Neil McKenzie

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.

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.

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.

Accessible Music Technology for People with a Print Impairment

Accessing a music score is highly problematic for all print-impaired people bar the lucky few who can read Braille music and who have a specialist transcribing organisation in their country. Music representation is an area with little normalisation and constantly changing de facto standards. The real challenge for accessible music technology therefore lies in finding a way to integrate the shifting nature of music representation into developmental models and practical applications. In this manner, one model could be used simultaneously for music production and consumption, which would allow different user groups to adapt the output according to their own requirements and preferences. This article examines the range of requirements to be addressed by accessible music production tools; considers several methodological and (meta)modelling issues for sustainable design; outlines in some detail the technical implementation of software for producing TalkingMusic; and provides some ideas for future work within the musical domain and beyond. The interaction between music, technology and communication is necessarily complex, but consideration of each area can help to provide cross-disciplinary solutions.

Making Music Accessible

Musical material is a very rich corpus of data. Data with all kinds of features, entities, relations and a potentially endless number of abstraction levels on all these perspectives. It is therefore important to establish which set of elements we are going to use for the preservation, processing and provision of music; which features are redundant; which building blocks are mandatory; and how many can be shared amongst all of them. These considerations hold especially true for the community that is dependent on the accessibility of music.

Building accessible content processing frameworks

One of the more profound challenges facing those working in the field of accessibility lies in attracting general interest for accessible solutions. Many of these solutions are perceived as being of only limited application, and this is indeed often a valid viewpoint. It is becoming clear that many accessibility initiatives lack a wider context and as a result many very good initiatives remain unadopted due to their lack of integration with wider developments. There is a continuing need to incorporate accessibility within innovative information technology solutions. This convergence also resonates within market environments. There already are initiatives within the technology arena that incorporate some of these notions into their core. Despite this, there remains a need for a more unified approach in this area that allows the identification of similarities in needs, requirements and solutions conceived by the individual participants in product development, production and consumption.