Digital Drawing Tools for Blind Users: A State-of-the-Art and Requirement Analysis

Abstract

Blind people normally fulfill drawing tasks with low-tech analog tools in school and everyday life. Such tools are lacking in drawing support and error correction. To overcome these problems, systems for digital graphic access and creation exist. In this paper, an analysis of several software projects for non-visual drawing support is performed. The analysis is used to extract requirements for a digital non-visual drawing system from developers and users. The literature-based findings are extended to a more complete checklist of thirty-five requirements in four categories that cover the principles of the ISO 9241-110 standard. Subsequently, the analyzed projects are tested against the proposed checklist. Finally, six blind people rated the individual importance of each requirement to give a hint which features are most important for user acceptance.