Tactilise by Aleksandra Kozawska

Aleksandra Kozawska Studio 3 Master Research Project

GLASGOW 2015

The designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s job is not to execute the vision of one person but to establish the conditions under which rich, rewarding conversation can happen. Khoi Vinh (2011)

My name is Aleksandra Kozawska. But everyone calls me Ola.

I come from Product Design background (BA Italian and Design, University College London and Politecnico di Milano), but I have also experience as a graphic designer in an Italian 3D printing start up. I came to Glasgow School of Art to study MDes Design Innovation and Service Design. TACTALISE is my final individual Master Project.

CONTENTS

What?

Process

Why?

How?

Focus question

Methodology

Design requirements

Tactilise

What is VI?

Tactilise map

Stakeholder map

Share to develop

Key Contacts

Prototypes

Personas / Scenarios

Future scenarios

Final reflections

Reactions

INFORM & OBSERVE Research

IMMERSE Empathic modelling

Opportunities

What content?

ENGAGE & TEST Maquette workshop

Acknowledgments

Tactile stakeholder m.

Bibliography

Audio-tactile graphics

Appendix

Process

The Tactilise Project saw several milestones which are represented in the process graph. First of all, National Conference On Visually Impaired Children And Young People in Stirling opened the doors to all sorts of organizations working with the Visually Impaired (VI) and gave an opportunity for direct exploration of that world. Having witnessed methods and artifacts used in the education of the VI, the project saw potential in innovating tactile learning and sharing methods within this specialist field which was tested during Maquette Workshop and Stakeholder Map Exercise and informed design criteria for the ideation phase. The final concept Tactilise has been discussed with the experts in the haptic technologies and tested with the VI users themselves.

This project has been an adventure for me discovering the world of visual impairment. Initially, I have started with a rather broad approach focusing on 3D printing and education in general. As a result of readings and conversations as well as enthusiastic reactions to my initial contacts with the organizations, I decided to focus on Rapid Prototyping and Visual Impairment and use it as a tool for direct translation of the digital into physical, tactile world.

what

WHAT?

Focus question

How Rapid Prototyping Technology can support habilitation of the visually impaired? to impact an ability or capacity to live and learn independently

According to Dr Karl Wall habilitation for visual impairment focuses on training Mobility, Orientation and Independent Living Skills as opposed to reHabilitation which aims to restore specific skills that have been lost or impaired due to sickness or injury. Habilitation is at the core of all efforts of support workers and educators. It is crucial to the employability and independence of the visually impaired. (Wall, 2015). Rapid prototyping is a direct translation between the digital and physical world and presents a great opportunity for increased access to resources for the visually impaired. Brailler is a commonly used â&#x20AC;&#x153;braille typewriterâ&#x20AC;&#x153; with a key corresponding to each of the six dots of the braille code. Although Braille is a language commonly associated with blindness, currently less than 1% of the visually impaired in the UK are Braille users.

Tactilise is a platform which enables visually impaired, their teachers and guardians creation and sharing of audio-tactile graphics through manipulation of simple vector shapes and silhouettes. WHAT? Tactilise uses innovative technology to: â&#x20AC;˘ give an intuitive tool for professionals and parents to create, manipulate and share audio-tactile graphics. â&#x20AC;˘ empower visually impaired to create their own audio-tactile graphics which they can share with their friends and an online community.

WHY? Tactile graphics and specialist educational aids can be very expensive or labour intense to prepare. Moreover, currently there is no adequate centralised system to share aids and inspirations for the visually impaired, their teachers, support workers and parents who constantly reinvent ways to explore the world without the sense of sight.

HOW? Tactilise technology is based on direct conversion of a SVG vector graphics into 3D objects through creating their relief. Through this simple manipulation, application instantly creates a 3D model out of 2D graphics and any 3D modeling skills are not required. Users then can 3D print or laser-cut the model as well as share it with a specialist community. Targeted audio descriptions can be assigned to the specific parts of the physical or digital model which are activated only when touched, creating an alternative to general text-based voice-over solutions.

Vector shapes or silhouettes...

Because the digital and physical objects are linked...

...can be easily combined and modified ...

...and turned into a 3D object.

...further modification and interaction is possible...

...which can be shared and inspire the community.

WHY?

Working with the visually impaired and blind people as well as their caretakers required choosing and adapting design tools which in many cases are highly visual, hence created with the sighted users in mind. This made the design research the most challenging and rewarding part of the project. It was also the longest part of the process which allowed to undercover numerous hidden gaps and assets with every interview, meeting or workshop. These later informed the shape of the final concept.

Methodology

Design methods used in this project can be divided into three main categories falling into time frame of the process flow to make sense out of collected data. Detailed description of each method can be found in the Method Cards included in the project portfolio.

context

Inform & Observe phase involved methods allowing to explore the initially unfamiliar territory and define the framework and further focus of the project. A range of exploratory research methods were used including ethnographic research such as participatory observations and interviews as well as secondary research.

practice

domain

theory

The project is based in a practical realm and analysis of data, following the grounded theory principles in a specific context of education and habilitation of the visually impaired.

