Chart4Blind: An Intelligent Interface for Chart Accessibility Conversion

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Moured, Omar, Baumgarten-Egemole, Morris, Roitberg, Alina, Muller, Karin, Schwarz, Thorsten, Stiefelhagen, Rainer
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Moured, Omar
Baumgarten-Egemole, Morris
Roitberg, Alina
Muller, Karin
Schwarz, Thorsten
Stiefelhagen, Rainer
author_facet Moured, Omar
Baumgarten-Egemole, Morris
Roitberg, Alina
Muller, Karin
Schwarz, Thorsten
Stiefelhagen, Rainer
contents In a world driven by data visualization, ensuring the inclusive accessibility of charts for Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) individuals remains a significant challenge. Charts are usually presented as raster graphics without textual and visual metadata needed for an equivalent exploration experience for BVI people. Additionally, converting these charts into accessible formats requires considerable effort from sighted individuals. Digitizing charts with metadata extraction is just one aspect of the issue; transforming it into accessible modalities, such as tactile graphics, presents another difficulty. To address these disparities, we propose Chart4Blind, an intelligent user interface that converts bitmap image representations of line charts into universally accessible formats. Chart4Blind achieves this transformation by generating Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), Comma-Separated Values (CSV), and alternative text exports, all comply with established accessibility standards. Through interviews and a formal user study, we demonstrate that even inexperienced sighted users can make charts accessible in an average of 4 minutes using Chart4Blind, achieving a System Usability Scale rating of 90%. In comparison to existing approaches, Chart4Blind provides a comprehensive solution, generating end-to-end accessible SVGs suitable for assistive technologies such as embossed prints (papers and laser cut), 2D tactile displays, and screen readers. For additional information, including open-source codes and demos, please visit our project page https://moured.github.io/chart4blind/.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_06693
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Chart4Blind: An Intelligent Interface for Chart Accessibility Conversion
Moured, Omar
Baumgarten-Egemole, Morris
Roitberg, Alina
Muller, Karin
Schwarz, Thorsten
Stiefelhagen, Rainer
Human-Computer Interaction
In a world driven by data visualization, ensuring the inclusive accessibility of charts for Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) individuals remains a significant challenge. Charts are usually presented as raster graphics without textual and visual metadata needed for an equivalent exploration experience for BVI people. Additionally, converting these charts into accessible formats requires considerable effort from sighted individuals. Digitizing charts with metadata extraction is just one aspect of the issue; transforming it into accessible modalities, such as tactile graphics, presents another difficulty. To address these disparities, we propose Chart4Blind, an intelligent user interface that converts bitmap image representations of line charts into universally accessible formats. Chart4Blind achieves this transformation by generating Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), Comma-Separated Values (CSV), and alternative text exports, all comply with established accessibility standards. Through interviews and a formal user study, we demonstrate that even inexperienced sighted users can make charts accessible in an average of 4 minutes using Chart4Blind, achieving a System Usability Scale rating of 90%. In comparison to existing approaches, Chart4Blind provides a comprehensive solution, generating end-to-end accessible SVGs suitable for assistive technologies such as embossed prints (papers and laser cut), 2D tactile displays, and screen readers. For additional information, including open-source codes and demos, please visit our project page https://moured.github.io/chart4blind/.
title Chart4Blind: An Intelligent Interface for Chart Accessibility Conversion
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.06693