Accessibility of assistive consumer devices is an emerging research area with potential to benefit both users with and without visual impairments. In this article, we discuss the research and evaluation of using a tactile button interface to control an iOS device's native VoiceOver Gesture navigations (Apple Accessibility, 2014). This research effort identified potential safety and accessibility issues for users trying to interact and control their touchscreen mobile iOS devices while traveling independently. Furthermore, this article discusses the participatory design process in creating a solution that aims to solve issues in utilizing a tactile button interface in a novel device. The overall goal of this study is to enable visually impaired white cane users to access their mobile iOS device's capabilities navigation aids more safely and efficiently on the go.

Five experiments are presented that examine observers' reports with a new tri-stable reversible figure using two measures of observers' experience with the figure: observers' initial percept upon figure presentation in the test period and the total number of reversals reported in the test period. Experiment 1 demonstrates the equiprobability of the three alternatives for the figure. Experiment 2 demonstrates the powerful effect of fixation location on observers' reported organization of the tri-stable figure. Experiment 3 demonstrates clear priming effects following brief presentation of particular components of the tri-stable figure. Experiment 4 demonstrates clear adaptation effects following prolonged presentation of the same components of the figure used in experiment 3 as well as the transient nature of this adaptation. Experiment 5 demonstrates observers' ability to "hold" each of the three percepts regardless of fixation location. The special sensitivity of the tri-stable figure to these manipulations even with naive subjects and small sample sizes is discussed, and the interplay of both bottom-up and top-down processes on figural reversal is emphasized.

Clear representation of uncertainty or error is crucial in graphs and other displays of data. Error bars are quite common in visual graphs, even though they are not necessarily well-designed, and often are not well understood, even by those who use them often (e.g., scientists, engineers). There has been little study of how to represent uncertainty in auditory graphs, such as those used increasingly by students and scientists with vision impairment. This study used conceptual magnitude estimation to determine how well different auditory dimensions (frequency, tempo) can represent error and uncertainty. The results will lead to more effective auditory displays of quantitative information and data.

Displaying multiple variables or data sets within a single sonification has been identified as a challenge for the field of auditory display research. We discuss our recent study that evaluates the usability of a sonification that contains multiple variables presented in a way that encouraged perception across multiple auditory streams. We measured listener comprehension of weather sonifications that include the variables of temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and cloud cover. Listeners could accurately identify trends in five concurrent variables presented together in a single sonification. This demonstrates that it is indeed possible to include multiple variables together within an auditory stream and thus a greater number of variables within a sonification.

Students who are visually impaired make up a population with unique needs for learning. Some tools have been developed to support these needs in the classroom. One such tool, the Graph and Number line Input and Exploration software (GNIE), was developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology Sonification Lab. GNIE was deployed for use in a middle school math classroom at the Georgia Academy for the Blind (GAB) for 2 years starting in fall 2012. We interviewed the middle school math teacher throughout the deployment to learn about the challenges faced when teaching: lesson planning, execution, and review. We also observed how these changed when using GNIE compared to traditional teaching materials. During these 2 years, we conducted interviews and focus groups with students to learn about their attitudes toward tactile graphs compared to auditory graphs. With these in mind, we present lessons learned from the use of GNIE in a real-world classroom and implications for design of software to aid graphical learning for students with vision impairments.