Effectiveness of tactile scatter plots: Comparison of non-visual data representations

Abstract

The goal of making a scatter plot is to visually identify the type of relationship between two quantitative variables quickly. To explore whether a scatter plot can achieve this goal when it is made in the form of a tactile graph and presented to blind people, we conducted an experiment in which x-y data sets were presented to blind participants in three data representations: tactile graph, tactile table, and electronic table, and the participants were asked to identify the type of relationship between two variables. Under all presentation conditions, the correct rates were high: it was 92.5% for the tactile graph condition and 85.0% for the tactile table and electronic table conditions. Tactile graphs were understood with the shortest time, tactile tables with the second shortest, and electronic tables needed the longest time. This differences were due to the different strategies for identifying the relationships. Both tactile graph and tactile table conditions gained higher subjective ratings than the electronic table condition.