David Crombie

TeDUB: A System for Presenting and Exploring Technical Drawings for Blind People

Blind people can access and use textual information effectively in a variety of ways - through Braille, audiotape or computer-based systems. Access and use of graphic information is much more problematic, with tactile versions both time-consuming and difficult to make and textual descriptions failing to provide independent access to the material. The TeDUB Project is developing a system which will automatically generate descriptions of certain classes of graphics (electronic circuit diagrams, UML diagrams and architectural plans) and allow blind people to explore them independently. This system has great potential in work, education and leisure domains to open up independent access to graphic materials for blind people.

Presenting UML Software Engineering Diagrams to Blind People

The TeDUB system promises to deliver a UML diagram tool accessible to blind software engineers. The system uses a number of different interfaces and representation techniques to overcome the challenges of making diagrams created with the Unified Modeling Language usable for blind people. The system is entirely automated and does not require special preparation of UML diagrams by a sighted user. The results of evaluation of the system with thirty-six users were positive. The system was well-received and the participants were able to complete set UML tasks.

Automated interpretation and accessible presentation of technical diagrams for blind people

The EU-supported TeDUB (Technical Drawings Understanding for the Blind) project is developing a software system that aims to make technical diagrams accessible to blind and visually impaired people. It consists of two separate modules: one that analyses drawings either semi-automatically or automatically, and one that presents the results of this analysis to blind people and allows them to interact with it. The system is capable of analysing and presenting diagrams from a number of formally defined domains. A diagram enters the system as one of two types: first, diagrams contained in bitmap images, which do not explicitly contain the semantic structure of their content and thus have to be interpreted by the system, and second, diagrams obtained in a semantically enriched format that already yields this structure. The TeDUB system provides blind users with an interface to navigate and annotate these diagrams using a number of input and output devices. Extensive user evaluations have been carried out and an overall positive response from the participants has shown the effectiveness of the approach.

math2braille: Opening Access to Mathematics

It is clear that Braille has many problems when representing the complex information associated with mathematics. The reliance on linear representation removes much of the structure which aids the sighted user to quickly navigate an equation. A further problem with many accessible education tools is that the teacher must understand the accessible format and this can be both time-consuming and costly. There is little or no real competitor to MathML and the increased development of structural functionalities in the MathML 2.0 specification provides an excellent representation to parse into other formats. In order to improve facilities available in creating accessible solutions, the math2braille Module will soon be made available as an open source module which other developers can incorporate in their own systems.

Spoken Music: Enhancing Access to Music for the Print Disabled

The traditional approach taken to the provision of music for the print disabled by major organisations has been largely concerned with Braille music. Reading Braille music is a specialised skill and not all visually impaired people can do this. There are some technologies available which allow the print-disabled to service themselves but there remains a lot of work to be done in this area. FNB has developed a new approach, called Spoken Music. The Spoken Music system can cope with a range of music, from elementary to professional levels, which can be very complex indeed. Opportunities for collaboration clearly exist as organisations move towards common standards (such as DAISY) and as digital distribution channels multiply.

The bigger picture: Automated production tools-for Tactile Graphics

The Graphics to Tactile project (G2T) aimed to provide a semi-automatic image processing tool to enhance the creation of tactile graphics. In attempting to convert graphical and visual information into accessible formats, it is important that the information used for input is sufficiently well defined. Print diagrams and graphics contain information (such as perspective, overlapping lines, and colour) that cannot be represented in a Braille reader. People who are blind therefore cannot access complex formatted text, pictures, graphics or maps. The G2T system makes use of advanced image processing technologies partially to automate the tactile graphic production process and can be used in conjunction with existing drawing tools.

Spoken Subtitles: Making Subtitled TV Programmes Accessible

FSB (Federation of Organisations for Visually Impaired People), together with NOS (the public broadcasting-company) and FNB (the Federation of Dutch Libraries for the Blind) have joined forces to improve access to subtitled television programmes. In the Netherlands, many television programmes from foreign countries are available, and these are commonly provided with Dutch subtitles. The Spoken Subtitles initiative makes these subtitle-translated programmes accessible to the visually impaired by creating a service which automatically produces talking subtitles using synthetic speech. The paper describes the conceptual background of the Spoken Subtitle initiative, and outlines the results and the first experiences of the current service.

Accessibility from Scratch: How an Open Focus Contributes to Inclusive Design

When attempting to solve the riddle of the planets, Pythagoras the mathematician applied his ‘philosophy of numbers’ to the available information on the dynamics of the solar system. Having also studied music as science, he called the unity he found the Harmony of the Spheres, believing that the divine could hear a hum created by the perfect harmonies in the oscillations caused by celestial bodies. This paper concerns the provision of music for people who are blind or otherwise print impaired. Our experience has shown that by considering accessibility from scratch we can establish some fundamental harmonies which can be achieved by taking a more ‘openfocus’ to inclusive design. No divine hum perhaps, but we can help people to whistle a good tune.

Interfacing the Interface: Unification Through Separation

This paper addresses the modeling of user-centred interaction paradigms at a fundamental level. Interfacing can be described as defining and specifying ‘connection’ points for communication. By providing interactive means of relating flows between these connection points, we can achieve a dialogue. A dialogue becomes a Dialog if a sufficient level of understanding both ways is achieved. We consider this to represent the level of accessibility an environment, whether virtual or real, requires. A well balanced design in any information system provides an architecture with built-in accessibility features. To this end, a high level of flexibility and accessibility can be achieved by separating the various entities that are of importance in the communication process. This paper provides an explanation of this approach and an example of its implementation.

MAXICULTURE: Assessing the Impact of EU Projects in the Digital Cultural Heritage Domain

This paper describes the MAXICULTURE methodology for the socio-economic impact assessment of the DigiCult domain and projects funded by the European Commission, including the development process and the implementation trajectory for the MAXICULTURE lifecycle. With the term DigiCult domain we refer to a specific research field of the European Commission in which projects investigate how ICT instruments and future development can be applied to the Cultural Heritage sector for improving access to digital cultural resources and the related user experience, in order to also increase the innovation, the growth of the domain and the interlink with Culture and Creativity industries. The MAXICULTURE methodology is presented here in its second revision while the final version will be made available at the end of the MAXICULTURE project after being tested with DigiCult projects. This document incorporates the feedback received from projects.