Video accessibility is crucial for blind and visually impaired individuals for education, employment, and entertainment purposes. However, professional video descriptions are costly and time-consuming. Volunteer-created video descriptions could be a promising alternative, however, they can vary in quality and can be intimidating for novice describers. We developed a Human-in-the-Loop Machine Learning (HILML) approach to video description by automating video text generation and scene segmentation and allowing humans to edit the output. The HILML approach facilitates human-machine collaboration to produce high quality video descriptions while keeping a low barrier to entry for volunteer describers. Our HILML system was significantly faster and easier to use for first-time video describers compared to a human-only control condition with no machine learning assistance. The quality of the video descriptions and understanding of the topic created by the HILML system compared to the human-only condition were rated as being significantly higher by blind and visually impaired users.

Blind and low vision learners are underrepresented in STEM and maker culture, both of which are historically inaccessible. In this paper we describe our experience conducting a three-day nonvisual soldering workshop and discuss the opportunities and challenges for designing accessible electronics curricula. Workshop attendees learned nonvisual soldering skills, adapted from publications for blind and low vision electronics professionals [4, 13, 18], while building a complex circuit. We detail our curriculum design and its complexities for learners with different levels of technical experience and learning modalities. While our instruction pacing proved challenging for some, all attendees succeeded with operating hot soldering irons and commanding basic soldering techniques over the course of three days. Based on our findings, we provide recommendations for educators wanting to design similar nonvisual STEM curricula and workshops. These include supplying tactile and textual instruction to support multiple learning styles and pacing, and standardizing workshop materials to support nonvisual hands-on learning for novices.

The Maker movement promises access to activities from crafting to digital fabrication for anyone to invent and customize technology. But people with disabilities, who could benefit from Making, still encounter significant barriers to do so. In response, we share our personal experiences Making nonvisually and supporting its instruction. Specifically, we draw on examples from a series of workshops where we introduced Arduino to blind hobbyists and guided assembly of an accessible voltmeter prototype [24]. In so doing, we offer future directions for accessible Making research and application.

Schematics are a visual language used to describe the relationships between components in an electronic circuit and present accessibility challenges for blind, low vision, and tactile learners. Creating discernible tactile schematics using low-cost microcapsule fusers (which create raised surfaces on paper) is non-trivial as circuit diagrams contain small elements, complex relationships, and must follow industry standards. We conducted iterative design activities with tactile graphic experts, blind and low vision students wanting to learn schematics, graphic designers, and physical computing instructors to create an improved set of tactile schematic symbols and nine guidelines for novices to create readable tactile graphics for schematics.

Affordable rapid 3D printing technologies have become key enablers of the Maker Movement by giving individuals the ability to create physical finished products. However, existing computer-aided design (CAD) tools that allow authoring and editing of 3D models are mostly visually reliant and limit access to people with blindness and visual impairment (BVI). Through a series of co-design sessions with three blind users of mixed programming ability, we identify accessibility challenges in existing 3D modelling scripting tools and design interactions to support dynamic feedback of scripts using a 2.5D tactile shape display. With these insights, we implement shapeCAD. Interacting with shapeCAD, BVI users are able to leverage the low resolution output from a 2.5D shape display to complement programming of 3D models. shapeCAD allows users to haptically explore and modify existing models, and to author new models. We further validate usability and user experience through an evaluation with five BVI programmers. In a short period of time, novices were able to design a range of new objects. BVI users can bring a valuable perspective to design and it is imperative to increase accessibility in tools that enable this community to also participate as designers.

Spatial layout is a key component in graphic design. While people who are blind or visually impaired (BVI) can use screen readers or magnifiers to access digital content, these tools fail to fully communicate the content's graphic design information. Through semi-structured interviews and contextual inquiries, we identify the lack of this information and feedback as major challenges in understanding and editing layouts. Guided by these insights and a co-design process with a blind hobbyist web developer, we developed an interactive, multimodal authoring tool that lets blind people understand spatial relationships between elements and modify layout templates. Our tool automatically generates tactile print-outs of a web page's layout, which users overlay on top of a tablet that runs our self-voicing digital design tool. We conclude with design considerations grounded in user feedback for improving the accessibility of spatially encoded information and developing tools for BVI authors.

Affordable rapid 3D printing technologies have become a key enabler in the maker movement by giving individuals the ability to create physical finished products. However, existing computer-aided design (CAD) tools that allow authoring and editing of 3D models are mostly visually reliant and limit access for people who are blind or visually impaired. We propose an accessible CAD workflow where 3D models are generated through OpenSCAD, a script-based 3D modeling tool, and rendered at interactive speeds in an actuated 2.5D shape display. We report preliminary findings on a case study with one blind user. Based on our observations, we frame design imperatives on interactions that might be important in future accessible CAD systems with tactile output.

Although interactive technologies and the maker movement offer stunning prospects for the next 50 years of educational inclusion and accessibility for learners with visual disabilities, a surprising array of physical, digital, and cultural barriers continue to communicate lessons of exclusion and inequity. Accessibility is a fundamental aspect of digital and physical design which, when present, allows a user with a disability to have an effective and substantively equivalent experience to that of a user without a disability. Here we consider interaction barriers for people with visual disabilities, but the themes readily apply to other disability-specific challenges in universal design and inclusion.

We describe three usability studies involving a prototype system for creation and haptic exploration of labeled locations on 3D objects. The system uses a computer, webcam, and fiducial markers to associate a physical 3D object in the camera's view with a predefined digital map of labeled locations ("hotspots"), and to do real-time finger tracking, allowing a blind or visually impaired user to explore the object and hear individual labels spoken as each hotspot is touched. This paper describes: (a) a formative study with blind users exploring pre-annotated objects to assess system usability and accuracy; (b) a focus group of blind participants who used the system and, through structured and unstructured discussion, provided feedback on its practicality, possible applications, and real-world potential; and (c) a formative study in which a sighted adult used the system to add labels to on-screen images of objects, demonstrating the practicality of remote annotation of 3D models. These studies and related literature suggest potential for future iterations of the system to benefit blind and visually impaired users in educational, professional, and recreational contexts.

CamIO (short for "Camera Input-Output") is a novel camera system designed to make physical objects (such as documents, maps, devices and 3D models) fully accessible to blind and visually impaired persons, by providing real-time audio feedback in response to the location on an object that the user is pointing to. The project will have wide ranging impact on access to graphics, tactile literacy, STEM education, independent travel and wayfinding, access to devices, and other applications to increase the independent functioning of blind, low vision and deaf-blind individuals. We describe our preliminary results with a prototype CamIO system consisting of the Microsoft Kinect camera connected to a laptop computer. An experiment with a blind user demonstrates the feasibility of the system, which issues Text-to-Speech (TTS) annotations whenever the user's fingers approach any pre-defined "hotspot" regions on the object.