Augmented Reality for People with Visual Impairments: Designing and Creating Audio-Tactile Content from Existing Objects

Abstract

Tactile maps and diagrams are widely used as accessible graphical media for people with visual impairments, in particular in the context of education. They can be made interactive by augmenting them with audio feedback. It is however complicated to create audiotactile graphics that have rich and realistic tactile textures. To overcome these limitations, we propose a new augmented reality approach allowing novices to easily and quickly augment real objects with audio feedback. In our user study, six teachers created their own audio-augmentation of objects, such as a botanical atlas, within 30 minutes or less. Teachers found the tool easy to use and were confident about re-using it. The resulting augmented objects allow two modes: exploration mode provides feedback on demand about an element, while quiz mode provides questions and answers. We evaluated the resulting audio-tactile material with five visually impaired children. Participants found the resulting interactive graphics exciting to use independently of their mental imagery skills.

X-Road

“…They are made using various methods, e.g. laser cutting, swell-paper [68] or 3D printing [28,31]), or are composed of objects with different textures [70]. These maps represent environments at a small scale (size of a paper map or model) and allow the effective acquisition of spatial knowledge in a safe environment [72].…”

Creating Accessible Interactive Audio-Tactile Drawings using Spatial Augmented Reality

“…[19,20,30]), or TTS synthesis (e.g. [1,23,34]). One system proposes audio-recording on-the-fly by registering the audio feedback with a microphone [24].…”

“…The research team created the content which was evaluated by students. In the work presented in [34], six teachers were able to create their own content in a classroom context for VI students. This work also used a GUI interface to associate audio feedback to existing tactile maps, a botanical atlas from real leaves, or small-scale models.…”

“…We compared the prototype (referred to as SAR in the following) with a more conventional drawing software (Inkscape, referred to as GUI in the following). Inkscape has been found usable by teachers in [34] and is a well-known software for SVG drawings. The reader can refer to the metrics for the SAR prototype only.…”

“…Tactile graphics can be explored by touch and are used to make spatial content accessible in STEM, Geography, History, Orientation and Mobility (O&M) classes, etc. Tactile drawings can be produced of raised lines drawing [18], or using real objects [34]. Another possibility is to use smallscale models [11,14].…”