[Blindmath] First attempt at an SWT/SVG based drawing program

Thu Sep 1 00:09:55 UTC 2011

Ben,

Let me start by saying the vOICe does not make it safe to drive anywhere 
even if it's real slow on the driveway and only on Saturdays. Pranav's not 
literally driving, at least I hope not.

I discovered the vOICe late last year while doing research for a project in 
Prof. Baldwin's class and found it immediately useful for viewing the graphs 
in his DSP tutorials. When I heard the sounds, I saw the graph. I was born 
completely blind. A few months of testing the concept was enough to convince 
me to try using it with camera glasses in real life. I now wear this setup 
for several hours at a time almost every day and am literally seing results.

Here are just a few examples:
When I'm on the short bus to school, I like to look out the window. I never 
knew (or cared) that all around me were so many trees, hedges, bushes, etc. 
As long as I sit on the right side, I have learned to recognize when I've 
arrived at the correct dropoff point at my school. Once, someone showed me 
some simple photographs of gemstones and plants and they began to appear in 
3D - I am the one who swore that a flat picture could never be 3D and that 
the math teachers were playing a joke on me. I am noticing more and more 
little details every day, such as the spongy appearance of the cork bulletin 
board in the hallway, the unevenly placed keys on a computer keyboard, the 
point in front of me where everything gets smaller and closer together, and 
a person standing several feet in front of me. I still don't recognized that 
person. Without depth perception and color it is an imperfect system, but 
fascinating nonetheless. Of course I still use the software for simple 
graphics in science and math.

Amanda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ben Humphreys" <brh at opticinspiration.org>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 8:18 AM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] First attempt at an SWT/SVG based drawing program

