Talk by Julie Ducasse, October 24th 11:15, RLC D1 661

A variety of approaches exist to make geographical and graphical representations accessible to visually impaired users, whether traditional or technological. Tangible interfaces however, although very promising, have not been thoroughly investigated. Within the framework of the AccessiMap project, and more specifically of my PhD research, we are trying to understand how and to what extent tangible interaction can be used to make geographical maps and graphical representations accessible to visually impaired users. To do so, we are working on several prototypes of tangible interfaces: some allow a visually impaired user to reconstruct and edit tangible maps and graphs; others allow for the dynamic display of tangible maps or graphs using motorized elements such as robots. In this talk I will present these prototypes and discuss the advantages and limitations of tangible interfaces for visually impaired users in terms of their uses and their usability.