[Blindmath] Graphics

[John Gardner]

I agree with Dick Baldwin that at the present time, a blind person needs
sighted assistance to access most graphical information.  I described a way
that a blind person who has IVEO and a ViewPlus embosser can access
graphics, but it is tedious and gives only partial access.  Even if Jamal
and Dick could drive a process that could reliably isolate and process
images, I am skeptical that, in the end, most images will be accessible
without sighted assistance anyhow.  We have to face the physical fact that
fingers are not a fully adequate substitute for vision even for the most
competent braille/tactile graphics readers.

My vision of graphics is that they should be published in an accessible
format, and I have devoted much of my energy for nearly 20 years to
developing methods that have some chance of actually happening.  I'm not
unhappy with what ViewPlus has achieved, but I sure wish we could speed up
the process and bring down the cost to end users.  

ViewPlus expects soon to be starting a new project funded partly by the
DIAGRAM project to evaluate usability of SVG graphics accessed by
audio/touch - which is what IVEO is all about.  Assuming that preliminary
information is correct and the grant is approved, I will soon be looking for
committed volunteers and suspect that several of you would like to
volunteer.  I particularly encourage people who have access to a ViewPlus
embosser to volunteer.  Those without such access can still participate, but
they'll need to wait a few days for their tactiles to arrive in the mail.
By the way, Michael is right that swell paper works too but only for line
art.  Anything with color or texture is just a mess with swell paper.

The purpose of the grant is for volunteers to evaluate a number of SVG files
per month and to submit some of their own images to be "made accessible".
Good accessibility means that text speaks when touched, math is spoken
properly, and important graphic objects speak their titles when touched.
The more complex the graphic, the more important it is for graphic objects
to be labeled.  Processing of color beyond the simple default for ViewPlus
embossers would help, particularly for images that are not well-represented
in gray scale.

More information will be forthcoming when the project starts.

One final comment.  Audio-touch access requires a computer and some external
equipment to use.  Why not make graphics accessible by touch alone?  It is
clearly possible for experts to make graphical information accessible as
stand-alone tactile graphics.  Generally that graphic needs to be
considerably simplified and needs braille labels and a braille description.
It is costly, because a trained expert needs to make the tactile version.
In addition, surprisingly few blind people can read it anyhow.  On the other
hand, it is much easier to convert a graphic to SVG and add the meta-data
necessary to make it accessible.  Simplification is unnecessary. The
learning curve for both the creator and user is not high, and anybody who
wants to learn can do it.  Finally it is possible in principle for almost
any mainstream graphic to be published in SVG with that meta-data included
so that it is automatically accessible.  That is just not the case for
stand-alone tactiles.  These are the reasons that I have concentrated on
audio-touch methods and will let others make stand-alone tactiles.

John Gardner
________________________________

John Gardner       |  President |  ViewPlus  	
541.754.4002 x 220 |  www.viewplus.com
________________________________

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