Home   >   CSC-OpenAccess Library   >    Manuscript Information
A Method to Provide Accessibility for Visual Components to Vision Impaired
Azadeh Nazemi, Iain Murray
Pages - 54 - 69     |    Revised - 05-04-2013     |    Published - 30-04-2013
Volume - 4   Issue - 1    |    Publication Date - April 2013  Table of Contents
MORE INFORMATION
KEYWORDS
K. Vision Impaired, Bar Chart, Pie Chart, Line Chart, Function Graph, Text to Speech, GNUPLOT, GraphicReader.
ABSTRACT
Non-textual graphical information (line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, etc.) are increasingly pervasive in digital scientific literatures and business reports which enabling readers to easily acquire the nature of the underlying information [1]. These graphical components are commonly used to present data in an easy-to interpret way. Graphs are frequently used in economics, mathematics and other scientific subjects. In general term data visualization techniques are useless for blind people. Being unable to access graphical information easily is a major obstacle to blind people in pursuing a scientific study and careers [2].This paper suggests a method to extract implicit information of Bar chart, Pie chart, Line chart and math’s graph components of an electronic document and present them to vision impaired users in audio format. The goal is to provide simple to use, efficient, and available presentation schemes for non textual which can help vision impaired users in comprehending form without needing any further devices or equipments. A software application has been developed based on this research. The output of application is a textual summary of the graphic including the core content of the hypothesized intended message of the graphic designer. The textual summary of the graphic is then conveyed to the user by Text to Speech software .The benefit of this approach is automatic providing the user with the message and knowledge that one would gain from viewing the chart.
CITED BY (3)  
1 Braier, J., Lattenkamp, K., Räthel, B., Schering, S., Wojatzki, M., & Weyers, B. (2014). Haptic 3D Surface Representation of Table-Based Data for People With Visual Impairments. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS), 6(1), 1.
2 Nazemi, A., Murray, I., & McMeekin, D. A. (2014). Layout analysis for Scanned PDF and Transformation to the Structured PDF Suitable for Vocalization and Navigation. Computer and Information Science, 7(1), p162.
3 Nazemi, A., & Murray, I. (2013). An open source reading system for print disabilities.
1 Google Scholar 
2 CiteSeerX 
3 refSeek 
4 Scribd 
5 SlideShare 
6 PdfSR 
A. Brown, R. Stevens ,S Pettifer, “Making graph-based diagrams work in sound: the role of annotation”, Manchester,2012
A. R. Kenne”,Audiograf: A diagram-reader for the blind”. In Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies, p. 51–56.1996.
A.J. Brown,” Non-Visual interaction with graphs”, Manchester, 2007
Accessible Graphics: Graphics for Vision Impaired People,Diagram 2012 7th International Conference on the theory and application ,2012
Burton G. Andreas . Experimental psychology,1965
C. F. Greenbacker, P.Wu S. Carberry, K.E. McCoy,S. Elzer ,D. D. McDonald ,D. Chester, S. Demir. ”Improving the Accessibility of Line Graphs in Multimodal Documents” Published in:Proceeding SLPAT '11 Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies,2011
C. Goncu , K. Marriott, “Tactile chart generation tool”, ASSETS’08, Proc. of 10th Int. ACM SIGACCESS Conf. Computers and Accessibility, pp.255-256, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada,October 2008.
C. McCathie Nevile, M.R.Koivunen, Accessibility Features of SVG, Available at :www.w3.org/TR/SVG-access, Aug 2000,[ Nov.1, 2012].
D.L.Ryan,” Modern Graphic Communications” ,Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1986
D.McCallum,”The design and manufacture of tactile maps using an ink-jet process”, Journal of Engineering Design, ,2005
Guidelines and Standards for tactile Graphics .available at http://brailleauthority.org/tg/webmanual/,2010,[3 Dec 2012].