Immerse phase focused mainly on empathic modelling of the designer who blindfolded experienced ways the blind move around the spaces and discover the world through other senses. It was also informed by a regular volunteering practice at Sense Scotland and exploring the work of support workers first hand. Engage & Test is the final phase where the design concept was formed and prototyped firtst through storyboards and personas, and then practically through workshops, creative use of stakeholder map as a research tool and finally through a tactile graphic prototype.

Exploratory research Design ethnography Interviews Participant Observation Secondary Research Literature reviews Case Studies

Inform & Observe

Empathic Modelling

Concept Mapping Creative toolkit: stakeholder map/maquette Personas Scenarios Evaluative research Prototyping

Volunteering

Immerse

Engage & Test

Sense-making Affinity diagramming Synthesis

What is Visual Impairment?

Visual impairment (VI) is not always equal to blindness. According to WHO (WHO, 2015), there are four levels of visual function: 1. normal vision 2. moderate visual impairment 3. severe visual impairment 4. blindness

This project focuses on severe visual impairment and blindness. Although most of the research was done with organizations working with blind children and young people, the final concept has been also successfully tested with an adult representative.

Ethics The project involved direct contact with the vulnerable groups of the visually impaired children, young adults and adults. Following the ethical principles, each time an interview, photograph or a workshop took place, an appropriate consent forms were distributed beforehand to the participants and their caretakers who voluntarily agreed to take part in the project. During the activities, a responsible support worker was always present in the room, ensuring psychological and physical comfort of the participants. The methodology has been approved by the GSA Research Ethics Committee. 20

2/3

Two-thirds of registered blind and partially sighted people of working age are not in paid employment (Action for Blind People, 2015).

< 1%

PARTIALLY SIGHTED

Fewer than 1% of the two million visually impaired people in the UK are users of braille (Rose, 2012). Still, many materials for the VI are produced in braille only.

BLIND

VISUAL IMPAIRMENT

ADULTS

2 mln

CHILDREN

Age

Born prematurely

Disease

Complex needs

Accident

Learning difficulties

In the UK there are almost 2 million people living with sight loss. Majority are older people over 75 years old who lost their sight later in life as a result of disease, accident or age.

40,000

There are approximately 40,000 children and young people up to 25 with a severe vision impairment. Many of them were born prematurely and have other complex needs. 21

Stakeholder map

The map illustrates relationships between a visually impaired person and the stakeholders who influence their habilitation process. Family and the visually impaired specialists are the ones who are directly involved in the everyday activities of a VI from an early age up to their adulthood. It is important to note that most children and young people in Glasgow who have visual impairment will attend their local mainstream school. Children with additional disabilities or difficulties can attend special schools which can offer them more specialist facilities and help. In both cases, special role here have Qualified Teachers for Visual Impairment. A QTVI is a specialist teacher who provides materials, advice and support to children and young people who are blind or partially sighted, their families, schools and other relevant professionals. Working in partnership with mainstream and specialist schools, the QTVI ensures that children have access to the curriculum and that they are appropriately supported to fulfill their potential and foster independence. Another level are specialist institutions which provide extracurricular activities for the VI of any age and disability. Finally, mainstream institutions and society constitute the biggest outside area of the map as this is the realm in which the VI need to learn how to move and live.

Sense Scotland, Glasgow

Charity working with deafblind and disabled people

Key Contacts

Visibility, Glasgow

Key contacts are a map of the interviewed stakeholders. All of them are directly involved in the habilitation of the visually impaired and are considered to be experts in this field, each of them from a slightly different perspective. Majority of the insights gathered come from meetings or observations of these stakeholders and are further supported with literature and secondary research.

Hazelwood School, Glasgow

Local society for blind adults Specialist School

Royal National Institute of Blind The biggest organization for blind in the UK

Royal Blind School, Edinburgh Specialist School

Positive Eye, UK Educational consultancy for professionals working with VI children and young people.

VI Experts James Finlayson Workshop Tutor David McCluskey Music Tutor Alison Sommerville Manager of Touchbase Center Rosemary Cameron Service Manager Paula Andrew Art Tutor Fraser Technology Volunteer Heather McFarlane QTVI of Art Dominic Everett Education and Family Service Manager Angela Russel Director Aine Murphy QTVI of Drama Peter Winhall QTVI of Maths and Physics Jeffrey Levin QTVI of IT Gwyneth McCormack Positive Eye Director Kelly Curran-Coote, mother of 3-year-old VI Zara

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The aim of the game is for other children and other people to see beyond the blindness.â&#x20AC;? Gwyneth McCormack

VI Participants James MacDougall Visibility Joseph, Pei Ling, Bethy, Janice, Visibility George McLaughlin Strathclyde Student Gerard, Martin, Daniel, Siobhan Sense Scotland Academics Eve Hoggan Haptic Technologies, Aalto Science Institute and Helsinki Institute for Information Technology

