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I’m a Blind technologist and i’ve built the Dimensions Lab for #accessible tactile graphics and #3d models at New York Public Library. With the right tools, skill-building opps and community support, Blind people can break out of image poverty and excel at spatial thinking + design. This is me waving hello to folks in #Vis #Art #Graphics & #CreativeCoding https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/06/15/1074036/ending-image-poverty/amp/

How tactile graphics can help end image poverty

Access to rich imagery shouldn’t be something that blind or low-vision people have to do without. These projects are helping.
Chancey Fleet (MIT Technology Review)
#accessible #art #graphics #3d #creativecoding #vis
in reply to ChanceyFleet

ChanceyFleet
ChanceyFleet
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Our lab is free and open to everybody. We use low-tech tactile drawing tools + digital methods like graphics embossing, 3d printing, swellform & cutting machines. We’re always looking for new community members projects that need our support — and for volunteers! https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/heiskell/dimensions

Dimensions: Community Tools for Making Tactile Graphics & Objects

Dimensions: Community Tools for Making Tactile Graphics & Objects Project Introduction We all need to understand maps, diagrams, images and other spatial information.
The New York Public Library
in reply to ChanceyFleet

ChanceyFleet
ChanceyFleet
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During lockdown, i launched an SVG study group to explore the proposition that Blind people can hand-code to draw, since traditional CAD software is painfully inaccessible. Thanks to @Marconius — a visual artist gone Blind who joined the SVG Study Group one year ago — we now have this friendly, comprehensive, accessible resource for anybody who wants to draw with code: https://www.blindsvg.com

Home - Blind SVG Study Guide

Accessible tutorial for the Blind to create tactile graphics with SVG code. Learn how to build drawings ready for embossers, Swell-form, 3D Printing, and more.
www.blindsvg.com
@Marco Salsiccia

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ChanceyFleet
ChanceyFleet
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Fun problems on my mind at the moment, for which i’d welcome new friends on the journey to accessible graphics for Blind folks:
Rigging Cricut/Silhouette cutting machines to emboss directly with a stylus, and finding a tool (command line or otherwise) that lets us bypass the inaccessible software these machines drag in with them
The potential to semi-automate conversion of graphics to tactile (scaling up, converting to line drawing, replacing color with texture, etc)
in reply to ChanceyFleet

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
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Maybe we could work with the developers of the software for these Cricut/Silhouette cutting machines to make it accessible instead of bypassing it.
in reply to Matt Campbell

ChanceyFleet
ChanceyFleet
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@matt I have contacted both but no dice yet. Would love some help with this!
@Matt Campbell
in reply to ChanceyFleet

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
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So are the UIs completely inaccessible, are they partially accessible but with custom controls, or is it more like simple unlabeled buttons?
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