End-to-end solution for accessible chemical diagrams
Volker Sorge, Mark Lee, Sandy Wilkinson · 2015
Chemical diagrams are an important means of conveying information in chemistry and biosciences to students, starting as early as secondary school. But even in electronic teaching material, diagrams are commonly given as bitmap graphics leaving them inaccessible for visually impaired learners. We present an end-to-end solution to making these diagrams Web accessible, by employing image analysis solutions to recognise and semantically analyse diagrams, and by regenerating them in a format that makes them amenable to assistive technology. We provide software tools that allow readers to interactively engage with diagrams by exploring them step-wise and on different layers, enabling aural rendering of diagrams and their individual components together with highlighting and magnification to assist readers with low vision or learning difficulties. Our technology builds on open standards, supporting a number of computing platforms, browsers, and screen readers, and is extensible to diagrams in other STEM subjects.