Sonify: Making visual graphs accessible

Safinah Ali; Laya Muralidharan; Felicia Alfieri; Monali Agrawal; Jacob Jorgensen

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-25629-6_70

Sonify: Making visual graphs accessible

Safinah Ali, Laya Muralidharan, Felicia Alfieri, Monali Agrawal, Jacob Jorgensen

Administration, Leadership & Technology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Data visualizations are an essential strategy for summarizing and comprehending large datasets. However, it is challenging for visually impaired people (VIP) to access visual representations of data. Current accessibility solutions fall short in providing comprehensive access to such visualizations. Most VIP must listen to datasets one cell at a time with a text-to-speech tool, which does not allow the user to gather the “gist” of the dataset. To address this gap, we designed and evaluated Sonify. Sonify is a sonification tool that makes data visualizations accessible to VIP through audio and tactile interactions on a mobile app. VIP use Sonify’s scrubbing interaction to explore patterns in data through pitch changes in sound. We evaluated Sonify’s interactions through contextual inquiries, with (n = 8) VIP. Through Sonify, we demonstrate how a novel scrubbing interaction technique makes 2-variable linear graphs accessible to a broader range of people, including VIP.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, IHIET 2019
Editors	Tareq Ahram, Redha Taiar, Serge Colson, Arnaud Choplin
Publisher	Springer Verlag
Pages	454-459
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Print)	9783030256289
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25629-6_70
State	Published - 2020
Event	1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, IHIET 2019 - Nice, France Duration: Aug 22 2019 → Aug 24 2019

Publication series

Name	Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
Volume	1018
ISSN (Print)	2194-5357
ISSN (Electronic)	2194-5365

Conference

Conference	1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, IHIET 2019
Country/Territory	France
City	Nice
Period	8/22/19 → 8/24/19

Keywords

Accessibility
Assistive technology
Assistive technology for persons with disabilities
Human centered design
Human computer interaction
Iterative design
Sonification
Usability testing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Control and Systems Engineering
General Computer Science

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-25629-6_70

Cite this

Ali, S., Muralidharan, L., Alfieri, F., Agrawal, M., & Jorgensen, J. (2020). Sonify: Making visual graphs accessible. In T. Ahram, R. Taiar, S. Colson, & A. Choplin (Eds.), Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, IHIET 2019 (pp. 454-459). (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing; Vol. 1018). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25629-6_70

Sonify: Making visual graphs accessible. / Ali, Safinah; Muralidharan, Laya; Alfieri, Felicia et al.
Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, IHIET 2019. ed. / Tareq Ahram; Redha Taiar; Serge Colson; Arnaud Choplin. Springer Verlag, 2020. p. 454-459 (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing; Vol. 1018).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Ali, S, Muralidharan, L, Alfieri, F, Agrawal, M & Jorgensen, J 2020, Sonify: Making visual graphs accessible. in T Ahram, R Taiar, S Colson & A Choplin (eds), Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, IHIET 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 1018, Springer Verlag, pp. 454-459, 1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, IHIET 2019, Nice, France, 8/22/19. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25629-6_70

Ali S, Muralidharan L, Alfieri F, Agrawal M, Jorgensen J. Sonify: Making visual graphs accessible. In Ahram T, Taiar R, Colson S, Choplin A, editors, Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, IHIET 2019. Springer Verlag. 2020. p. 454-459. (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing). doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-25629-6_70

Ali, Safinah ; Muralidharan, Laya ; Alfieri, Felicia et al. / Sonify : Making visual graphs accessible. Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, IHIET 2019. editor / Tareq Ahram ; Redha Taiar ; Serge Colson ; Arnaud Choplin. Springer Verlag, 2020. pp. 454-459 (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing).

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author = "Safinah Ali and Laya Muralidharan and Felicia Alfieri and Monali Agrawal and Jacob Jorgensen",

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AB - Data visualizations are an essential strategy for summarizing and comprehending large datasets. However, it is challenging for visually impaired people (VIP) to access visual representations of data. Current accessibility solutions fall short in providing comprehensive access to such visualizations. Most VIP must listen to datasets one cell at a time with a text-to-speech tool, which does not allow the user to gather the “gist” of the dataset. To address this gap, we designed and evaluated Sonify. Sonify is a sonification tool that makes data visualizations accessible to VIP through audio and tactile interactions on a mobile app. VIP use Sonify’s scrubbing interaction to explore patterns in data through pitch changes in sound. We evaluated Sonify’s interactions through contextual inquiries, with (n = 8) VIP. Through Sonify, we demonstrate how a novel scrubbing interaction technique makes 2-variable linear graphs accessible to a broader range of people, including VIP.

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Sonify: Making visual graphs accessible

Abstract

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Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Cite this