[Athen] Invitation to participate in audio/tactile graphics usability test project

[John Gardner]

Hello!  

ViewPlus Technologies, Inc. is seeking blind volunteers to participate in a
study of audio-tactile graphics usability.  During the study, volunteer
testers will receive computer graphic files by email and embossed and
printed tactile graphics by regular mail.  Testers who have ViewPlus
embossers can optionally emboss their own tactiles.  Testers will receive
the ViewPlus IVEO Viewer software and will be loaned a ViewPlus IVEO
Touchpad to use during the testing period. We will send testers three or
four general interest graphics a week to read using the IVEO system, none of
which should require more than two or three minutes of their time.  Testers
will also be encouraged to send in their own ideas for graphics to be made
accessible to read with the IVEO system.  Each week testers will be asked to
send in an email evaluation of the usability of each graphic.  Usability
questions will be brief, with a few specific questions on occasion about a
particular aspect used in the graphic, and will include a request for the
tester to suggest better techniques that would improve the usability of the
graphic.

All testers will have access to the ViewPlus support line if they need help
installing the software or using it.  The IVEO Viewer software is presently
available only for Windows, so testers must have a Windows computer and know
how to use it at a basic level.  IVEO does not rely on screen readers, so no
specific screen reader is needed.  

Any adult Windows computer user who is blind is eligible to be a tester. US
residents who meet these qualifications will be accepted as a tester on a
first come first served basis.  Up to twenty testers are desired for this
study.  If fewer than twenty US residents have volunteered by end of summer
2012, foreign volunteers will be accepted, provided they have access to a
ViewPlus embosser and can make their own tactiles. 

This test project is scheduled to run through March 31, 2013.  It is partly
funded by ViewPlus and partly through a sub-contract from the DIAGRAM
project.  DIAGRAM is funded by a grant from the US Department of Education.
All findings will be published in reports and authoring guidelines for
creating and converting graphical information into audio-tactile accessible
form. ViewPlus (and other companies or agencies) can freely utilize the
information to improve authoring, editing and delivery of software and
content for audio-tactile accessible graphical information.

If you are interested in being a volunteer tester for this study, please
email our project coordinator Rosemarie Hyde at Rosemarie.Hyde at viewplus.com.

Sincerely, 



John Gardner - Principal Investigator and President
ViewPlus Technologies, Inc.
1965 SW. Airport Rd.
Corvallis, OR 97333
541-754-4002
John.Gardner at viewplus.com