Directly Accessible Mainstream Graphical Information

A new technology is described that does permit blind people to have direct access to most object-oriented graphical information and is possible because of the emergence of the mainstream SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) language.

Abstract

Plain text in well-authored electronic documents of nearly any format is accessible to a blind person who knows how to use a computer and screen reader. A great deal of common information is generally not presented as plain text however. Charts, diagrams, and graphs are common in business, scientific, and most professional literature. Maps and geographically-oriented data such as weather maps and complex census information would be virtually impossible to present in words. Until recently it has not been possible for authors of mainstream literature to present graphical information of these kinds in a format that could be accessed directly by blind people. In this paper, a new technology is described that does permit blind people to have direct access to most object-oriented graphical information. This new technology is possible because of two recent developments. One is the emergence of the mainstream SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) language. The second is the Tiger technology for embossing tactile graphics.