Bar graphs and different charts present a easy technique to talk knowledge, however are, by definition, tough to translate for readers who’re blind or low-vision. Designers have developed strategies for changing these visuals into “tactile charts,” however tips for doing so are in depth (for instance, the Braille Authority of North America’s 2022 guidebook is 426 pages lengthy). The method additionally requires understanding various kinds of software program, as designers usually draft their chart in packages like Adobe Illustrator after which translate it into Braille utilizing one other software.
Researchers from MIT’s Pc Science and Synthetic Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have now developed an strategy that streamlines the design course of for tactile chart designers. Their program, known as “Tactile Vega-Lite,” can take knowledge from one thing like an Excel spreadsheet and switch it into each an ordinary visible chart and a touch-based one. Design requirements are hardwired as default guidelines inside the program to assist educators and designers mechanically create accessible tactile charts.
The device might make it simpler for blind and low-vision readers to grasp many graphics, similar to a bar chart evaluating minimal wages throughout states or a line graph monitoring international locations’ GDPs over time. To carry your designs to the actual world, you may tweak your chart in Tactile Vega-Lite after which ship its file to a Braille embosser (which prints textual content as readable dots).
This spring, the researchers will current Tactile Vega-Lite in a paper on the Affiliation of Computing Equipment Convention on Human Components in Computing Programs. The findings are additionally obtainable on the arXiv preprint server. In accordance with lead writer Mengzhu “Katie” Chen SM ’25, the device strikes a stability between the precision that design professionals need for modifying and the effectivity educators must create tactile charts shortly.
“We interviewed academics who wished to make their classes accessible to blind and low-vision college students, and designers skilled in placing collectively tactile charts,” says Chen, a current CSAIL affiliate and grasp’s graduate in electrical engineering and pc science and the Program in System Design and Administration. “Since their wants differ, we designed a program that is straightforward to make use of, supplies on the spot suggestions once you wish to make tweaks, and implements accessibility tips.”
Knowledge you may really feel
The researchers’ program builds off of their 2017 visualization device Vega-Lite by mechanically encoding each a flat, commonplace chart and a tactile one. Senior writer and MIT postdoc Jonathan Zong SM ’20, Ph.D. ’24 factors out that this system makes intuitive design selections so customers do not need to.
“Tactile Vega-Lite has good defaults to make sure correct spacing, format, and texture and Braille conversion, following finest practices to create good touch-based studying experiences,” says Zong, who can be a fellow on the Berkman Klein Heart for Web and Society at Harvard College and an incoming assistant professor on the College of Colorado. “Constructing on present tips and our interviews with consultants, the objective is for academics or visible designers with out lots of tactile design experience to shortly convey knowledge in a transparent method for tactile readers to discover and perceive.”
Tactile Vega-Lite’s code editor permits customers to customise axis labels, tick marks, and different components. Totally different options inside the chart are represented by abstractions—or summaries of an extended physique of code—that may be modified. These shortcuts mean you can write transient phrases that tweak the design of your chart. For instance, if you wish to change how the bars in your graph are stuffed out, you could possibly change the code within the “Texture” part from “dottedFill” to “verticalFill” to interchange small circles with upward strains.
To grasp how these abstractions work, the researchers added a gallery of examples. Each features a phrase and what change that code results in. Nonetheless, the staff is trying to refine Tactile Vega-Lite’s consumer interface to make it extra accessible to customers much less accustomed to coding. As an alternative of utilizing abstractions for edits, you could possibly click on on completely different buttons.
Chen says she and her colleagues are hoping so as to add machine-specific customizations to their program. This might enable customers to preview how their tactile chart would look earlier than it is fabricated by an embossing machine and make edits in response to the gadget’s specs.
Whereas Tactile Vega-Lite can streamline the numerous steps it normally takes to make a tactile chart, Zong emphasizes that it would not change an skilled doing a remaining check-over for guideline compliance. The researchers are persevering with to include Braille design guidelines into their program, however warning that human assessment will doubtless stay one of the best follow.
“The power to design tactile graphics effectively, significantly with out specialised software program, is vital for offering equal entry of data to tactile readers,” says Stacy Fontenot, proprietor of Font to Dot, who wasn’t concerned within the analysis. “Graphics that comply with present tips and requirements are helpful for the reader as consistency is paramount, particularly with advanced, data-filled graphics. Tactile Vega-Lite has an easy interface for creating informative tactile graphics shortly and precisely, thereby lowering the design time in offering high quality graphics to tactile readers.”
Chen and Zong wrote the paper with Isabella Pineros ’23, MEng ’24 and MIT Affiliate Professor Arvind Satyanarayan. The CSAIL staff additionally included enter from Wealthy Caloggero from MIT’s Incapacity and Entry Companies, in addition to the Lighthouse for the Blind, which allow them to observe technical design workflows as a part of the mission.
Extra info:
Mengzhu Katie Chen et al, Tactile Vega-Lite: Quickly Prototyping Tactile Charts with Sensible Defaults, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2503.00149
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