Prof Stephen Brewster School of Computing Science, Haptic Technologies Expert

Inform & Observe

The key observations and findings from the research were externalized and clustered together into categories following the affinity diagramming logic. From that, the research landscape emerged based on four main pillars: Inclusion, Independence, Personalization and Technology which further synthesized became the motto of the project: Empowerment through Access.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We live in a world dominated by the printed word, image and videos. 80% of our learning comes from vision.â&#x20AC;? Royal Blind School Teacher

Visual representation of how people perceive their bodies with their brains (Birnbaum, 2012)

Dominant sense Vision is subjectively considered by sighted people as central to their everyday life. Designers is particular are pretty much visually-oriented people who use graphical symbols, maps and representations to record their thinking and communicate their ideas. However, as it proves, we are unconsciously very aware of what is going on in and around our hands at all time using our sense of touch which is deeply embodied in our cognitive processes (Birnbaum, 2012). In fact, we constantly receive information from several modalities as for example when we both hear and see someone speaking (Hoggan, 2006), but in the case of a visually impaired 28

person the other senses take over the cognitive process and compensate for the information that otherwise would be collected using vision. As neuroscientist David Eagleman comments, vision is electrochemical signals coursing around brain which does not care where the signals come from. The brain just figures out what to do with that information which could equally come from any other sense like touch or hearing (Eagleman, 2015).

Strenghts, not problems “I enjoy listening to their world” Jeffrey Levin, QTVI of IT One of the key aspects of the work with the VI is to “see beyond their blindness” which in a way becomes the motivation for many QTVI teachers who get fascinated by this world. In the specialist institutions for the VI no one is in a rush. They embrace the fact that without vision everything takes longer and they patiently provide support in an meditative manner. Moreover, positive attitude is very natural in the way teachers behave and speak, celebrating every little achievement that the pupils make. Significantly, especially in the Royal Blind School, interviewed teachers never mentioned the words “visually impaired” or blind” at all. Instead, they always referred to their pupils as “our young people”. Finally, involving visually impaired in creative activities often opens new ways of thinking about certain aspects and problems, e.g. inviting the visually impaired participants to imagine future technologies together (Giles and van der Linden, 2015). Such co-design of the future for the visually impaired through their participation is still rare but recommended direction to go.

Social skills “Social communication in a group is very tricky because they can’t see the facial expressions or body language.” Gwyneth McCormack One of the insights while observing activities of the visually impaired is that in most of the cases the participants worked alone on their individual task although the activity was usually performed in a group setting. Group supported purely the social side of the activity through talk, jokes and pure presence rather than the activity itself. As it turns out, collaboration is a difficult area for the visually impaired not only because they lack the visual feedback of the other person’s reaction that sighted people have, but also because each person has their own needs, level of abilities and individual pace of work which is very respected. These difficulties, as Gwyneth McCormack explained, often lead to other problems such as general lack of confidence influencing emotional and physical well-being of a visually impaired person.

“If I am a sighted kid I can draw a line and rub it out. When you are visually impaired you can’t because they are printed for you. So the learning side of things here is lost.” Prof Stephen Brewster

Teacher

for from

Most of the educational aids for the visually impaired are created by their sighted teachers and educators who should follow basic guidelines about tactile aid’s clarity. Still, tactile graphics can be counterintuitive, as Peter Winhall pointed out, because it seems that they look great to a teacher but they do not feel the same. Moreover, learning with a static tactile graphic, e.g. on an embossed paper, is a passive learning experience where the creative part is lost. Bringing analogy of teaching 3D printing in general education, Michael Kolitsky distinguishes two ways: the first one is based on teaching how to design and print an object 30

Leading by hand is easy but does not promote independence.

yourself, and the second approach covers how a 3D printed artifact can be used for learning, where the object is obtained from an external source (Kolitsky, 2014). Similarly, the visually impaired can learn using tactile aids produced for them, which is already happening, or learn how to create and manipulate their own tactile graphics.

Example of a tactile graphics made for the VI on embossed paper.

Overcompensation

Access to resources

“We tend to overcompensate them for their lack of sight. They don’t need that.” James Finlayson

“This has been ongoing battle to overcome educational barriers that have been created by corporate IT systems.” Dominic Everett

Habilitation practice includes maximizing independence of a visually impaired person. What is the best way to show someone how to live independently? According to James Finlayson, support workers should let the VI explore the world around them on their own, without guiding them by hand as it is often seen. In the difficult process of gaining independent living skills and transition to adulthood, the visually impaired themselves need to make their own decisions and training this skill starts with little everyday choices about which way to go or which clothes to choose (Gwyneth McCormack).

