Providing interactive access to architectural floorplans for blind people

The TeDUB system is a new method for providing access to graphic information for blind people, using synthetic speech, sounds and forcefeedback information from a joystick. Currently certain types of visual diagram, such as architectural floorplans, can be automated by the TeDUB system and presented to the user. A variety of features to allow users to navigate through the diagram (Text View, Map View, Spatial Navigation View, Walkthrough) and explore the information have been developed. This article presents an overview of the TeDUB system, some of the work carried out in developing the user requirements for the system, and an evaluation with 34 blind participants of the floorplan prototype of the system