The Bigger Picture: Automated Production Tools for Tactile Graphics

The Graphics to Tactile project (G2T) aimed to provide a semi-automatic image processing tool to enhance the creation of tactile graphics. In attempting to convert graphical and visual information into accessible formats, it is important that the information used for input is sufficiently well defined. Print diagrams and graphics contain information (such as perspective, overlapping lines, and colour) that cannot be represented in a Braille reader. People who are blind therefore cannot access complex formatted text, pictures, graphics or maps. The G2T system makes use of advanced image processing technologies partially to automate the tactile graphic production process and can be used in conjunction with existing drawing tools.