Underachieving pupils and blind learner’s disadvantage were one of the focus points of the National Conference on Visually Impaired Children and Young People in Stirling. Difficult access to curriculum for those who attend mainstream schools as well as expensive educational aids and specialist equipment create barriers for successful learning experience which influences all the future life of the visually impaired. As Dominic Everett outlined, blind students rely on other adults to access VLE or any other educational resources which need to be adapted for their special needs by a Qualified Teacher or Support Worker. 31

“I’ve never done it but I can imagine that when you read you can just skim through the text whereas I have to go through everything quite methodically. It takes a lot of time.” George McLaughlin, Law Student

“Each child has different needs – it’s not like going to stationary and buying a ruler that will fit all.” Gwyneth McCormack

Educational aids made by QTVI in Royal Blind School Portfolio book of Paula

Getting it right As there are different levels of visual ability, there are also different needs and skills of each visually impaired person. Taken that especially young visually impaired people might have also other disabilities, the nature of the activities and educational aids has to be tailored to each individual. This approach has been adopted by Scottish programme called “Getting it Right for Every Child” which aims to improve wellbeing and learning outcomes for all children and young people. The Children and Young People Act 2014 takes forward the GIRFEC and provides each child access to a “Named Person” who ensures that all 34

the services are coordinated and all their needs are met. A “Named Person” for the VI pupils is usually a School Director, a Qualified Teacher or a Support Worker (Everett et al., 2015).

Teachers – best designers

Inspiration bank

“Teacher assistants need to custom make things for each particular child. So they spend their lives making resources.” Gwyneth McCormack

“You are constantly inventing things. I would go bananas if I constantly was doing the same thing all the time and it’s not going to be useful for pupils either.” Heather McFarlane

All the interviewed Qualified Teachers for Visual Impairment and Support Workers are very passionate, empathic and creative people who find their satisfaction in making the difference in the lives of the VI through adapting and creating resources that would help their pupils develop. They are the people who know best individual abilities and preferences of each child and are able to tailor activities to meet their particular needs. Moreover, QTVI often need to teach or support several subjects in one school where the number of the qualified teachers is lower, like Heather McFarlane who is a Qualified Art Teacher but she also used to teach science and participate in the music activates. Such level of personalization and multitasking comes with a price of spending a lot of time in planning and making the resources themselves.

To meet the individual needs of both VI children and adults as well as follow the curriculum, teachers create their own portfolio books and banks of topics where they can take inspirations from. This is a labour intense exercise which takes a lot of time to build up. Usually, these serve as individual collections of inspirations gathered by a particular teacher or support worker, like Paula Andrew who built her inspiration book for the art classes for VI adults in Visibility. To date, there is no large collection or central depository of accessible materials or tactile graphics serving the visually impaired, their teachers and parents (Agarwal et al., 2014). There have been attempts to create such libraries like a local resource center which, as Heather complained, is lacking online access and teachers need to physically go there to look for items themselves.

“Technology is the only way to overcome isolation of these guys.” Royal Blind School Teacher

Key to success “My mobile is my eyes” Kelly Curran-Coote All of the stakeholders agreed that technology is the key to success if we want to overcome the isolation and social exclusion of the visually impaired. Both specialist and mainstream technology is vital to embrace from the early age, as emphasized Kelly Curran-Coote, mother of 3-year-old visually impaired Zara and a visually impaired adult herself. Specialist technology includes voice-over solutions as well as braillers, touch-typing techniques (typing on keyboard) or magnification devices.

An interesting example of an app is crowd sourced MySmartEye. The visually impaired can find out what is in front of them by taking a picture. Then, a global network of volunteers can then type in their comments, which are read out on the blind user's smartphone (Huang, 2013). Another similar app is LendAnEye, developed in Singapore. Like Skype, a blind user launches the app, which contacts a pre-selected group of guides and the video call then becomes the eyes for the user.

Source: zdnet.com

Popular Touchscreens

Technological Barriers

“Every visually impaired should be given some sort of smart device, it makes things easier for you.” Fraser

“Voice-over does not give you an overview. It reads out everything what’s on the screen. The details make it cluttered.” Stephen Brewster

Vast majority of the visually impaired in the developed countries own a mobile phone or any other sort of smart device. According to Fraser’s experience, 90% of those use Apple devices which provide better built-in accessibility options and voice-over solutions. iPads are also very popular, especially in the educational context. In the Royal Blind School, iPads are used on an everyday basis and teachers can request application that should be installed in the school-owned devices. Most of these applications are based on sound feedback, can be used with external switches or magnification for those with some degree of vision.

There are also drawbacks of current technologies used by the VI users. The most popular voice over gives access to what is visible on the screen, but not all of that can be read, for example images or graphics. Secondly, it does not give an overview of what is in front since voice-over technology is missing the intelligent aspect of selective attention which helps humans to filter out the information that is relevant from what can be considered as just “background noise”. Finally, as observed, voice-over can lead to socially awkward situations, e.g. when the sound disturbs people around while the visually impaired person might be not aware of it since their lack of sight makes it impossible to notice face expressions or reactions of others.

Immerse

Empathic Modelling

Visual vs Tactile Memory

During volunteering experience at Sense Scotland, I performed empathic modelling exercise which involved walking around the building blindfolded firstly following a person and secondly, on my own with a cane. This exercise reassured me that: â&#x20AC;˘

relying on someone leading you, brings passiveness and takes the exploratory spirit away.

