[Blindmath] Graphics

Mon Jan 30 21:39:43 UTC 2012

Hello Michael.  As for why I have concentrated on audio/tactile as opposed
to pure audio is because most people would agree with your comment "
Personally I have always found pure sonification difficult to master, I just
seem to have some sort of disconnect or gap between the audio and the
spatial, so find it very difficult to visualise anything from passively
listening to audio." 

I have met some people who can use audio alone effectively - eg people using
VOICe, but I have met many who cannot or will not.  I have met few people
who are not able to understand audio/tactile graphics.  

Dick mentions the desireability of using touch screen computers instead of
the touchpad.  That is possible in principle but is presently plagued by a
few practical difficulties.  We are working hard to iron out those practical
difficulties.  A few VoiceOver/Safari bugs are being fixed by Apple that
should make it possible soon to read audio/tactile graphics on an iPad.
It's a fairly small screen, but it's big enough to be useful for many
things.  The touch screen still works well if a tactile graphic is on it.
This is one of many efforts ViewPlus is making to reduce cost to end users.
I hope that larger touch screen computers soon become popular and useful to
blind people.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Michael Whapples
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 4:26 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Graphics

Hello,
A couple of things in response.

Firstly the swell paper thing, probably in that one message where I say IVEO

can be used with swell paper, it probably was left to be implied by the 
reader that it would be subjected to the limitations of swell paper, I 
didn't feel like typing it out on a touchscreen. However I would say, while 
it cannot do colour/shading like the tiger, it is possible to have ways of 
differentiating between different regions with swell paper by using 
different textures (eg. horizontal lines, vertical lines, dots, etc). 
Admittedly applying a texture to an area is probably more complicated than 
using colours or shading, but if ViewPlus wants to make IVEO better with 
swell paper it might be a feature (apply texture) worth considering, but 
whether ViewPlus wants to add such a feature is up to ViewPlus.

The other point or may be question is may be of more interest. Your comments

on why ViewPlus and you focussed on audio-touch instead of just tactile 
diagrams is interesting to read, I don't think I would dispute anything 
there. What I am left with is a slight question of why did you go 
audio-touch instead of plain audio, or may be more popularly called 
sonification? Quite a number of people have gone down the pure sonification 
route in trying to make visual images accessible, so there must be something

desirable in pure sonification but why did you feel the touch part is also 
important? Personally I have always found pure sonification difficult to 
master, I just seem to have some sort of disconnect or gap between the audio

and the spatial, so find it very difficult to visualise anything from 
passively listening to audio.

Please do let us know more as that project progresses.

Michael Whapples

-----Original Message----- 
From: John Gardner
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2012 7:24 PM
To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
Subject: [Blindmath] Graphics

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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