[NABS-L] Accessing Figures in Scientific Papers

[Gene Kim]

Hi Campbell,

Congrats on the research position! Similar to Miso, for interpreting
figures, tools like Be My AI desktop/mobile app and the recent JAWS 2024
PictureSmart AI feature
<https://vispero.com/freedom-scientific-unveils-revolutionary-picturesmart-ai-for-jaws/>
are
both better than nothing but haven't always been the most
complete/accurate in my experience for figures in research papers. I've had
a little more success with common types of figures like histograms, line
graphs, and inaccessible tables. Depending on the type of project and
domain you're working on though, the statistics highlighted in the
results/discussion sections can be enough for many papers.

For creating figures, Python's matplotlib library is a powerful and widely
used tool amongst researchers I've worked with. Some other options you
might consider are mermaid <https://mermaid.js.org/> (a javascript based
diagramming tool) and the SVG markup language (here's a resource from a
blind SVG user <https://blindsvg.com/>).

Feel free to keep in touch throughout the summer - always happy to chat
about computational research!

Cheers,
Gene

On Sat, Jun 1, 2024 at 12:41 PM misokwak12--- via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Hi Campbell, I mostly study social science and do mixed method research or
> qualitative research so not explicitly quant oriented person here...
> That said, I have used R along with visual studio code to produce some
> graphs for my multiple regression class. I also have used Be My Eyes AI to
> get some figures described in a pinch in the fall 2024 semester. I found it
> to be better than nothing but not very satisfactory... that said, I wonder
> if there may have been more improvement and/or paid version may give you
> better result.
> I am also pretty lucky right now to have a great team of people supporting
> me when I encounter diagrams and figures in my work now but I would be
> curious to read if others on the list have suggestions on this topic.
> Miso
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NABS-L <nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Campbell Rutherford
> via NABS-L
> Sent: Saturday, June 1, 2024 2:11 PM
> To: 'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: campbell.rutherford15 at gmail.com
> Subject: [NABS-L] Accessing Figures in Scientific Papers
>
> Hello all,
>
> I just sent this to the NFB Science list, but I thought I would ask my
> questions here as well in case there's someone on this list who has
> experience with the issue that I'm addressing. I am about to begin my first
> summer research experience, which will mostly involve computation and data
> analysis. One unanticipated problem that I encountered was that of figures
> without alt text in scientific papers. Note that these figures appear in
> PDFs that are otherwise accessible. I've been a bit spoiled so far in
> college; if figures in the papers that I had to read were not already
> accessible, one of my accommodations was for someone to write descriptions
> for me that would include the necessary data. However, in this research
> position, the resources to make this happen are not already in place, and
> the scientists with whom I will be working and I are trying to figure out
> how to best make figures in scientific papers accessible to me.
>
> Has anyone had any luck with using gen AI or other technology to describe
> figures? If so, what is your app/program of choice? Also, what is the best
> way to produce figures from your own data? I have used Desmos for graphs of
> functions and Excel for simple statistical graphs (line charts,
> scatterplots, bar graphs, etc.). I also played with SAS Graphics
> Accelerator
> a few years ago, and one of the scientists with whom I'll be working says
> that he typically creates his figures using Python. What do you all think
> works the best? Are there other methods for creating figures of which I
> should be aware?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Campbell Rutherford
>
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