Braille

Digital Pen Technology Use digital pens to play audio with tactile graphics Digital paper has thousands of small dots Pen has infrared camera that takes snapshots

Goal

Acknowledgments Richard Ladner, Mentor, CSE Dan Comden, Adaptive Technology Lab Jeffery Bigham, University of Rochester, CSE Chandrika Jayant, Ph. D., CSE Sangyun Hahn, Ph. D., CSE Washington NASA Space Grant National Federation of the Blind