[Nfb-krafters-korner] tactile graphics

[Blindhands at aol.com]

Terrence,
Is there a website or a way to contact this inventor to get more  
information.  I am going to try the contact info at the bottom, but I  really would 
like to learn more about how this might help out us as creative  crafters or 
artists.
 
Joyce  Kane
_www.KraftersKorner.org_ (http://www.krafterskorner.org/) 
Blindhands at AOL.com   

 
In a message dated 9/20/2011 1:33:10 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
terrencevane at gmail.com writes:

I have  begun experimenting with this as it was passed to me first by
Bonnie Lucas;  it's quite an effective little program.  I haven't had a
chance to  hook it up to an embosser yet; that's one of my to-dos this
week on a  couple of levels.

On 9/20/11, Becky Frankeberger  <b.butterfly at comcast.net> wrote:
> This message is intended mainly  for teachers of blind or visually 
impaired
> students in STEM courses.  Of course, this is a public forum and everyone 
is
> welcome to read the  message and provide comments as appropriate.
>
> Having been the  sighted teacher of a blind student for several years, I
> firmly believe  that making it possible for blind and visually impaired
> people, and  particularly blind and visually impaired students in STEM
> courses, to  communicate using accurate printed and tactile graphics will
> improve  the quality of life and the likelihood of academic success for 
those
>  students.
>
> I have written a computer program that makes it  possible, for the first 
time
> in history, for blind and visually  impaired people to create such 
graphics
> in an accessible and  user-friendly way.
>
> Version 0.0.8 of my drawing program for  blind students is now posted and
> available for free and immediate  download at:
>
>  http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/SWT-SVG/SVGDraw01.zip
>
> Three  components are necessary to accomplish the goal of widespread 
graphics
>  communication among blind and visually impaired students and their  
teachers:
>
> * Availability of a robust and universally accepted  graphics standard.
>
> * Availability of a robust, accessible, and  user-friendly drawing program
> that allows blind people to take  advantage of the SVG standard.
>
> * Availability of high-quality,  economical, and readily available 
graphics
> embossing  equipment.
>
> A robust graphics standard - SVG
>
> A  robust and universally accepted graphics standard is already available 
 in
> the form of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). See Scalable Vector  Graphics
> (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition) An accessible and user-friendly  drawing 
program -
> SVGDraw01 I have written and provided, free of  charge, a drawing program
> that blind and visually impaired people can  use to draw pictures. To the
> best of my knowledge, no other existing  program provides that capability.
> (If such a program exists, it is a  well-kept secret.) Thus, for the first
> time in history, your students  can express themselves using graphics.
>
> While many drawing  programs exist, they are written for use by sighted
> people and not for  use by blind people. My program is designed and 
written
> specifically  for use by blind and visually impaired people.
>
> Even though my  program is still under development, it already provides 
the
> capability  for STEM students to create graphics that mirror many of the
> figures  and diagrams typically found in STEM textbooks.
>
> A graph board  on steroids
>
> As a teacher of blind or visually impaired  students, you might think of 
this
> program as bringing the  old-fashioned graph board into the computer age.
> Students and others  using this program can create both printed and 
tactile
> graphics using  many of the same thought processes that they would use 
when
>  constructing a "drawing" on a graph board using pushpins, rubber bands,  
a
> protractor, and a measuring stick.
>
> For example, one  student might use this program to create and send an SVG
> file to a  friend with the message "Take a look at the cool floor plan of 
my
> new  apartment."
>
> Another student might use this program to create  and send an SVG file to 
a
> college professor with the message "This is  a free body diagram showing 
the
> magnitude and directions of forces F21  and F23 caused by the interactions
> among charges q1, q2, and  q3."
>
>
> Getting an immediate visual  output
>
> I will be adding new capabilities over time. However, I  probably won't 
add
> capabilities that would not be useful to blind and  visually impaired 
users.
> For example, the program does not, by  default, produce an immediate 
visual
> output. The primary output is  intended to be a printer, a graphics 
embosser,
> or both. But, if you  are sighted, or if you are blind and using the vOICe
> sonification  software to view the progress of your drawing, you can use a
> procedure  described in the attached file to view your drawing as it
>  progresses.
>
> High-quality, economical, and readily-available  graphics embossing 
equipment
> This is the area where we fall short  relative to achieving our widespread
> graphics communications goal.  Although high-quality embossing equipment 
is
> available in the  marketplace, it is not economical (by computer 
standards)
> nor is it  readily available for the personal use of most blind students.
>
>  I view this as a supply and demand problem. Prior to the release of my
>  program, there were no robust, accessible, and user-friendly tools that  
made
> it possible for blind people to create accurate graphics for use  with a
> high-quality embosser. Thus, the demand for such embossing  equipment has
> been very limited. My hope is that by making it possible  for all blind
> people to create accurate graphics, the demand for such  embossing 
equipment
> will go up and the costs for the equipment will  come down.
>
> Even today, however, many schools, colleges, and  other organizations own
> high-quality graphics embossing equipment that  they can make available to
> their blind and visually impaired clientele  on some basis. In those 
cases,
> there is no reason for blind people to  hold back from learning to
> communicate using graphics.
>
>  My drawing program is freely available for you and your students to use. 
 As
> a teacher, it is up to you to connect your blind and visually  impaired
> students to those available hardware embossing  resources.
>
> The attached HTML file is the User-Instruction file  for my drawing 
program
> named SVGDraw01.
>
> Please feel  free to forward this message to others who may have an 
interest
> in the  use of graphics by blind and visually impaired people.
>
> Richard  Baldwin
>
> Professor of Computer Information Technology Austin  Community College
> baldwin at austincc.edu  http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
> 1 of 1 File(s)
>   ATT00001.txt
>
>
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