Providing Dynamic Access to Electronic Tactile Diagrams

A significant problem for individuals who are blind or visually impaired is the lack of access to graphical information. In this paper, we describe our work on components of a system to make this access available in real-time, on demand, and through effective means. We start by discussing our current work on converting visual diagrams and images into a representation that can be more effectively interpreted by individuals who are blind or visually impaired. We then describe previous and ongoing work in our laboratory on computer I/O devices we are developing to provide the given representation to the user immediately and interactively. Finally, we describe dynamic methods that we have developed to help manage the information presented more effectively given the constraints of the tactile system.