CAREER: Enabling Independent Access to Digital Graphical Content for People with Visual Impairment

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

While sighted people readily enjoy the added value of the graphical content (digital images, maps, diagrams, etc.) that has become prevalent in the information age, visually impaired users can with the help of screen-reader software such as JAWS and Window-Eyes independently access only digital textual data, because such software cannot handle graphical information. Typical procedures for manually producing tactile graphics by sighted professionals are generally time consuming and labor intensive, hence coverage is extremely limited; furthermore, there is no online and independent availability if the production has to be done by third-party professionals. The PI's ultimate goal is to afford users with visual impairments independent real-time access to diverse types of graphical information, while taking into account often-overlooked issues such as privacy. In this project, however, he will address one specific and challenging subproblem of practical significance: how to make digital graphical content more independently accessible to students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In addition to line-drawing graphics of a primarily binary nature, a specific type of continuous-tone image, human portraits, will also be considered, both due to the special value that facial images have in our social and emotional life, and also to demonstrate the potential of the PI's approach for handling more complex visual content. The research activities planned to these ends include a focused study of the peculiarities of haptic perception in tactile exploration of graphics, development of visual processing techniques for automated visual-to-tactile conversion, a usability study to determine intuitive and efficient presentation and interface schemes for the target end-users, prototype development and evaluation. Encouraging preliminary results have been obtained by the PI, demonstrating the feasibility and potential of the planned research and of the proposed methodologies. This research will advance our knowledge in the domains of visual-tactile cognition, image understanding, human-computer interaction in general and assistive technologies for people with visual impairments in particular. The PI?s institution provides an excellent and unique environment for performing this work. Broader Impacts: This research will contribute to the research fields of visual-tactile cognition, automatic understanding of visual data for visual-to-tactile conversion, and development of assistive devices for the visually impaired. It will have significant impact on society, by ultimately enabling independent access to a wide range of visual content by people who are blind. More immediately, the project will help overcome the current barriers to the STEM fields that confront individuals with visual impairments.