Tac-tiles: multimodal pie charts for visually impaired users

Wall, S.A. and Brewster, S.A. (2006) Tac-tiles: multimodal pie charts for visually impaired users. In: 4th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Oslo, Norway, 14-18th October 2006., pp. 9-18. ISBN 1595933255 (doi: 10.1145/1182475.1182477)

Abstract

Tac-tiles is an accessible interface that allows visually impaired users to browse graphical information using tactile and audio feedback. The system uses a graphics tablet which is augmented with a tangible overlay tile to guide user exploration. Dynamic feedback is provided by a tactile pin-array at the fingertips, and through speech/non-speech audio cues. In designing the system, we seek to preserve the affordances and metaphors of traditional, low-tech teaching media for the blind, and combine this with the benefits of a digital representation. Traditional tangible media allow rapid, non-sequential access to data, promote easy and unambiguous access to resources such as axes and gridlines, allow the use of external memory, and preserve visual conventions, thus promoting collaboration with sighted colleagues. A prototype system was evaluated with visually impaired users, and recommendations for multimodal design were derived.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Keywords: accessibility, blind, graphs, tactile, tangible.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Brewster, Professor Stephen
• Authors: Wall, S.A., and Brewster, S.A.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science; Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Publisher: ACM Press
• ISBN: 1595933255
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2006 ACM Press
• First Published: First published in Proceedings of the 4th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: changing roles.
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher