On the evaluation of novel sonification techniques for non visual shape exploration
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Mascetti, S
Gerino, A
Bernareggi, C
Picinali, L
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
There are several situations in which a person with visual impairment or blindness needs to extract infor-
mation from an image. For example, graphical representations are often used in education, in particular in
STEM subjects. In this contribution we propose a set of 6 soni cation techniques to support individuals
with visual impairment or blindness in recognizing shapes on touchscreen devices. These techniques are
compared among themselves and with 2 other soni cation techniques already proposed in the literature.
Using
Invisible Puzzle
, a mobile application which allows to conduct non-supervised evaluation sessions, we
conducted tests with 49 subjects with visual impairment and blindness, and 178 sighted subjects. All sub-
jects involved in the process successfully completed the evaluation session, showing high level of engagement,
demonstrating therefore the e ectiveness of the evaluation procedure. Results give interesting insights into
the di erences among the soni cation techniques and, most importantly, show that after a short training
subjects are able to successfully identify several di erent shapes.
mation from an image. For example, graphical representations are often used in education, in particular in
STEM subjects. In this contribution we propose a set of 6 soni cation techniques to support individuals
with visual impairment or blindness in recognizing shapes on touchscreen devices. These techniques are
compared among themselves and with 2 other soni cation techniques already proposed in the literature.
Using
Invisible Puzzle
, a mobile application which allows to conduct non-supervised evaluation sessions, we
conducted tests with 49 subjects with visual impairment and blindness, and 178 sighted subjects. All sub-
jects involved in the process successfully completed the evaluation session, showing high level of engagement,
demonstrating therefore the e ectiveness of the evaluation procedure. Results give interesting insights into
the di erences among the soni cation techniques and, most importantly, show that after a short training
subjects are able to successfully identify several di erent shapes.
Date Issued
2017-04-01
Date Acceptance
2016-12-28
Citation
ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, 2017, 9 (4), pp.13.1-13.28
ISSN
1936-7228
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Start Page
13.1
End Page
13.28
Journal / Book Title
ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing
Volume
9
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2017 ACM. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS), April 2017 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/10.1145/3046789
Publication Status
Published