TactileView Archives - Page 5 of 9 - Thinkable products for visually impaired people

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10.05 View – Context menu (Ctrl+K or Enter)

Any objects that were placed in the design can be edited later on. Opening the context menu of a selected object or drawing tool gives access to all the properties that can be changed. Read ‘Browsing and selecting objects‘ to find out how to make your object selection.

View – Open context menu (Ctrl+K or Enter)

Once you have selected an object in the design, you can open the context menu by choosing ‘Context menu’ from the View menu. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+K or the Enter key as a shortcut to open the context menu.

Open context menu via Object list (Ctrl+M)

The object list shows all object that are present in the design. Choose ‘Open context menu’ in this object list dialog. The respective context menu will open, in which you will find all options to edit the properties of the selected object.

See also the section Editing object properties.

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10.01 Accessibility with a screen reader (introduction)

The TactileView software is fully accessible with a screen reader. Due to its visual nature, creating a tactile design from scratch is very challenging for VIP users. However, many other aspects of the software can be used without the need for a sighted designer. This section will give an overview of the suitability for screen reader users of different aspects of TactileView.

Accessible menus

All menus and dialogs are accessible. Some of the menus are specially designed for screen reader users. Extra messages besides those of the screen reader itself are read out to provide additional explanations where appropriate.

Make sure the Settings menu Speech has been covered to make full use of these audible messages.

Mouse/freehand drawing vs. Menu driven design

To follow see the mouse on screen in the drawing area of the software is virtually impossible, even if the position of the mouse would be announced frequently. Keeping track of the created design is impossible with only speech and/or braille.

Existing images can be explored by analysing the colour composition, but how they are curved or the way how the lines intersect cannot be explored without printing the design. Therefore, creating or modifying ‘free-hand’ drawing is a step too far.

As an alternative, objects such as squares, circles and straight lines can be added to the design. Their positions are indicated by their properties (Ctrl+J).

Placing such an object can be done with the menu driven design menu (Ctrl+l).

Things that work really well for a screen reader

Below you will find some of the ways to create a tactile diagram while using a screen reader that work really well.

Creating digital designs by hand

Using the TactiPad drawing board would be a great alternative for creating tactile images as a VIP. Using this board, you can create a tactile drawing by hand. When combined with a camera, you can take a picture and digitally save your drawing or send it by mail. As a more advanced way of drawing, you can digitize your manual drawing using the TactileView Digital pen.

Download and Edit Design from Catalog (Portal menu)

You can use the catalog to find and download suitable tactile diagrams by selecting a category or searching for keywords in the title, textlabels or description.

Especially the alternate text that was given by the designer to describe the design can help to determine if this is the required design. The alternate text or description can be extended by any visitor of the catalog to make the description more detailed.

See also the section ‘Using the TactileView online catalog’.

Compose map (Portal menu)

To create a tactile map, choose ‘Compose map’ from the Portal menu. This will open a browser window with the website www.routetactile.com, on which you can create a map of any specified area. You can find a detailed description of all that is involved to create a tactile usable map in the Tactile Maps section.

Create mathematical graphs (Graphs menu)

With a screen reader, you can create a graph of any mathematical formula. You can either enter an equation to create your graph or start from one of the sample graphs in the software. See also the category Graphs and math in the TactileView manual.

Printing designs

You can also print designs on swellpaper or with a braille embosser by choosing ‘Print’ from the File menu. You can read more in the Printing section of the manual.

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4.03 Importing images from the internet

Images from the internet often form a great source for a tactile image. The amount of different subjects that can be portrayed is virtually endless. However, selecting the right material from this vast resource can both improve the tactile quality and minimize the effort needed to convert the image into a tactile diagram.

Understanding which image works best

Virtually any image can be used as a basis for a tactile diagram, but some are more suitable than others. For example, some images are harder to understand when they converted to a tactile image. In general, a higher level of detail will result in a more difficult tactile diagram. Concepts such as shadows or three-dimensional perspective can be very hard to understand for a blind reader.

The second consideration is the amount of effort it takes to convert the image to a tactually usable design. Of course it depends greatly on the type of contents you wish to include in the image, but generally ‘less is more’: a simpler image takes less time to convert than a more detailed one.

An image needs to have enough features that can be understood by touch. This means that images often need to be simplified by isolating individual lines from the In most cases, line images are preferred as a basis for a design.

Two different birthday cards: a complex one on the left, a less detailed one on the right

Figure 1. The image on the right has less fine detail and is less complex, making a tactile version easier to read and taking less effort to edit than the image on the left.

Make clever use Google image search

Using Google, you can search for images that match any keywords that you enter. In most cases this will give thousands of results, so in many cases you will need to refine your search criteria. You could try searching for a synonym or closely related word (e.g. ‘trees’ or ‘woods’ instead of ‘forest’). If you speak multiple languages it can be helpful to search for the same concept in another language.

Google also provides some tools to refine the type of image you are looking for. You can find these by clicking on the ‘Search tools’ button. These allow you to make some useful selections for finding the right material for tactile use. The most important selections for tactile use are:

– Size: larger images are generally better than smaller images, since they provide a better image quality in which more detail is retained when enlarged. You can also select ‘Show sizes’ under ‘More tools’ to get a quick overview of the image sizes.