â&#x20AC;˘

when walking alone, the sense of touch is a leading sense but the other sense like sounds, smell or even temperature of the air in different rooms help to orientate.

â&#x20AC;˘

When exploring objects by touch, the richness of textures, temperature of the surface and sound that it makes, they all create a holistic, exploratory experience.

The empathic modelling exercise brought into attention the question of visual and tactile memory. Moving in a previously seen space is much easier than in an unfamiliar environment since there is a visual memory of the space present. However, as the research suggests, tactile memory which in that case would be used by a blind person, is remarkably similar to the visual memory store (Bliss et al., 1966). Therefore, the question arose: sharing and recording information visually is a widely used practice (images, graphics, diagrams, maps shared in printed or online version). However, what would be an equivalent of sharing information in a tactile way?

Opportunities

From the landscape that was created with the analysis of primary and secondary research as well as the empathic modeling exercise, the formulation of two potential opportunities emerged:

1. Service and a potential device for sharing tactile content for the visually impaired. It could use innovative haptic solutions and rapid prototyping technologies to create and share content for the visually impaired themselves.

2. A platform for teachers, parents and educators. As it proved from the research, they miss a centralized system or platform to share materials and inspirations which would save their time and lead to more innovative solutions driven by the need to constantly adapt and reinvent things for the VI.

Why Rapid Prototyping? Commonly used embossers or German film create only outlines of the shapes which gives largely inaccurate perception of shapes. Much more effective are cutouts of shapes which means that simply â&#x20AC;&#x153;lifting a graphic of the pageâ&#x20AC;? would improve global shape estimation (Kalia et al., 2014). Here is an opportunity where rapid prototyping technologies could improve the creation of tactile graphics.

The second opportunity was a huge gap discovered and the most urgent need. It also brought the most immediate solution in a form of a specialist online platform where teachers could share their ideas, tips and 3D models in a kind of a Pinterest style domain. However, I saw big potential for innovation in the first opportunity. What is more, I saw a chance to provide a solution that would satisfy both the visually impaired and their educators in a spirit of inclusiveness, creativity and open-knowledge community. After all, tactile content can be attractive to both the sighted and the blind. I decided to engage with the organizations once again and test ways in which tactile content can be shared (and what content).

What content? According to Gardner (2014), there are four main types of graphical representation of information, out of which I chose to focus on three of them:

Photographs

Photos are currently impossible to represent in a meaningful tactile way due to the amount of details and depth of vision. However, photographs are usually sufficiently well described by words.

Graphs

Mathematical or physical graphs and diagrams are currently represented mainly using embossers due to their accuracy and line-based technology. They are not easily editable and represent passive use of educational resources.

Maps

Orientation is a big issue for the VI. Traditional tactile cartography is complicated by problems associated with braille labeling and feature annotation (Miele, 2006). Currently, many VI use GPS voice on their smartphones to get directions which, however, are not always precise enough due to the nature of GPS accuracy.

Symbols

Symbols together with graphs and maps represent images for which words are often not enough. Luckily, simplified nature of symbolic representations make them feasible to represent in a good tactile copy.

Engage & Test

Maquette Workshop Place

Sense Scotland, Touchbase, Glasgow

Tutor

James Finlayson, Wood and Cane Workshop Tutor

Context

Aim

Participants (age18-25)

Cane workshop takes place every week in the Wood Workshop space of the Touchbase Center. Usually, the activities involve making a personalized cane from wooden sticks and plasticine as well as walking around the area to train confidence in orientation skills. To support orientation in space through tactile mapping and promote information sharing in a tactile way. Workshop conformed with the context of the activities and provided Sense Scotland with a prototype of a tactile map of the building which could serve as a platform to train orientation skills and exchange updated information about the space between the visually impaired and support workers. Gerard – blind, aware of the process, enjoys exploring spaces. Martin – twin brother of Gerard, blind, moderate autism. Daniel – blind, autistic, enjoys word and hand plays. Siobhan – blind, autistic, enjoys music.

The workshop was well-received by both the VI and the support workers. Especially Daniel and Gerard enjoyed exploring the map and were able to identify familiar places. In fact, the maquette proved to be a great playground for both allowing them to walk freely around down-scaled building.

The workshop consisted of two parts: first, young people were invited to freely explore the maquette. Secondly, they would choose a place on a maquette and go there in reality. When back, they were asked to create together with their support workers an artifact that would represent that space and the difficulties that were encountered along the way. The workshop took part in two turns in two week interval due to summer holidays and insufficient participants in the first round.

On the downside was the artifact-making part. Participants did not complete the task apart from Gerard who instead of creating his own tactile artifact, brought a paper clip as a souvenir from the office and placed it on the map. The second part therefore proved too difficult for this particular group with learning difficulties.

Lessons learnt •

Proved ability to associate real spaces to their symbolic representations on the maquette (Daniel and Gerard).

