Understanding what you feel: A Mobile Audio-Tactile System for Graphics Used at Schools with Students with Visual Impairment

A lot of information is nowadays presented graphically. However, students with blindness do not have access to visual information. Providing an alternative text is not always the appropriate solution as exploring graphics to discover information independently is a fundamental part of the learning process. In this work, we introduce a mobile audio-tactile learning environment, which facilitates the incorporation of real educational material. We evaluate our system by comparing three methods of interaction with tactile graphics: A tactile graphic augmented by (1) a document with key index information in Braille, (2) a digital document with key index information and (3) the TPad system, an audio-tactile solution meeting the specific needs within the school context. Our study shows that the TPad system is suitable for educational environments. Moreover, compared to the other methods TPad is faster to explore tactile graphics and it suggests a promising effect on the memorization of information.