Providing Blind People With Access to Technical Diagrams
By Blenkhorn, Paul; Crombie, David; Dijkstra, Sijo; Evans, Gareth; Gallagher, Blaithin; Hagen, Cornelius; Horstmann, Mirko; Ioannidis, George; King, Alasdair; Magennis, Mark; O'Neill, Anne-Marie; Petrie, Helen; Schlieder, Christoph; Wood, John; Assistive Technology - Shaping the Future: AAATE 2003 Conference Proceedings, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 466-470Publication Date: 2003
Paper discusses the operation and evaluation of TeDUB software, which was developed to give people who are blind or have low vision access to diagrams in well-defined technical domains, which include software engineering diagrams, architectural plans, and electronic diagrams. The system’s most distinguishing features are that it requires no special preparation of the diagram; it uses cheap and non-specialist technology; and it allows users to view documents as external memory aids, organizing and annotating them so that they are working documents rather than fixed sources of information. An image of a diagram is first scanned to create an image, which is analyzed by the Diagram Navigator user interface. The image can be interpreted via voice or Braille output. Implications for further research are discussed.
Published by: IOS Press (Website:http://www.iospress.nl)
Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE) (Web Site: http://www.aaate.net )
ISBN: 1-58603-373-5
