[NFBMD] Research Request

[David Andrews]

Research Participation Request: Evaluating the Accessibility of Touch 
and Audio-based Visual Analysis for Blind Individuals



The below research participant solicitation is being provided for 
informational purposes only. The National Federation of the Blind has 
no involvement in this research, but we believe that it may 
contribute to our research mission.




Research Title: Evaluating the Accessibility of Touch and Audio-based 
Visual Analysis for Blind Individuals



Being conducted by: University of Maryland College Park


Purpose of the Study

We have developed a cross-modal tool for making charts accessible on 
touchscreen devices such as tablets and smartphones. The system - 
TactualPlot, uses speech and non-speech audio to represent chart 
elements and data values, while the interaction is through 
touch-based gestures. We designed our interaction gestures and audio 
through workshops with our blind collaborator where we used Tactile 
Graphics interaction as reference. We mainly focused on scatter plots 
for our initial exploration. Our goal is to quantitatively understand 
how effective our approach is in comparison to  (1) accessible 
textual descriptions (captions), and (2) Monarch device - a 
multi-line refreshable Braille display that can render tactile graphics.


Role of the Participants and Anticipated Length of the Study

In the current planned study, we will create

Bar chart: A horizontal chart where adjacent bars of different height 
will convey values in a one-dimensional dataset, such as sales 
figures for different products or unemployment rates for different countries.

Line chart: A horizontal chart representing time-series data as a 
continuous line where time is represented on the horizontal axis and 
value is represented on the vertical axis, such as stock market 
indices or temperature measurements over time.

Pie Chart: A radial chart representing relative ratios of a whole, 
where circle segments (pies) convey the ratio for each discrete 
label, such as gender distributions or parts-of-whole relationships.

Scatterplot: A two-dimensional chart with different data dimensions 
mapped to the vertical and horizontal axes and data points plotted in 
the Cartesian plane defined by them, such as a camera dataset 
plotting price versus resolution, or cars plotting gas mileage versus 
horsepower.

Tasks

In designing tasks for a data science study, it is important to 
select tasks that are representative of the full gamut of tasks that 
an analyst might encounter in their daily work. We choose to base our 
choice of tasks on the cardinality of the task: the number of data 
items each task is concerned with. More specifically, while each 
visual representation will have specific tasks, we propose a common 
theme for all representations:

One item (access) - reading a single value from a dataset;

Two items (comparison) - comparing two different values in a dataset.

Many/all items (distribution) - characterizing the entirety of a dataset.

The study session will last no longer than 3 hours, and participants 
will be compensated $100 for their time.

A detailed research plan is available in the following link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uqMEpe7D33iOZxuScnFliWDQKZHuGEBGQ3xm1isIQXg/edit?usp=sharing


Proposed Participant Compensation

Yes, Upon completion of the study, participants will be paid with a 
$100 gift card.


Link or Instructions for Participants to Enter the Study

Dear NFB members,

Our research team, led by Professor Jonathan Lazar at University of 
Maryland, College Park, aims to improve information accessibility for 
blind individuals through design and evaluation of interactive 
systems that represent data in the form of sound and touch. We have 
designed an interactive tool to support data analysis (using sound) 
to generate insights. Additionally, we have also designed data 
visualizations to work with the Monarch, a refreshable tactile 
display from the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). To 
evaluate our designs, we are seeking participants for a user study.

  We are recruiting participants who are blind, have experience with 
a screen reader, have experience with data analysis, and are 18 years 
of age or older.

  The study will in total take approximately 3 hours during which we 
will ask you to use the tools to explore data, followed by a small 
interview to gather feedback on the design. The sessions shall be 
audio and video recorded and participant's on screen activities shall 
be screen recorded. No personal data will be collected, and all study 
data will be anonymized.

  Participants will be compensated with a $100 gift card for their 
time and efforts. Study sessions will be conducted at the University 
of Maryland campus in College Park, at a convenient location for the 
participant such as a nearby public library, or their home (if 
comfortable). Please email the researcher (listed below) to discuss 
travel and location.

  If you are interested in participating, please send an email to 
Pramod (pchundur at umd.edu). After receiving your email, we will reply 
to confirm your appointment, and provide details about the study. 
Please feel free to share the email to others who you believe may be 
interested in participating!

  Best regards,

  Pramod Chundury

  Email: <mailto:pchundur at umd.edu>pchundur at umd.edu

  Phone: 240-620-5063


Contact the following individual with any questions

Pramod Chundury

2406205063

pchundur at umd.edu


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