1. Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students
Department of Computer Science Institute for Applied Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction
Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students
Leipzig, 11 February 2015

2. G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students
Overview
Service Center for Students who are visually impaired Production of Tactile Graphics Tangram Project Tangram Workstation
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

3. G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students
Service Center AG SBS
Founded in 1990 by Prof. Wünschmann at TU Dresden
Support for students from many faculties including
Computer Science, Mathematics
Psychology, Sociology
Produces electronic books from
textbooks published by publishers (PDF, LaTeX),
scripts, Powerpoint slides from lecturers, or
papers in Proceedings
with permission (Copyright).
Book format is based on a subset of HTML (blind readers) or PDF (low vision readers)
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

4. Production of tactile graphics
Technology: swellpaper& tactile printer (TIGER embosser)
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

5. Survey in German speaking countries 2013
Technology
Producers (n=20)
Users (n=78)
swellpaper
80 %
90 %
Braille printer
55 %
72 %
collage
20 %
62 %
thermofoil
87 %
3D-model
63 %
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

6. Issues in Tactile Graphics Production
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

7. Guidelines for tactile graphics
BANA Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics TAEVIS Tactile Diagram Manual (VISCH - Visualisierte Informationen in Schulbüchern zugänglich machen) suggests OpenOffice Draw
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

8. Guidelines for tactile graphics (1/2)
Layout criteria consistency preservation original contents simplicity recognizable reading sequence avoidance of perspective … General criteria for graphical elements distinctness/contrast no overlapping or any incompleteness minimal distances (> 3 mm)
Auszug Kriterienkatalog TUD / Tangram 2013
Taktile Grafik

9. Guidelines for tactile graphics (2/2)
Criteria for labelling in Braille reduction of text unambiguous reference to graphical element reduce supporting lines appropriate legend … Criteria for tactile shapes, lines and textures minimal size of objects (length > 1.3 cm) arrows recognizable max different styles for lines and textures distinctness of textures simple tracing of lines
Auszug Kriterienkatalog TUD / Tangram 2013
Taktile Grafik

10. G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students
Tangram Project
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

11. G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students
Quality assessment using W3C EARL standard
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

12. G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students
Textures
Consistency for
swell paper,
Braille printout, and
pin-matrix device
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

13. Tangram toolbar for OpenOffice
position
size
fill pattern / area symbol
line style
Create separating space between fill pattern and surrounding border line for better recognition of the outline
start tactile picture
evaluation dialog
Open ‘title & description’ dialog
start TANGRAM lector
workstation
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

14. TANGRAM workstation on Hyperbraille
Access to OpenOfffice Draw
Tactile user interface
Editor for textual descriptions
DAISY reader for DAISY diagrams
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

15. Tactile User Interface in Tangram
joint access to visual output multiple zoom levels panning tactile scrollbar input by mouse and keyboard
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students

16. G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students
References
Denise Prescher, Jens Bornschein, Gerhard Weber: Production of Accessible Tactile Graphics. ICCHP (2) 2014: Jens Voegler, Jens Bornschein, Gerhard Weber: Markdown - A Simple Syntax for Transcription of Accessible Study Materials. ICCHP (1) 2014: Jens Bornschein, Denise Prescher, Gerhard Weber: SVGPlott - Generating Adaptive and Accessible Audio-Tactile Function Graphs. ICCHP (1) 2014: Denise Prescher, Gerhard Weber, Martin Spindler: A tactile windowing system for blind users. ASSETS 2010: Martin Spindler, Michael Kraus, Gerhard Weber: A Graphical Tactile Screen-Explorer. ICCHP (2) 2010: Michael Kraus, Thorsten Völkel, Gerhard Weber: An Off-Screen Model for Tactile Graphical User Interfaces. ICCHP 2008:
Symposium,
G.Weber: Access to Tactile Information for Blind Students