BrailleTap: Developing a calculator based on Braille using tap gestures

Abstract

Touchscreen calculators require a user to visually locate a button on the screen. This poses a challenge for individuals with limited or no vision. To overcome this challenge, prior to use these individuals must invest additional time and energy into memorizing the calculator layout. There is currently no application that simplifies the calculator user-interface for individuals with limited or no vision. To fill this void, this paper proposes BrailleTap. BrailleTap is a buttonfree calculator application for touchscreen devices that utilizes tap gestures to operate. Using finger tap, the user can input a number in braille and the application will compute the braille code to its corresponding numerical value. Alternatively, using a swipe gesture, the user will be orally prompted to select the desired arithmetic operations. This paper presents our pilot study of BrailleTap that was conducted with two blind users. Results indicate that BrailleTap is faster and more accessible to blind users than the traditional touchscreen calculator. However, in order to increase the efficiency of BrailleTap further development of the underlying algorithm is required.