Making Microsoft Excel™ Accessible: Multimodal Presentation of Charts

solutions, based on aural and haptic feedback, have been developed to enable access to complex on-line information for people with visual impairments. Nevertheless, there are several components of widely used software applications that are still beyond the reach of screen readers and Braille displays. This paper investigates the non-visual accessibility issues associated with the graphing component of Microsoft Excel™. The goal is to provide flexible multi-modal navigation schemes which can help visually impaired users in comprehending Excel charts. The methodology identifies the need for 3 strategies used in interaction: exploratory, guided, and summarization. Switching between them supports the development of a mental model of a chart. Aural cues and commentaries are integrated in a haptic presentation to help understanding the presented chart. The methodology has been implemented using the Novint Falcon haptic device.

[1]  Kenneth E. Barner,et al.  Data visualization methods for the blind using force feedback and sonification , 1998, Other Conferences.

[2]  Enrico Pontelli,et al.  Mathematics and Accessibility , 2009, The Universal Access Handbook.

[3]  Enrico Pontelli,et al.  A system for automatic structure discovery and reasoning-based navigation of the web , 2004, Interact. Comput..

[4]  Chieko Asakawa,et al.  An interactive method for accessing tables in HTML , 1998, Assets '98.

[5]  Robert Stevens,et al.  Using haptic cues to aid nonvisual structure recognition , 2008, TAP.

[6]  John G. Neuhoff,et al.  PITCH CHANGE, SONIFICATION, AND MUSICAL EXPERTISE: WHICH WAY IS UP? , 2002 .

[7]  Richard E. Ladner,et al.  Automating tactile graphics translation , 2005, Assets '05.

[8]  Nancy Green,et al.  Extending Plan Inference Techniques to Recognize Intentions in Information Graphics , 2003, User Modeling.

[9]  Stephen A. Brewster,et al.  Evaluation of multimodal graphs for blind people , 2003, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[10]  Kenneth E. Barner,et al.  A user study on tactile graphic generation methods , 2006, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[11]  Bruce N. Walker,et al.  The audio abacus: representing numerical values with nonspeech sound for the visually impaired , 2004, Assets '04.

[12]  John A. Gardner,et al.  Triangle: A Tri-Modal Access Program for Reading, Writing, and Doing Math , 1998 .

[13]  Bruce N. Walker,et al.  An agenda for research and development of multimodal graphs , 2005 .

[14]  Stephen A. Brewster,et al.  Haptic Graphs for Blind Computer Users , 2000, Haptic Human-Computer Interaction.

[15]  James L. Alty,et al.  Exploring the use of structured musical stimuli to communicate simple diagrams: the role of context , 2005, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[16]  Kenneth I. Joy,et al.  Sound graphs: A numerical data analysis method for the blind , 1985, Journal of Medical Systems.

[17]  C. Kirchner,et al.  Who's Surfing? Internet Access and Computer Use by Visually Impaired Youths and Adults , 2001 .

[18]  Hesham M. Kamel,et al.  A Comparison of Three Nonvisual Methods for Presenting Scientific Graphs , 2002 .

[19]  Charlotte Magnusson,et al.  Phantom-based haptic line graphics for blind persons , 2003 .

[20]  K E Barner,et al.  Design of a haptic data visualization system for people with visual impairments. , 1999, IEEE transactions on rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.