•

Enjoyable tactile experience for both the young people and their support workers.

•

Potential for a tactile sharing platform attractive for both VI and sighted people in an orientation context.

•

Tactile artifact creation by the VI requires simpler, more defined methods and materials.

Tactile Stakeholder Map

Participants

Aim Question

George • 23 years old • blind from birth (born prematurely) • law student • has a guide dog

James • in his early 20ties • visually impaired as a result of brain tumour • enjoys art and drawing • has a guide dog

Communicate and engage with a visual design tool in a tactile way using symbolic representations. Who supported you most on your way till now?

One of the biggest challenges of this project was thinking beyond the usual “visualization tools” used in design to communicate and find alternative ways to communicate when in some cases the word description was not always adequate or inaccurate. One of these cases was stakeholder map. I decided to use this tool in a tactile way which would enable to test the idea of tactile symbols and communication through the sense of touch.

Original map

The exercise was performed twice, firstly with George using a mix of 3D and relief shapes on a circular surface and adding his own elements. Second attempt took place with James using only simple reliefs on a slightly modified map where the center was shifted to the edge.

Lessons learnt •

Society symbol was moved to a closer position by both men stating that thanks to it they exist and this is where they need to live every day.

•

Proved ability to easily give new meanings and relationships to simple tactile symbols, remembering and referring to them later (tactile memory).

•

What is visually obvious might not be so tactually: positioning the reference point or “center” near the easily recognizable shape or the edge of the space makes it easier to navigate than a typical, circular distribution of a stakeholder map.

•

Simple reliefs of shapes are quicker and more efficiently recognized than full 3D shapes and figurines (Kalia, 2014).

•

Creation of new tactile artifacts is easier with pre-defined shapes than with free-form material, e.g. plasticine.

George’s map

James’ map

Focus

Audio-Tactile Graphics

While using the maquette, tactile stakeholder map or any other graphics, it has been observed that two basic questions have to be answered in order for a blind person to understand the artifact:

What is it? It is important to present the object or diagram, whether it is to a child or an adult, in an informative way. Taken that it is very difficult to recognize objects when they are scaled down or simplified, tactile graphics need to be somehow labeled. Instead of requiring the user to read a braille label, a skill that is in decline, an audio tactile graphic can speak that information for him. (Gardner, 2014)

Where is it? This question can answered primarily by touching the graphics and localizing its features against the other shapes or background.

HOW?

Share to develop Share work and build on ideas of others for the best, personalised results. Personalisation, p. 34-35

Design Requirements

Shape relief Relief easier to recognise than outline or full 3D. Too much dimensional information is confusing. Why Rapid Prototyping? p. 41 , Tactile Stakeholder Map p. 46-47

Targeted audio Sound associated with graphics details helps to overcome labelling problems: What is it? Audio-Tactile Graphics p. 48

Tactile exploration Focus on diagrams, maps, symbolic representations. What Content? p.42

Simplicity Too much details make things cluttered. Technology p.37, Maquette Workshop p. 44-45

Pre-made shapes Provide a starting point to create more complex shapes. Tactile Stakeholder Map p. 46-47 50

Specialist community Build on experience of other specialists, parents and visually impaired, customise and share back.

Raised vector graphics Automatic conversion of SVG vector files into raised 3D graphics ready to print or cut.

Human recorded audio Touch details of the tactile graphics or their digital model to record or upload an audio description.

Simple Shapes App Intuitive applicatipn for creation of graphics based on simple geometric shapes.

Simple Shapes

Simple drag&drop gestures Orientation Tool Join Shapes Subtract Shapes Puzzle Tool Add Texture Add Audio file Choose from simple shapes

Empowers the visually impaired, their teachers and guardians to create and share interactive audio-tactile graphics.

Alternative to expensive and labour intense specialist educational aids. Innovative and intuitive process of creating and manipulating the audio-tactile graphics. More emotional and personalised experience through targeted audio descriptions recorded by other users. No 3D modelling skills required. Access to expert community and models database. Accessible interface compatible with voice-over. Starting point to explore and inspire endless creative and educational opportunities.

AWARE

INPUT

SVG MODIFY

AUDIO

Users can join the service as

User can browse existing model

All graphics are stored as vector

Users can add targeted audio

All created files can be categorized and shared with the community

individuals or through one of the

database, create own graphics

SVG files which enables easily

description and effects through

specialist institutions that they

using Simple Shapes or import an

manipulation.

recording their voice or uploading

which can reuse, comment and

text or audio file.

share the work.

TEXTURE / PUZZLE

The file can be then 3D printed

By registering as a visually

They can choose to add textures

or laser-cur on a home printer,

impaired person, guardian or a

or divide shapes into pieces to

institutional facilities or local 3D

professional working with the

make it more interactive.

hub. Alternatively, the relief of

are part of. JOIN

image that will be automatically converted into a vector silhouette.

visually impaired they can join the

the model can be displayed on

specialist community.

innovative haptic screen tablets.

