Scientific
Using digital documents with mathematical content for people with visual impairments
Reading scientific content within digital documents is often challenging for people with visual impairments. Text information can be easily engaged with by means of assistive tools such as refreshable braille displays or screen readers. However, mathematical formulae or graphs are difficult to translate into a screen-readable form while preserving the expressiveness of the original format. Providing broadly usable content is a burden left to document authors, which requires substantial time and effort. Document authors are also frequently unaware of the need for document usability, and they may not have the required know-how to create blind-friendly documents. Thus, scientific content is rarely provided in a blind-friendly format, which creates a barrier to the availability of STEM education and employment for people with visual impairments. At the laboratory “S. Polin” of the University of Turin, Italy, our research focuses on assistive technologies to enable use of digital documents with scientific content for people with visual impairments. I will present two of our most recent works: Axessibility is a LaTeX package for generating PDF documents in which mathematical formulae are usable by people with visual impairments using braille displays or screen readers, without requiring the author to add blind-friendly content manually. AudioFunctions.web is a web-based system that enables blind people to explore mathematical function graphs, using sonification, earcons, and speech synthesis to convey the overall shape of the function graph, its key points of interest, is accurate quantitative information at any given point.
Special Time: 11:00 AM, Zoom Colloquium: OKO – app that uses computer vision to assist blind and visually impaired people
AYES is a Belgian-based company that is co-founded by three computer scientists. Our journey started when our visually impaired family friend, Bram, told us about the challenges he faced while navigating outdoors. Quite quickly we realized that current assistive technologies are outdated and could benefit from artificial intelligence. For that reason, we started developing a mobile application, called OKO, that uses the smartphone camera and computer vision to assist people in their daily lives. Crossing the street is a very stressful task if there is no pedestrian signal installed that blind or low-vision people can detect. For that reason, we’ve developed a feature capable of detecting the pedestrian traffic light. So far, we have identified 70.000+ safe crossings. Our goal now is to bring this technology to the USA since a lot of cities are experiencing difficulties with installing pedestrian signals that can be used by all. In recent months we’ve also added public transport recognition which identifies the bus number and destination to get people on the right bus. In the future, we’ll add more computer vision-related features to deliver an even better navigation experience.
Hybrid Colloquium: Calculus for the Blind and Visually-Impaired
Abstract: When Isaac Newton developed calculus in the 1600s, he was trying to tie together math and physics in an intuitive, geometrical way. But over time math and physics teaching became heavily weighted toward algebra, and less toward geometrical problem-solving. However, many practicing mathematicians and physicists will get their intuition geometrically first and do the algebra later. Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron’s new book, Make: Calculus, imagines how Newton might have used 3D printed models, LEGO bricks, programming, craft materials, and a dash of electronics to teach calculus concepts intuitively with hands-on models. The book uses as little reliance on algebra as possible while still retaining enough to allow comparison with a traditional curriculum. The 3D printable models are written in OpenSCAD, the text-based, open-source CAD program. The models are in an open source repository and are designed to be edited, explored, and customized by teachers and learners. Joan and Rich will also address how they think about the tactile storytelling of their models. They hope their work will enable more people to master calculus and start on the road to STEM careers. Make: Calculus is available in a softcover print version, in a PDF/epub3 bundle in which the epub3 with MathML equations has been optimized for screenreaders (Thorium epub3 reader recommended), and in Kindle format. Joan and Rich will talk about some of the technology gaps they encountered trying to keep a book with calculus equations usable by blind and visually-impaired students. Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron are the co-founders of Pasadena-based Nonscriptum LLC, which provides 3D printing and maker tech consulting and training. Their eight previous books include Make: Geometry, which developed a similar repository of models for middle and high-school math in collaboration with the SKI “3Ps” project. They have also authored popular LinkedIn Learning courses on additive manufacturing, and run several related (currently virtual) Meetup groups.
