The perception of haptic graphs by individuals with visual impairments through an electrostatic touchscreen.

Abstract

Background: The potential of haptic touchscreens in accessing digital graphical information is argued in recent research. With a growing demand for graph accessibility, particularly for individuals with visual impairments, haptic touchscreens emerge as a viable solution.

Methods: In this study, 19 adults with visual impairments participated in an experiment aimed at evaluating their perception of five graphs "touched" via an electrostatic Tanvas touchscreen. The objectives of the research are to examine: (1) whether the responses provided by the participants for the graph values are accurate; i.e., how much these responses deviate from the actual graph values; (2) whether the individual characteristics of the participants, such as severity of the visual impairment and age of onset of the visual impairment, affect their performance; and (3) what are the parameters (i.e., the characteristics of the tasks) that negatively or positively affect the performance of participants; The study comprised a familiarization test and five test-graphs, namely two bar graphs, one pie chart, one scatter plot, and one line graph.

Results: Results indicate promising outcomes, with participants demonstrating satisfactory graph perception through the device. Demographic and personal factors exerted no statistically significant influence on performance. Participants encountered challenges in tasks involving a horizontal axis with densely arranged segments, especially when tasked with counting a large number of segments.

Conclusions: Overall, there seems to be potential for providing access to digital graphical information for individuals with visual impairments through the Tanvas haptic device. However, further investigation with audio integration would be beneficial.