Enabling multimodal discourse for the blind

Abstract

This paper presents research that shows that a high degree of skilled performance is required for multimodal discourse support. We discuss how students who are blind or visually impaired (SBVI) were able to understand the instructor's pointing gestures during planar geometry and trigonometry classes. For that, the SBVI must attend to the instructor's speech and have simultaneous access to the instructional graphic material, and to the where the instructor is pointing. We developed the Haptic Deictic System - HDS, capable of tracking the instructor's pointing and informing the SBVI, through a haptic glove, where she needs to move her hand understand the instructor's illustration-augmented discourse. Several challenges had to be overcome before the SBVI were able to engage in fluid multimodal discourse with the help of the HDS. We discuss how such challenges were addressed with respect to perception and discourse (especially to mathematics instruction).