New Methods of Reading, Writing, and Manipulating Information by People with Print Impairments* John A. Gardner, Hadi Bargi Rangin, Randy Lundquist, Bill Barry, Mark Preddy and Steve Sahyun Department of Physics and Science Access Project, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-6507 USA Norberto Salinas Department of Mathematics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS USA 1. Introduction During this conference we demonstrate a number of new methods by which people with print impairments can read, write, and manipulate information. In particular, the focus will be on information that has been traditionally difficult for people with print impairments. This includes UNIX computer applications, mathematical equations, tabulated information, and information commonly presented as graphs diagrams, or figures whose visual interpretation can be difficult or impossible to convey in words. Two new computer software products will be introduced. One is the TRIANGLE program, a voice- and braille-accessible mathematical work space for reading, writing, and manipulating scientific information as well as for calculating and graphing data. Two new tactile presentation methods will be demonstrated. One is the DotsPlus method that uses a combination of braille and raised graphics. The other is the GS uniform dual 6/8-dot braille code. 2. DotsPlus DotsPlus retains the layout of an inkprint version. DotsPlus documents can be printed from any valid LaTeX computer file or by using a number of Windows-based word processors. The latter are presently difficult for many people to use, but LaTeX can be written by anyone capable of using a computer text editor. 3. The GS Braille Code The GS dual braille code will be shown. The condensed 6-dot GS code is not radically different from present Standard English Braille. The uncondensed 6-dot (GS6) code is very similar to uncondensed standard English braille but is expanded to allow its use for essentially all literature. The condensed code may be used for standard literary text, including the textual part of scientific literature. The uncondensed code is used for such things as mathematical equations and chemical formulas. Many GS6 symbols are represented by double braille cells. The 8-dot (GS8) code is a more compact representation that is particularly useful when read with a refreshable computer braille display. GS8 is used with the TRIANGLE program. All single-cell GS6 symbols are the same in the GS8 code. A few simple transformation rules determine the single GS8 symbol equivalent to the double-cell GS6 symbol. The special characters used in many non-English languages may be added easily to the uncondensed GS code. Both German and English readers will find that symbols for parentheses, the question mark, numbers, and a few other symbols are different from the standard literary code. For Germans the GS8 code has only two additional differences, since it uses the English definitions for the dot and apostrophe. However Germans familiar with the DIN computer code will recognize the GS numbers. 4. TRIANGLE TRIANGLE is a DOS application specifically designed to be friendly to standard DOS voice and braille screenreaders. TRIANGLE is a triple triangle: 1. It is fully tri-modal in that it can be used visually, orally, or tactilely. Tactile access is through any refreshable braille display into which the GS code can be loaded. Voice access is through any voice screen reader into which the GS character table can be loaded. 2. TRIANGLE permits reading, writing, and doing math. Math can be written and manipulated in the linear GS notation, which is a compact, syntactically equivalent subset of the well-tested family of TeX languages. TRIANGLE includes a scientific graphing calculator whose graphs are tri-modally accessible. 3. TRIANGLE permits access to equations, tables, and figures. A special table viewer allows two viewing methods. The cell-by-cell viewer is convenient when using speech access and for large complicated tables. TRIANGLE also includes a link to an external digitizing pad where tactile figures may be mounted. Internal files provide information about objects in the figures. At the time of the conference, TRIANGLE is available in a beta-release from ftp://dots.physics.orst.edu/pub/triangle/triangle.zip. Authoring tools are still being developed. When complete, they will make possible preparation of materials using TRIANGLE or through translation from LaTeX for text and equations, from common spreadsheet files for tables, and from several special or commercial programs for preparation of figures and accompanying computer file maps. 5. SCREEN and Braille Access Screen is a full-screen window manager for UNIX text applications that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells. Each process is given its own tty session, and the braille additions we have recently added to Screen allow the user to view these directly with a braille display without having to log in through a DOS machine. An alpha version of screen-3.8.2a, which contains the braille accessibility program, is available from ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/utilities/screen/braille/screen-3.8.2.t ar.gz. It is also available along with explanatory notes and three braille tables from our site, ftp://dots.physics.orst.edu/pub/screen/screen-3.8.2a.tar.gz. Screen does not access X-Windows; however, it will run in an xterm window. Currently, it works with the TSI Navigator 40, the TSI PowerBraille 40 and the TSI PowerBraille 80 braille displays. Screen runs under most UNIX variations, including the GNU Linux operating system available for PCs. 6. References Please see the Science Access Project WWW site http://dots.physics.orst.edu for additional information about these and other projects. *Supported in part by the US National Science Foundation.