The power of Open Knowledge

Share to develop

Tactilise responds to the need of the teachers and parents to develop and share their ideas. The users can get inspired and build on the ideas of the others by modifying them according to the needs of their pupils. Moreover, the inclusive character of the platform gives full access also to the visually impaired users who are familiar with the voice-over technology.

Prototypes The concept behind Tactilise has been an iterative process which was tested with two prototypes.

Aim

Ship

Particle Model

Image input function

Simple Shapes app concept test

Test the feasibility of the 2D to 3D

Aim

technology. Testing user experience

an educational tactile object using

of a visually impaired. Input Output

basic geometric shapes.

Original ship drawing made using

Input

Result

Mock up of an application using

CCTV Video magnification.

simple shapes in Illustrator in

Tactile version created on cardboard

cooperation with a professional

laser-cut at local 3D workshop. Cost

Test possibility of creating

chemist.

<5£

Output

3D model printed using local

Easy relief creation

printing facilities. The 3D model

of a complex graphic.

preparation for print performed

Great reception by the VI.

manually. Cost

“It’s brilliant, how did you do that?” James

Result

< 20 £ Easy and quick creation of water and methane particles. 55

Scenario 1

EDUCATION / Sighted / QTVI Expert User

Alison

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I enjoy listening to their world.â&#x20AC;?

Age Context

Hobby

mid 30-ties QTVI for Art but sometimes supports also science classes. Making and adapting things for the VI. She collects her inspiartions in a book.

Technology

Open to innovation, loves to experiment with new technologies, but lacks time. No 3D modellng skills.

I wish...

...I had more time for myself. I spend many evenings preparing for lessons.

1. Alisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s school joined Tactilise. She registers as an QTVI expert. She has a science class to prepare.

2. She browses the catalogue and found a water particle model that she could use.

3. She modifies it slightly for her pupils, and decides to add carbon too to teach about methane.

4. Alison adds voice description to the most important parts.

5. She decides to print it as a puzzle. She saves the file and prints it on a school printer

6. Students can play with the model and discover the possible combinations using O, H and C elements.

Tactilise helped Alison to plan the science lesson and provided a tactile model that she was able to easily modify and voice-tag. Thanks to printing it in pieces, her students could interact with the model even more and discover possible particle combinations. The model then fed back to the community. 7. Thanks to voice labels, they can use it also after class to practise or do the homework.

8. Alison shares files with the community. Soon she got a message that another school used her model in class. 57

Scenario 2

ART & FUN / VI / Expert User

James

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would love to share my work more.â&#x20AC;?

CCTV magnification set

Braille Drawing

Age Condition

Hobby

Context

Technology

I wish...

Young Adult Visually Impaired, very limited short vision. Art, drawing, sculpting, braille drawings. Stays at home with parents. He has a VI grandfather living in Manchester. Uses CCTV for maginification when drawing. Fluent in braille. ...that graphics were more accessible to VI.

1. Jamesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; granddad birthday is approaching. James remembers he used to love sailing. He makes a drawing of a ship for him and takes a picture of it.

2. He uses the app to create a silhouette and sends it to a local 3D hub.

3. James receives and checks the model.

4. He adds sounds and audio description through tablet

5. Now James is ready to share the model with his granddad. He sends it by post with a link to audio-graphics.

6. His granddad receives the present and enjoys touching and listetning to the graphics made by James.

7. James is proud of his model. He decides to share it with the comminuty in the Art section.

James enjoys drawing and sculpting. To share his work with his VI friends, he creates embossed brailler drawings by tracing simple shapes on his brailler. Tactilise enables James to create a personalized 3D audio-tactile graphics even out of more complex drawings that he can share with his family and friends, both sighted and visually impaired. Recorded voice gives to the audiographics even more emotional and personal value. 59

Scenario 3

ORIENTATION / VI & Sighted Begginner Users

Janet & Zara

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Zara never walks alone unless in a familiar area.â&#x20AC;?

Age Condition

Hobby

Context

Technology

I wish...

Mother of Zara, a blind teenager Zara is blind from birth, has moderate learning difficulties. Music, experimenting with sounds. Goes to special school for VI, but follows national curriculum. Has an iPad and a mobile phone to play games with sounds. ... Zara becomes an independent adult.

Dining Table

1. Janet and Zara are moving to a new flat. Janet heard about the app at Zaraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s school. She decides to try and uploads a plan of the new flat.

