GraVVITAS: Generic multi-touch presentation of accessible graphics

Abstract

Access to graphics and other two dimensional information is still severely limited for people who are blind. We present a new multimodal computer tool, GraVVITAS, for presenting accessible graphics. It uses a multi-touch display for tracking the position of the user's fingers augmented with haptic feedback for the fingers provided by small vibrating motors, and audio feedback for navigation and to provide non-geometric information about graphic elements. We believe GraVVITAS is the first practical, generic, low cost approach to providing refreshable accessible graphics. We have used a participatory design process with blind participants and a final evaluation of the tool shows that they can use it to understand a variety of graphics - tables, line graphs, and floorplans. © 2011 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.