– Type: refine the type of images that are presented. ‘Line drawing’ or ‘Clip art’ both are highly suitable as a basis for a tactile image, as they are often already simplified into individual lines and will be closer to what is required for a tactile image. We always advise to check first if these types of images are available to minimize the amount of effort it takes to create a tactile image.

The other search tools, such as colour and time can be used to further refine your search results. Appropriate usage rights can be selected if it concerns reproduction.

Photo of a real birthday cake on the left, line drawing of a birthday cake on the right

Figure 2. By making use of the Search Tools, you can select line drawings (right) instead of more complicated images, such as the photo on the left; the line drawing is much easier to read and edit.

Placing the image in your TactileView design

Once you have found a suitable image, right click on it to open the context menu, then select ‘Copy image’. This will copy the image onto your clipboard. In TactileView, press Ctrl+V to paste the image in your design. This will place the image in the design area at the position of you mouse. You can also right click in an empty area of the design, then select ‘Paste’ to place the image on the position of the click. Or you can select ‘Paste’ from the Edit menu or click the ‘Paste’ icon in the top horizontal toolbar, which will place the image in the top left corner of the design.

If you have saved an image on your computer, you can choose ‘Import’ from the drawing tools icon bar, then select ‘Import SVG’ for svg images or ‘Import image from file’ for bitmap image (.jpg, .png, …), or select ‘Import image from file’ from the File menu. Next, click in the design where you wish to insert the image.

You can always resize or move the image to the required position in the design. Use the retouching tools (pen and eraser), a combination of the filters from the drawing tools toolbar or the Filters menu, or any of the other drawing tools to make the required adjustments to make the inserted image suitable for tactile use.

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3.02 After launching the software

In this section you can find a first introduction to some of the first software functions you will come across when you create a tactile design.

First impression

After launching the software, the red border is showing the current paper size and orientation.

The word ‘Title’ can be found in the top left corner. This is to make you aware of the importance of a title in your design, which will help the reader to understand the content of the diagram at hand.

When you open a new design, you will see a tactile marker in the upper right corner. This so-called right-up marker helps a blind reader to easily find out the paper orientation without having to explore its contents first. This the position of the right-up marker is always in the top right corner, independent of landscape or portrait orientation. On screen, the marker is shown as three blue lines at an angle of 45 degrees.

For most designs we advise you to include the right-up marker for ease of use. However, by clicking on the marker it can be turned off, which for example can be used if you want to print multiple designs in a bundle and bind them. A red marker will remain which can be activated to switch the marker on again.

Red paper border, title and right-up marker

Figure 1. The top of the design shows the title text label, right-up marker and red border for paper size and orientation.

Design orientation: landscape or portrait designs

Choosing the right paper orientation for your design allows you to make optimal use of the available space on the paper. This way the image can be presented as large as possible in order to retain smaller details. You can change the paper orientation by clicking on the ‘Change the orientation to landscape/portrait’ icon in the design toolbar (second vertical toolbar when nothing is selected). You can also find this option in the Design menu.

It is important to know that changing the paper orientation will not adjust the size of the image! This ensures that the tactile quality of the image is maintained. However, you might need to adjust the width and/or height manually to fit the new paper orientation by dragging the markers around the design.

‘Change the orientation to landscape’ icon:

‘Change the orientation to portrait’ icon:

Portrait to landscape orientation

When you start with a design with a tree in portrait mode and you decide you want to have it in landscape, you can change the paper orientation. The size of the white design area that contains the tree will stay the same.

It is likely that the lower part of your design will now be outside the red border and that you have two sheets of paper instead of one. Even though you could have a design spread over multiple sheets, chances are you would want to reduce the design size to fit a single sheet of paper. You can use the blue marker in the lower right corner to make the height of the tree fit. Please note that your tree has become smaller, so make sure any smaller details are still adequate for tactile use. Next, use the purple marker in the middle of the right side of your design to add paper to span the width of the paper.

Landscape to portrait orientation

The other way around, you might start with a tree that spans the height of a design in landscape orientation, but decide you want it to be in portrait to make better use of the length of the paper. In that case, you could increase the size of the image by using the blue marker in the lower right corner. You can use the purple markers in the middle of the two sides of the white area to trim any empty space left and right of the tree.

For more information, see section ‘Paper size vs. design size‘.

Line view and Dot view

To get you familiar as soon as possible with the effect of creating designs for braille embossers, you can view the design on screen as it will be embossed in dots.

For good visibility you can use the line view mode for the drawing. When you switch to dot view, all lines will be converted to individual dots, just as your braille embosser will do.

You can read more in the section ‘Design mode: dot view/line view‘.

Difference between dot view and line view

Figure 2. A circle shown in line view (left) or dot view (right) shows the graphic capabilities of the selected embosser.

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6.09 Draw graph

The ‘Draw graph’ icon shows the list of options for creating a tactile mathematical graph. You can also find these options in the Graphs menu. From this list, you have a choice to either use an empty grid, create a graph by entering your own formula or using one of the TactileView example graphs.

