Poster discussing a preliminary literature review of visual information accessibility for blind and visually impaired individuals

McCotter, Melody

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A Preliminary Literature Review of Visual Information Accessibility for Blind and Visually Impaired Individuals Information Visual Worlds Information Assistive Technology Melody McCotter Ph.D. Student in Information Science Visual Thinking Laboratory University of North Texas melody. mccotter@unt.edu Information Worlds "An important element of the concept of infor­mation worlds is that they are built around shared understandings of and behavioral norms regarding information; not only is infor­mation exchanged by members of a given small world as part of their ongoing social interac­tions, but multiple small worlds (as compo­nents parts of the larger lifeworld) intersect with each other in terms of the ways in which they understand and use information." (Jaeger & Burnett, 2010, p. 57) The theories of Information Worlds, Normative Behavior, and Diffusion of Innovations (Rogers, 2003) provide an apt framework for exploring the issues of information accessibility for people who are blind or visually impaired. Ad­ditionally, we may be able to explore and better understand the spread of knowledge about and adoption of assistive technology, techniques, and tools in this particular commu­nity, or Information World, through the appli­cation of these theories. Increased awareness of the ways blind and vi­sually impaired individuate, adopt, and assimilate assistive technology can improve our ability to get the right tools in their hands for success in education and em­ployment endeavors. Assistive Technology Carl Brown (1992) gives a general overview of assistive technology to make com­puters accessible to people with disabilities, including vision loss, hearing loss, and orthopedic disabilities. Most of the techniques described are still the predominant methods, but have improved over time. For those who are blind or visually im­paired, they are: Primary References Brown, C. (1992). Assistive technology, computers, and persons with disabilities. Communication of the ACM, 35(1), 36-45. Chatman, E. A. (1999). A theory of life in the round. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(3), 207-17. Gardner, J., Bulatov, V., & Kelly, R. (2009). Making journals accessible to the visually impaired: The future is near. Learned Publishing. 22 (4) (OCT): 314-9. Jaeger, P.T. & Burnett, G. (2010). Information Worlds: Social Context, Technology, and Information Behavior in the Age of the Internet. New York, NY: Routledge. Piety, P. J. (2004). The Language System of Audio Description: An Investigation as a Discursive Process. Journal Of Visual 1m pairment & Blindness, 98(8), 453-469. Complete references list available upon request via e-mail at melody.mccotter@unt.edu  - audio via screen reading or text-to-speech software - tactile method, refreshable Braille display - a combination thereof - enlargement (CCTV or screen enlarging programs) - color enhancements als learn about, evalu­Visual Information Methods of making images accessible in non-visual ways Audio - Described Video - Visual assistive discourses (Piety, 2004) - Optical character recognition (OCR) or document conversion - Screen readers/text-to-speech - DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstem) SVG XML markup (Gardner, et ai, 2009) Tactile Maps - Braille-like raised dot arrays - Daisy SVG XML (Gardner, et ai, 2009) Types of Documents needing descrip­tion - Motion pictures and television shows - Theatrical productions - Live events - Museum exhibits (Piety, 2004) - PowerPoint presentations, projections, and chalkboard writing - Mathematical, logical, physical, and chemical symbols - Photographs - Diagra ms and gra phs UNlVERSI1Y 0F NORrH TIXAS Discover the power of ideas. nfortunatelY there is still a vast amount of literature that is distributed electronically but that cannot be read adequately with screen readers. Very little scientific literature is fully understandable because the mathematics and critical graphical information are presently not directly accessible by any non-visual means. The new Enhanced Reading project has the goal of making a number of professional physics publications available in the DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstem) eXtended Markup Language (XML) format that makes all text, math, and figures fully accessible by people with print disabilities." (Gardner, Bulatov & Kelly, 2009, p. 314) Poster No. 39Area 44 

A Preliminary Literature Review of Visual Information Accessibility for Blind and Visually Impaired Individuals

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A Preliminary Literature Review of Visual Information Accessibility for Blind and Visually Impaired Individuals

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