TeDUB: Access to Technical Diagrams for Blind and Visually Impaired People

The TeDUB project (Technical Drawings Understanding for Blind People) is developing a software system to make technical diagrams accessible to blind and visually-impaired people.

The project consist of two modules where one analyses drawings either semi-automatically or automatically and the other one that presents the results of this analysis and allows the user to interact with it. The system is currently capable of analyzing and present diagrams from a number of domains: UML diagrams, electronic circuit diagrams and architectural floor plans.

TeDUB analyses either a bitmap without semantic structure or an enriched format like XMI for UML. The last one is semantically enriched and contains a structure that TeDUB can work with.

The system provides a blind user an interface to navigate and alter these diagrams using a number of input and output devices. Members of the project have done an extensive user evaluation and the overall response has shown the effectiveness of the TeDUB approach.

Source: TeDUB