ABILITY workshop in Vilnius

ABILITY workshop in Vilnius together with LASS. Eleven participants (blind, severely visually impaired), tried two prototypes. One prototype was an iPad app with a tactile overlay, the other was a DotPad pin display on a pressure pad designed within ABILITY to detect where the user is pressing on the display.

These two prototypes are not finished products but will illustrate how the final Ability system might work. Materials included maps, a social media photo of a cat as well as more schematic graphics like a flow diagram and a labyrinth. The swell paper overlays were employed to explore the use of sound feedback with tactile graphics. For example, how it should be triggered, controlled, and how it could complement graphics in a good way. In addition, the tactile patterns and textures used in the materials were also discussed. With the DotPad, we focused on image manipulation such as zooming and panning. Together with the participants, we explored how these manipulations should be performed and presented (e.g., how to orient oneself after the operation) and how sound feedback might improve the experience.