Generation of accessible graphics

Abstract: Information graphics are common in written communication. The ability to comprehend, use and create these graphics is an important skill that most of us take for granted. However, for those who are visually impaired, access to such graphics is severely limited. While new presentation technologies will improve access, an unsolved problem is how to automatically generate an accessible version of an information graphic. We describe the goals and approach of a project to develop software tools to do this. Our proposed approach uses advanced graphics recognition combined with high-level transformation. It is designed to handle a wide variety of information graphics, including floor plans, line graphs and organisation charts, and to be usable in schools, workplaces and at home.