Accessible On-Line Floor Plans

Better access to on-line information graphics is a pressing need for people who are blind or have severe vision impairment. We present a new model for accessible presentation of on-line information graphics and demonstrate its use for presenting floor plans. While floor plans are increasingly provided on-line, people who are blind are at best provided with only a high-level textual description. This makes it difficult for them to understand the spatial arrangement of the objects on the floor plan. Our new approach provides users with significantly better access to such plans. The users can automatically generate an accessible version of a floor plan from an on-line floor plan image quickly and independently by using a web service. This generates a simplified graphic showing the rooms, walls, doors and windows in the original floor plan as well as a textual overview. The accessible floor plan is presented on an iPad using audio feedback. As the users touch graphic elements on the screen, the element they are touching is described by speech and non-speech audio in order to help them navigate the graphic.