[NABS-L] Audiom: Evaluating if digital interactive alternate text provides the same information as visual spatial maps and diagrams

[Louis Maher]

Hello,

One of the speakers at the February 22, 2026 Science and Engineering / National Association of Blind Students STEM seminar was Brandon Biggs. The title of his talk was "Audiom: Evaluating if digital interactive alternate text provides the same information as visual spatial maps and diagrams". The talk abstract and speaker introduction are pasted below my signature.

Brandon wrote: "I am looking for blind folks in need of using spatial diagrams for education or professionally, so if you know of anyone, especially around maps, please let me know.".

Audiom seeks to give the blind and partially sighted as much information audibly, and through magnification, as can be obtained visually from maps and diagrams.

A Recording of the STEM meeting is available at
"2026-02-22 SED seminar_Recording.mp3<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TO2CQ-Eq_X1ufKYQqvRcMvwFpl5eg8wf/view?usp=drive_link>". Once this link is accessed, once your virtual cursor is off, hitting enter on this file produces a "play" dialog, and tabbing around the "play" dialog will bring you to a download button.

While I am happy to recommend the entire seminar, Brandon's thirty-minute talk starts around 58 minutes and 26 seconds into the program.

Brandon's contact information is:

Brandon Biggs
CEO
XR Navigation<https://xrnavigation.io/>
Phone: 650-833-9394
brandon.biggs at xrnavigation.io<mailto:brandon.biggs at xrnavigation.io>
Official Esri Partner<https://www.esri.com/partners/xr-navigation-a2TUU00000102CX2AY>, and in partnership with the National Federation of the Blind<https://nfb.org/>.

Regards
Louis Maher
Phone: 713-444-7838
Email: ljmaher03 at outlook.com<mailto:ljmaher03 at outlook.com>

--------------
Brandon's title, abstract, and speaker introduction, are:

Title: Audiom: Evaluating if digital interactive alternate text provides the same information as visual spatial maps and diagrams

Speaker: Brandon Biggs (brandon.biggs at xrnavigation.io<mailto:brandon.biggs at xrnavigation.io>)

Abstract: Sighted people view over 300 digital maps a year, in contrast to blind people, who view less than one map a year on average. Only around 17.5% of blind
people have ever viewed a map of any kind as a blind person. This talk will present Audiom, an interactive alternate text game-like digital interface that
can allow the non-visual viewing and creation of diverse types of spatial information, such as maps and diagrams. Over 13 academic studies and co-designs
have been performed on over 150 blind and 40 sighted participants to create and evaluate Audiom. The presentation will then discuss how Audiom is being
compared with visual digital maps and diagrams. The objective of this work is to clearly define what it means for a non-visual text map to serve the equivalent
purpose to a visual map to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The results of this work should inform digital accessibility legislation to facilitate
equal educational and employment opportunities for professions require the use of spatial information.

Links to Audiom:
Personal use:
https://audiom.net<https://audiom.net/>
Commercial use:
https://xrnavigation.io<https://xrnavigation.io/>

Speaker Introduction: Brandon Biggs is an entrepreneur, researcher, inclusive designer, developer, and life-long learner. He is the CEO of XR Navigation, an Engineer at the
Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, Co-Founder and board treasurer at Sonja Biggs Educational Services Inc., and a PhD student at the Georgia institute
of Technology. In 2016, he received his bachelor's in music from California State University East Bay, in 2019 he received his master's in Inclusive Design
from the Ontario College of Art and Design University, and in 2021, began his PhD in Human Centered Computing from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
He is almost completely blind from Leber's Congenital Amaurosis (LCA). His projects and ventures center around building tools to solve some of the most
difficult problems in the blindness field. He leverages his lived experience coupled with human centered inclusive design principles to create solutions
that create lasting and sustainable impact. To achieve this goal, Brandon is half entrepreneur and half academic.