Exploring New Paradigms for Accessible 3D Printed Graphs

Abstract

We explore new paradigms of representing bar graphs with 3D printing technology. Our goal is to make graphs more accessible to blind people. We co-designed with one blind participant and two teachers for the visually impaired (TVI) to refine our paradigms and created prototypes of bar graphs of varying levels of complexity with each paradigm. The paradigms we developed include: embossed graphs that are similar to traditional tactile graphics, freestanding graphs with guidelines connecting bars to the y-axis, and freestanding graphs with tick marks on each bar. We developed prototypes of a bar graph displaying one dataset, and a bar graph displaying two datasets.