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Published in Atlanta Computer Currents, May 1992



VISUALLY IMPAIRED COMPUTER USERS TO BE AIDED BY MERCATOR
by Sallylyn Hill

Twelve years ago, Richard Cannon learned how to use a computer.  Today, he
is a computer systems analyst with the Army Headquarters Force Command, Fort
McPherson.  An accomplishment that seems greater considering Cannon is blind. 
The rapid growth in popularity of Graphic User Interface (GUI) computers
may eliminate a visually impaired person's chances of repeating this
accomplishment in the future.

When computers first hit the workplace, they presented mainly textual
and numeric information.  This information could be easily translated
for the visually impaired by using devices and software that translated
the characters on the screen to auditory information (usually a
synthesized human voice).

This method was successful until the mid-'80s when the use of GUIs
increased.  These interfaces often use pictorial representations of
applications and files.  GUIs typically break the screen area into
segments called windows and also use some type of pointing device such
as a mouse.  All three of these characteristics rely on a person's
visual sense to interact properly with the computer, thus leaving them
almost completely inaccessible to the blind user.  There is a system
available for the visually impaired, but it must be hardwired or
physically transferred from one GUI system to the other.

"Windows are definitely the future," said Cannon, who is also the editor
of Visually Impaired Data Processor International Views, a quarterly
recorded newsletter.

Cannon is able to operate computers by using the Brailink Terminal and
Protocol Converter, which cost more than $9,000 when Cannon joined the
Army 12 years ago.  While the Army provided the equipment, Cannon said
he would have purchased it himself because he wanted to work.

Equipment such as OSII or Macintosh Outspoken is also available.
However, if a visually impaired user does not have that equipment than
"you're hung by the moon," Cannon said.

The increasing popularity of GUIs also concerned John Goldthwaite, a
research scientist with the Center for Rehabilitation Technology at
Georgia Tech.  After working with the visually impaired, he realized
that the growing popularity of GUI computers in the workplace was
eliminating access for visually impaired computer users.  So he asked
researchers at the Georgia Tech College of Computing if a system could
be developed to provide visually impaired users the same access to
computers.  That led to the birth of project Mercator.

Hypothetically, Mercator is expected to provide computer access for
visually impaired users.  The visually impaired computer user will be
able to hear the ques and interact with them, said Elizabeth Mynatt,
research scientist, Multimedia Computing Group, and head of Mercator
project.  The platforms for this project are high-end computer
workstations running the Unix operating system.   The X-Window system
from MIT is the standard GUI.  The Unix system was selected because of
its dominance in education and business areas and there are a large
number of X applications available, Mynatt explained.

Named for Gerhardus Mercator, a cartographer who devised a way of
projecting the spherical Earth's surface onto a flat surface with
straight-line bearings, the computer project is nearly the antithesis of
the cartographer's mapping project.  Georgia Tech's researchers hope to
create a three-dimensional auditory environment in place of the standard
two-dimensional graphical environment.

The first step in developing the interactive computer system is building
the architecture.  Currently, researchers are working on a prototype
system that will provide transparent access to an X application by using
the same methodology from one application to the other.  The user will
be able to interact with the system through a combination of voice,
tactile and keyboard input.  So if the users are working with one
application and start working with a new application the interfaces are
going to act in a very similar manner.  Items such as the scroll bars
and buttons are going to sound and act the same.  Sounds and localities
will be the same.

They will operate in an apparent space created by stereo and other audio
effects.  While the sighted user uses the "look and feel" standard,
Mercator will rely on "hear and feel" senses, Mynatt explained.

"Instead of hearing something in my head, I actually hear that something
is out in space in front of me," she said.  "We will be creating a much
more sophisticated sound."

A proof-of-concept was demonstrated to the NASA Marshall Space Flight
Center last month, which will be partially funding the project.

The second problem with developing the system is deciding what type of
interface to provide.  Among the main benefits of GUI are the
organizational tools.  Mynatt is trying to incorporate that organization
into the 3-D auditory space using auditory cues.  This can probably be
done very easily by using speech and having it read to the users.
However, speech is much slower than using symbols.

"Essentially I want to come up with a symbolic sound that lets me know I
am in a menu," said Mynatt.

Once these two problems are solved, which is expected to take another
year, researchers plan to take the project a step further by developing
audio room environments for Unix and X-windows.  This will create a more
spatial environment, Mynatt said.  Auditory space doesn't have as much
room to work.  "The audio rooms would store some applications in one
project room and some other things would be stored in another room,"
explained Mynatt.  "It's a higher level of organization.  That's
something we want to do and it's way out there, but for us it's one of
the more exciting aspects of the project."

Two groups, the Trace Center in Boston and IBM in Boca Raton, Fla., are
also working to develop GUIs for the blind.  However, Tech's project is
particularly exciting, said Cannon, because it takes it one step further
by researching both braille and voice navigational means.

The project was funded originally through a Georgia Tech
Interdisciplinary Research Grant.  Additionally, the project is
beginning to get recognition from software vendors because of the
Americans with Disabilities Act.  The legislation requires vendors with
federal contracts to provide accessible equipment for the handicapped.

Although many visually impaired computer operators have taken a
"defeatist attitude," Cannon remains optimistic.

"I don't ever feel left behind," he said.  "I don't ever take a
defeatist attitude."

He also said the situation is not at a crisis level now.  but if
something is not developed within the next two years, the visually
impaired will be out of work.

"It's coming.  Yes, we will be out of work unless someone does something
about it.  They're (software and hardware vendors) not going to hold
back just for the blind," Cannon said.

However, before that happens, Cannon said he believes researchers will
develop GUIs for the visually impaired, and he is excited that it may be
done in Georgia.