Alison Craig: Creating Accessible Comics
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 craig_surf-it_poster.pdf | 223.46 KB |
| craig_report.pdf | 1.2 MB |
Creating Accessible Comics
For the visually impaired individual, access to graphical information is extremely limited: the majority transcribed into braille or audio. In many schools, information like graphs are done predominantly by hand with craft tools, a time consuming process. More expensive braille embossers feature automated visual to tactile image conversion, allowing for rapid tactile image creation.
Comics represent a unique challenge for accessibility for a number of reasons: they are an unstudied medium, text and images mingle, images are fantastical, and text is confined to small areas. Yet, comics come in the very simple stick figures to complex science fiction and fantasy.
This research project did a preliminary exploration into whether comics can be made accessible to people who are visually impaired. Comics were first sent through a manually-controlled image processing pipeline: conversion to 20dpi, edge detection, black and white color restriction, text removal, and braille overlay. Then, the images were embossed using a braille tactile image embosser. Finally, additional audio information was made available through a Touch Tactile Tablet. Of the comics produced, they were of varying degrees accessible without vision, with more simple ones being accessible in most cases.