2. Janet chooses a collection of simple symbols to fit the plan and modifies them.

3. She audio labels some of the symbols for Zara.

4. She has them laser cut in a local Maker Space and places them on a previously printed plan.

5. She shares it with Zara to familiarise her with new space and together take decisions about the arrangements.

6. Janet can save different arrangement, modify and share them with family later.

Tactilise enables Janet to share with Zara her future flat and neighbourhood. Zara can explore and familiarise herself with the space before they both move in which increases her confidence and enables to take part in the planning process of her future house arrangement.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;There will be more and more of disabled and visually impaired people because modern medicine saves the children when they born early.â&#x20AC;? Gwyneth McCormack

Future Scenarios

With the development of modern medicine, we are able to prolong lives and save majority of the prematurely born children. This, however, means increased number of the disabled and visually impaired people in the society. How do we make sure they are included in the increasingly digital world? Looking at the history of haptics, a clear trend towards greater inclusion is observed. Haptics is being rediscovered and reinvented for the electronic devices to enhance the experience which so far was mainly based on vision. This is a big opportunity for the visually impaired to access digital information directly on the screens of their smart devices thanks to the technology of haptic screen displays which is already under development of the giants in the technological industry (e.g. Senseg, Microsoft, Fujitsu). 62

Tactilise is a concept of a mechanism how translation between the digital and physical can be created and shared. In my design, I focused on currently accessible technologies of rapid prototyping as a tangible output for my concept. However, the technology in that case becomes the interface and it could be substituted by any suitable haptic display. Haptic screen is an ultimate solution when the user will be able to instantly feel the interface and result of his creation instead of 3D printing or cutting it. This creates an exciting vision for the future scenario when Tactilise community could contribute to development of the new haptic technologies.

“Haptic screen technology, now in its infancy, could develop into ubiquitous high definition method for displaying tactile images that could give immediate excellent access.” (Gardner, 2014)

any form of interaction involving touch (from Greek ‘I touch’).

Short history of haptics

eness

Inclusiv

Braille 1824 Embossed Paper Techniques date N/A

Cross-Modal 2006 First audiotactile graphics 1991

Multisensory device experiments usign sound or vibrations.

Ultrasonic Display 2013 Pin-Matrix 2008 Refreshable device allows to present tactile graphics on a pin matrix.

Creating haptic feedback in midair with waves of ultrasound.

Electrovibration haptic displays 2014 Texture created through friction by electrostatic forces. 63

Final Reflections Tactilise is an effect of my adventure discovering the world of the visually impaired and feeding it back into my experience with 3D printing ad rapid prototyping in general. The project aims to empower the VI to grow and create what really makes sense to them when the vision is lost, and teachers to share and improve the resources for those who canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make them themselves. Facing increasing digitalization of the world, projects that attempt to bridge the gap between the digital and physical in a spirit of inclusion fortunately start to be more and more visible. Their success can be measured by positive reactions of the visually impaired as well as by the fact that leading technological companies start to notice the importance of this topic in their research. The key element of this project is an attempt to connect the dispersed community of professionals, parents and visually impaired. By providing them with a platform and a tool to create and share their expertise and experience in a tangible way, Tactilise supports openknowledge in this specialist field and captures this extremely rich, but currently underutilized resource. 64

Overall, the process was very natural with an impression that the project led me through constant itineration rather than me trying to push it. I received excellent support from the organizations I worked with and they shaped the final design of the concept through hours of observations, their insights and feedback. The project wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be possible without their participation.

Reactions

“I’ve never seen something like this before, I think you should really do it.” Eve Hoggan Haptic Technologies, Aalto Science Institute

“So often in art galleries you can hear ‘Don’t Touch’ and you want to feel what the world is around you. I think it’s amazing, I really do.” James MacDougall Visually Impaired

“It’s minimizing the impact of their visual impairment on their social inclusion using technology as a vehicle for doing that. Which is an innovative way of thinking, because it’s not just about having an app, it’s about finding a common ground where they can access together, go beyond the barrier of visual impairment.” Gwyneth McCormack Positive Eye Director, former QTVI

Acknowledgments I would like to give special thanks to all of those, who supported this project: To all the participants that made it possible, especially to: James Finlayson, Sense Scotland Gwyneth McCormack, Positive Eye James McDougall, Visibility George McLaughlin To the institutions who expressed their interest and support, especially to: Dominic Everett and Mo Colvin, Royal National Institute of Blind Angela Russel, Royal Blind School Heather McFarlane, Hazelwood School Rosemary Cameron and Paula Andrews, Visibility To my tutor, Stuart Bailey, Glasgow School of Art To all the tutors of Design Innovation, especially to: Emma Murphy Irene Bell Elio Caccavale

Bibliography

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Appendix List of artifacts

Name Aim

Material

Maquette of Touchbase building Orientation workshop, tactile mapping exercise and information sharing. Cardboard, plasticine

Name Aim

Material

Tactile Stakeholder Maps Communicate and engage with a visual design tool in a tactile way using symbolic representations. Metal, magnets, clay, cardboard

Name

Aim

Material

Original drawing by visually impaired person created using CCTV magnification.

Name Aim

Used as a case study to change into tactile graphics. Coloured pens on A3 paper

Material

Tactile graphics (prototype) Test feasibility of the 2D to 3D conversion technology. Testing the user experience with a visually impaired. 4mm A3 mounting board

Name

Aim

Material

Oxygen, Carbon and Hydrogen Atoms Models (prototype) Test possibility of creating an educational tactile object using basic geometric shapes. 3D printed ABS plastic

GLASGOW 2015