> Amanda,
>
> What an interesting combination of tools.  I've read about The vOICe 
> before but dismissed it as too "noisy" to truly visualize anything with 
> it.
>
> Has your experience been different?  Are you genuinely able to make sense 
> of new drawings, pictures, or physical scenes with it?
>
> Have you tried it in a mobile situation, such as walking about campus?
>
> Looking forward to hearing your experiences,
>
> Ben
>
> At 09:25 PM 8/30/2011, you wrote:
>>I should never have this program open in class unless I want to have lots 
>>of fun while missing every single word spoken in lecture. Once I found out 
>>what I was doing to crash the program, I found a cool way to use it which 
>>allows for an instant view of what you've drawn even before embossing it.
>>
>>Here's how I like to edit drawings. I first open the vOICe learning 
>>edition - a free download from seeingwithsound.com.
>>Preparing the vOICe for viewing drawings is done in three steps:
>>The default view for this program is that bright colors produce loud 
>>sounds and dark shades are quiet. To reverse this, hit F5 for negative 
>>video. Hit control F9 to sonify the current window, then minimize the 
>>program.
>>I was able to edit a picture I'd just created by not pressing the button 
>>called "start a new drawing" so that the shapes are still in memory, 
>>adding a new shape, then writing it to the same filename. I opened the 
>>picture in firefox. Each time I make a change to the file, I can hit F5 in 
>>firefox and instantly hear the change to the picture as the vOICe sonifies 
>>that window. I can also use control = and control - to adjust the size of 
>>the picture in firefox.
>>
>>I love the instant graphical gratification.
>>
>>Amanda
>>
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Baldwin" 
>><baldwin at dickbaldwin.com>
>>To: "BlindMath Mailing List" <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
>>Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 9:02 PM
>>Subject: [Blindmath] First attempt at an SWT/SVG based drawing program
>>
>>
>>>For those who may be interested, I have posted my first attempt at 
>>>putting
>>>an SWT GUI front end on my SVG graphics library and have posted the
>>>resulting program in a file named SVGDraw01.jar at the following URL:
>>>
>>>http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/SWT-SVG/SVGDraw01.jar
>>>
>>>I would appreciate it if some of you would download the program, try it, 
>>>and
>>>provide feedback in several different areas. You will need the Java 
>>>virtual
>>>machine installed on your computer to run the program. On Windows, you 
>>>can
>>>run the program either by double-clicking on the jar file, or by opening 
>>>a
>>>command prompt in the folder containing the jar file and entering the
>>>following command at the command prompt:
>>>
>>>java -jar SVGDraw01.jar
>>>
>>>When the program starts running, you should find yourself in an SWT Combo
>>>object with an item labeled "User Instructions" highlighted. Pressing the
>>>Enter key at this point will take you to the beginning of a page 
>>>containing
>>>user instructions. A screen reader should tell you to press shift-tab to
>>>return to the combo box or to press the tab key to continue.
>>>
>>>Pressing the tab key will cause the screen reader to begin reading the
>>>instructions. At the end of the instructions, the screen reader should 
>>>tell
>>>you to "Press tab to return to the combo box." (Of course, you can press 
>>>tab
>>>at any time. You don't need to wait until the screen reader finishes 
>>>reading
>>>the instructions.)
>>>
>>>You can navigate up and down the list in the combo box using the arrow 
>>>keys
>>>and act on an item by pressing the Enter key when that item is selected. 
>>>The
>>>combo box currently contains the following items:
>>>
>>>User instructions (which is what you should do first)
>>>Start a new drawing (which is what you should do next)
>>>Draw a line
>>>Draw a rectangle
>>>Draw a circle
>>>Draw an ellipse
>>>Draw a polyline
>>>Draw a polygon
>>>Write drawing file (which is what you should do next to last)
>>>Stop program (which is what you should do last)
>>>
>>>When you press the Enter key on the item labeled "Start a new drawing," 
>>>an
>>>empty SVG page of a specified size with optional title and description
>>>attributes will be created in memory.
>>>
>>>When you press the Enter key on the item labeled "Write drawing file", 
>>>that
>>>SVG page will be written to an output SVG file with a name of your 
>>>choosing
>>>and an extension of .svg.
>>>
>>>Between starting a new drawing and writing the drawing file, you can add
>>>elements for any number of any of the six shapes (which are the SVG basic
>>>shapes) in any order to the SVG page.
>>>
>>>When you press the Enter key on a shape item, you will land on a form 
>>>that
>>>allows you to enter the most commonly used attributes for that shape. 
>>>Fill
>>>in the blanks, check the check boxes (if any), and finally push the 
>>>button
>>>labeled "Push to draw ---" to add the shape element to the SVG page. You 
>>>can
>>>navigate up and down the the form with the tab key and shift-tab.
>>>
>>>I would appreciate receiving feedback in at least the following areas.
>>>Feedback in other areas not listed below will be appreciated also.
>>>
>>>1. Will the program be accessible to a blind student? What could be done 
>>>to
>>>improve accessibility?
>>>
>>>2. Will the navigation structure of the program be functionally useful to 
>>>a
>>>blind student? What could be done to improve the navigational 
>>>functionality
>>>and make the program easier to use?
>>>
>>>3. Will the "fill-in-the-blanks" concept for creating technical diagrams 
>>>and
>>>drawings, such as vector diagrams and free-body diagrams, be useful to a
>>>blind student? If so, which of the many additional capabilities of SVG, 
>>>such
>>>as arcs, paths, etc., would be appropriate as an upgrade to the program.
>>>(I'm already planning on adding the ability to create text elements. I 
>>>just
>>>haven't resolved all the questions regarding fonts yet.)
>>>
>>>4. To what extent is the output SVG file compatible with graphics 
>>>embossers
>>>that can work with SVG files as input? What could be done to improve that
>>>compatibility?
>>>
>>>Thank you,
>>>
>>>Dick Baldwin
>>>
>>>--
>>>Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
>>>Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
>>>http://www.DickBaldwin.com
>>>
>>>Professor of Computer Information Technology
>>>Austin Community College
>>>(512) 223-4758
>>>mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
>>>http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
>>>_______________________________________________
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>>
>>
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>
>
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