Graph access system for the visually impaired

Swell paper had been widely used to confirm graphical representation for the visually impaired. However, most tactile graphs on such paper were created by people with normal vision, who, in most cases, do not fully understand how to translate the visual aspects of a graph into a representation that the visually impaired can grasp. The paper describes a graph presentation system for translating original data sequences of electronic documents into the graph presentation. This system generates graphical representation in a tactile form. Users can touch a pin array and get a rough image of the tactile graph, and iterate graph magnification to confirm the details of the graph. They can also confirm each plotted value with auditory feedback. Experiments show that users can perceive not only simple graphs, but also complex graphs like a stock chart. Subjects were able to perceive not only maximum and minimum values, but also statistical trends of the graphs