Inclusio: A Progress Report with demos of important features

Scheduled at 9:00 am in Denver 4-6 on Friday, November 21.

Speaker(s)

• John Gardner, Prof., ViewPlus

Session Details

• Length of Session: 1-hr
• Format: Lecture
• Expertise Level: Intermediate
• Type of session: General Conference

Summary

One goal of the Inclusio consortium is a dramatic improvement in graphics access. Its marketplace is still being developed but already has a large inventory of accessible graphics, links to services for creating or transforming graphics, and much more. Inclusio’s interoperability specification allows a conforming file to be viewed in many ways. I illustrate by creating a (braille) tactile version and versions viewable with Inclusio audio-tactile and audio-haptic viewers, all from one file.

Abstract

Inclusio is a project whose goal is to make a dramatic improvement in information accessibility, starting with graphics. It also hopes to bring together the fragmented community that make or store accessible information. Inclusio is being developed by a consortium of universities, TVI’s (Teachers of Visually-Impaired), and small companies with a number of large company/agency partners. ViewPlus is the commercial lead. Inclusio is funded by a National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator grant that is in its final year. The consortium expects to introduce its marketplace and a number of tools for graphics access later this year. The Marketplace already has a large number of graphics including the entire TGIL library of APH (American Printing House for the Blind) and a number of geographic and STEM files from ViewPlus. It also links to a Paracharts utility (from FZZ Studio) permitting a user to create a custom chart by selecting the type of chart and putting in the data. The Paracharts file conforms to the Inclusio JIM specification which makes it interoperable among a number of different viewing methods. Presently most files that existed prior to Inclusio are not conforming, but they are being upgraded to be conforming. Braille tactile graphics may be created from a conforming file, or the file may be viewed using audio-tactile or audio-haptic viewers. Inclusio provides both viewers for users with the requisite hardware. Continued development of the JIM spec will allow files to be viewable with other hardware such as the APH/Humanware Monarch multi-line braille and graphics viewer. I will demonstrate the excellent search capabilities of the Marketplace, download some files, and also create a Paracharts file. Braille tactile graphics of these files will be created by printing the files on a ViewPlus Rogue embosser. Finally I will emboss audio-tactile versions of files and demonstrate how they are viewed using the Inclusio audio-tactile viewer.

Keypoints

1. Inclusio is a consortium developing tools and specifications that will make graphics far more accessible
2. The Marketplace will have many accessible graphics, tools for creating graphics and tools for reading graphics
3. Files conforming to the Inclusio JIM spec are interoperable among many ways to read graphics accessibly.

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Other, Vision

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Alternate Format, Assistive Technology, Teaching about Accessibility in Curriculum, Uncategorized, Web/Media/App Access

Speaker Bio(s)

John Gardner

John Gardner received a PhD in physics from the University of Illinois. He has been a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and Oregon State University. He has also held visiting positions at the Technical University of Munich, University of Warwick, Imperial College, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, University of Stuttgart, and the University of Konstanz. Oregon State was his home for 30 years as an active faculty member and where he has been Professor Emeritus since 2003. He is known as an expert on point defects in solids and several fields of experimental solid state physics. He lost his sight unexpectedly in 1988 and became interested in accessibility of complex information, including math and graphics. In 1996 he founded ViewPlus Technologies, which has grown into a multi-million dollar company producing information-access hardware and software. ViewPlus is the leading manufacturer of tactile graphics and braille embossers in the world. He has received numerous awards and has given invited presentations on both physics and information accessibility at universities and conferences on five continents.