Involving the user with low or no vision in the design of an audio-haptic learning environment for learning about 3D shapes: The first approach

Abstract

This report summarises the current research that is being carried out into haptic sense technology for assisting visual impairment. Moreover, it presents a framework of mechanisms blind students apply to identify basic 3D objects into free space. People with visual impairments are still excluded from accessing certain types of information - like graphics - that are easily accessible by the general public. Today, screen reading software and Braille displays or text-to-speech systems have solved many problems of accessing text. For accessing graphics, and specifically digital graphics, there is to date no standardised technology that is accepted and used by blind people. Especially in school education, access to pictures is almost impossible to master; making teamwork very complicated and thus isolating blind students from their sighted peers making it impossible to acquire a shared understanding of school material. Focusing on geometry, which is believed to be the main theory of space, is very crucial for non-sighted students to develop an accurate spatial sense and reasoning. The emergence of haptic technology and the potential to create interfaces for non-visual audio-haptic interaction opens new promising doors to accessing digital graphics.