[Blindmath] R and creation of SVG

[Godfrey, Jonathan]

Hi all,

I recently attended an excellent talk at the NZ statistical Association conference. I have some really useful interactions with an R guru whose area of expertise is graphics.

The main point of his presentation was to encourage R users to use scalable vector graphics (SVG) instead of the poorer alternatives. He showed how poor some formats were (png, jpg etc.) and the limitations of the more commonly used eps and pdf graphic types, and then showed the power of SVG. I sat there and soaked it all up, knowing that there was little new in terms of what svg was doing but plenty in terms of what R can do in creating SVGs. As it happened he added a short tag to all data points in a scatter plot and had  the label of a few points read aloud using e-speak and some java scripting which kept the audience interested. I tackled him after the talk and had a very useful chat about the possibilities SVG offers the blind community, especially if we have access to the right hardware.

For me, the real value was that we might find ways (using R) to create SVGs that include the text we need as blind users for ourselves. Even if the results aren't perfect, they might get us a lot closer to having immediate access to graphical output.

My next message outlines some grief in reading his presentation. Please keep the threads separate.

Jonathan