I.Murray,” Instructional eLearning technologies for the vision impaired “.published doctoral thesis, 2008. Curtin University, Perth,2008
J. Gao , Y. Zhou, K.E. Barner,” Making Information Graphics Accessible for Visually Impaired Individuals” ,University of Delaware Newark ,DE19716 USA, March 2012
L. Brown, S. Brewster, R. Ramboll, M. Burton and B. Riedel ,”Design guidelines for audio presentation of graphs and tables” ,Proc. of ICAD 2003, 2003.
L. Ferres, P. Verkhogliad, G. Lindgaard, L. Boucher, A. Chretien, and M. Lachance,“Improving accessibility to statistical graphs: The iGraph-Lite system”, ASSETS’07, Proc. of 9th Int. ACM SIGACCESS Conf,2007
N J. Salkind Statistics for People who (think They) Hate Statistics, The Excel Edition,2006
National Centre for Accessible Media (NCAM),Provide access to graphs for users who are blind or visually impaired, Available at :http://ncam.wgbh.org/invent_build/web_multimedia/accessible-digital-media-guide/guideline-fgraphs,[ 2 Dec 2012]
P.B.Meijer, An experimental system for auditory image representations, IEEE Transactions, on Biomedical Engineering, 39(2):112–121. 1992
P.Roth, D Richoz, L. Petrucci, T. Pun,”An audio-haptic tool for non-visual image representation” ,Computer Science Department CUI, University of Geneva, XCH – 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland,2001
R Cohen, V. Haven, J.A. Lanzoni, A..Meacham,”Using an Audio Interface to Assist Users who are Visually Impaired with Steering Tasks”,Boston, 2006
R.Ramloll,W. Yu, S. Brewster,B. Riedel, M. Murton,G. Dimigen, “ Constructing sonified haptic line graphs for the blind student:First steps”, Proc. of ASSETS 2000, p. 17–25,Arlington, VA, 2000
S Carberry, S. Elzer, S. Demir.” Information graphics: an untapped resource for digital libraries”Proceedings of the 29th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research, 2006
S Elzer, E Schwartz, S Carberry, D Chester, Demir, P Wu,“A browser extension for providing visually impaired users access to the content of bar charts on the web”, Millersville University,POB 1002, Millersville, PA 17551, USA,2007
S. A. Wall , S. A. Brewster “Tac-tiles: Multimodal Pie Charts for Visually Impaired Users”Glasgow Interactive Systems Group, Department of Computing Science University of Glasgow,G12 8QQ, UK,2012
S. Friel, F.R. Curcio, G.W. Bright,” Making Sense of Graphs:Critical Factors Influencing Comprehension and Instructional Implications”, Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 2001, Vol. 32, No. 2, 124–158
S. Ina,”Computer graphics for the blind” ACM SIGCAPH Computers and the Physically Handicapped,55:16–23,1996
T.Watanabe, T. Yamaguchi, M. Nakagawa, “Development of Tactile Graph Automated Creation Software”, University of Niigata, Japan,2012
University of South Australia ,2004,”Online Accessibility Action Plan” ,Available at:http://w3.unisa.edu.au/footer/accessibility/actionplan.pdf,[ 20 Nov 2012]
W,Yu, R Ramloll, S Brewster, B Ridel,”Exploring computer-generated line graphs through virtual touch”Department of Computing Science, *Department of Psychology University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK,2012
W. Huang,C.L. Tan,” A system for understanding imaged info graphics and its applications” ,Proceedings of the 2007 ACM symposium on Document engineering,2007
W. Yu, S. Brewster, “Multimodal Virtual Reality Versus Printed Medium in Visualization for Blind People”, Glasgow,2002
W. Yui, S. Brewster, “Evaluation of Multimodal Graphs for Blind People” , Glasgow,2003
W.S.Cleveland. The Elements of Graphing Data. Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth & Advanced Book Program,1985
W.Yu,R. Ramloll,S.Brewster,” Haptic Graphs for Blind Computer Users”, Glasgow,2001
Dr. Azadeh Nazemi
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Curtin University Perth, WA - Australia
azadeh.nazemi@postgrad.curtin.edu.au
Iain Murray
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Curtin University Perth, WA - Australia


CREATE AUTHOR ACCOUNT
 
LAUNCH YOUR SPECIAL ISSUE
View all special issues >>
 
PUBLICATION VIDEOS