TacTILE: a preliminary toolchain for creating accessible graphics with 3D-printed overlays and auditory annotations

L He, Z Wan, L Findlater, JE Froehlich - Proceedings of the 19th …, 2017 - dl.acm.org
Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers …, 2017dl.acm.org
Tactile overlays with audio annotations can increase the accessibility of touchscreens for
blind users; however, preparing these overlays is complex and labor intensive. We introduce
TacTILE, a novel toolchain to more easily create tactile overlays with audio annotations for
arbitrary touchscreen graphics (eg, graphs, pictures, maps). The workflow includes:(i) an
annotation tool to add audio to graphical elements,(ii) a fabrication process that generates
3D-printed tactile overlays, and (iii) a custom app for the user to explore graphics with these …
Tactile overlays with audio annotations can increase the accessibility of touchscreens for blind users; however, preparing these overlays is complex and labor intensive. We introduce TacTILE, a novel toolchain to more easily create tactile overlays with audio annotations for arbitrary touchscreen graphics (e.g., graphs, pictures, maps). The workflow includes: (i) an annotation tool to add audio to graphical elements, (ii) a fabrication process that generates 3D-printed tactile overlays, and (iii) a custom app for the user to explore graphics with these overlays. We close with a pilot study with one blind participant who explores three examples (floor plan, photo, and chart), and a discussion of future work.
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