From Sight to Touch: Designing Tactile Data Physicalizations for Non-sighted Users

Blind and visually impaired people are often excluded from the analysis of datasets because data visualizations primarily address the visual channel. For this reason, this paper examines different physical and tactile encodings for preparing datasets for non-sighted users. Using a user-centered design approach, the authors investigate how this target group perceive visualizations tactilely and to what extent different encodings are suitable for exploring different datasets. Furthermore, it will be investigated how tactile contextual components such as labels, legends, grids and guidelines must be designed so that the information can be interpreted as accurately as possible. A user study with five blind participants provided valuable insights for the design of tactile data physicalizations.