There are a lot of different aspects when it comes to mathematics in braille and creating or reading tactile graphs. The detailed introduction will explain everything you need to know about the background concepts. In the other entries in the ‘Graphs and math’ section of the manual you can read how to use different styles of graphs and learn how to create them using different input methods.

‘Draw graph’ icon:

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8.01 Introduction on mathematical notations

Equations for sighted users are usually written in a spatial arrangement, in such a way that the components and their relations can be understood from their relative positioning. For example, a division is depicted by placing the dividend above the divisor, separated by a horizontal division line.

For printing in braille, this spatial arrangement has to be converted into a continuous line of braille characters. Mathematical symbols such as (large) brackets, square roots and many other non-day-to-day symbols have to be converted as well.

Mathematical notations and braille tables

Since computers began to play a role in math and science, it has become even more a necessity to find an unambiguous way of presenting the results (in braille as well). Many of the equation editors use MathML as their universal language to store and manipulate mathematical equations. This language is also used to add equations to your design in TactileView.

In order to get the correct equation printed in braille, a 2-step conversion is required: applying mathematical notation rules and applying a braille table to translate the characters into the corresponding braille dots.

Conversion from equation in MathType

Figure 1. Conversion from an equation in MathType to a mathematical text label in TactileView, by applying the chosen mathematical notation (in this case LaTeX) and braille table (en-us-comp8.ctb).

A math notation applies a set of rules that convert the spatial elements from the graphical lay-out (MathML) into a continuous line of text. Extra characters need to be inserted to indicate the relationship of the parts, to depict special mathematical symbols or to signify the logical order of the elements. Amongst other, the Nemeth, Unified English Braille, LaTeX, Marburg and Dedicon are some of the better known math notations and are available in TactileView.

The result of the first conversion step is that the equation has become readable as text in a linear instead of a spatial arrangement. During the second step, a ‘braille translator’ (in TactileView, the open source project LibLouis is used) applies the desired braille table to convert the linear text of the equation into the corresponding braille characters.

Keyboard entry of mathematical formulas

When entering a mathematical formula in TactileView, it is important to use the correct syntax for text-only mathematical notation on a computer. The spatial arrangement of the elements in a mathematical expression has to be entered using a combination of specific symbols and applying parenthesis where necessary. The list below gives an overview of which mathematical elements are supported for use in formulas in TactileView. The examples show how to apply and combine these elements.

Mathematical element or function	Symbol	Example
Separation between multiple formulas	;	y=
Formula parameter	x	y=x
Operators
Addition	+	y=x+1
Subtraction	-	y=x-3
Multiplication	*	y=2*x
Division	/	y=x/3
Exponentiation	^	y=2^x
Parentheses	( )	y= (x+2)/(x-3)
Functions
Absolute value	abs( )	y=abs(x+2)
Square root	sqrt( )	y=sqrt(2*x)
Natural logarithm with base e	ln( )	y=ln(x-1)
Logarithm with base 10	log( )	y=log(x+1)
Exponent with base e	exp( )	y=exp(x^2-2*x)
Sine	sin( )	sin(2*x)
Cosine	cos( )	cos(2*x)
Tangent	tan( )	tan(2*x)
Arcsine, arccosine or arctangent	asin( ), acos( ), atan( )	y=asin(x-1)
Hyperbolic sine, cosine or tangent	sinh( ),cosh( ),tanh( )	y=sinh(x-1)
Hyperbolic arcsine,arccosine or arctangent	asinh( ),acosh( ),atanh( )	y=asinh(x-1)
Constants
Decimal sign	.	y=1.5*x
Natural logarithm base	e	y=e^(x^2-2*x)
Pi	pi	y=sin(2pix)
Phi (golden ratio)	phi	y=2phix
Derivatives
First derivative	'	y=(x^2-3*x+4)'
Second derivative and higher	multiple '	y=(sin(2*x+1))"

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2.06 Settings menu

The configuration wizard leads you through the initial steps for setting up the software to accommodate your needs. However, additional options/dialogs can be found in the Settings menu. In this main menu, all the different settings of the software can be found, including those that are part of the configuration wizard.

Most option names will probably speak for themselves. Each settings dialog has an explanatory introduction that will help to select the best setup for you. The list below gives an overview of the functionality of each option in the Settings menu and provides a general description of the purpose for the menu items.

Computer registration

The software product code (SPC) has to be entered in the registration window. After selecting ‘Registration via internet’, your registration data will be checked on the TactileView website to verify the validity of the registration. Please note that each SPC is valid for only one computer.

Configuration wizard: step 1

General

The units for the preferred measurement system can be set, as well as the reference position for these measurements. The size of the markers that can be ‘grabbed’ with the mouse to modify objects can be adjusted. A marker size of 5 pixels is the default.

The internet gateway to the TactileView internet catalog can be tested and configured. The name and e-mail address of the author that is uploading designs to the catalog can be entered here. The TactileView Viewmaster will send feedback on the graphic aspects and tactile usability of the designs to this e-mail address.