Co-Designing Audio-Tactile graphics with School Teachers

Summary of Project

Problem:

While traditional tactile graphics are commonplace in education, the potential of audio-tactile graphics remains underutilized in classrooms. We know from prior research that few reasons for this underutilization is because of a: 

1. lack of commercially available audio-tactile systems, 

2. lack of standardized design guidelines for audio-tactile graphics 

3. lack of a compatible training workflow that supports creation and use of audio-tactie graphics in schools.

This exploratory study aims to address this gap by exploring how educators can effectively incorporate audio-tactile graphics into teaching methodologies, uncovering emergent pedagogies in a co-design workshop setting.

Research Question: 

1. How would special-ed educators design audio-tactile graphics that meet their teaching requirements.

2. If this were deployed as a product, how do special-ed educators imagine using the audio-tactile diagrams as part of their current workflow for producing and teaching with tactile graphics?

   1. What kinds of audio-tactile graphics would educators want to create and teach?

   2. How would the educators collaborate to create audio-tactile content?

Study:

I conducted co-design workshops with educators who teach blind and visually impaired students. During the workshop we produced audio-tactile graphics for a prompt provided to them. We produced the graphics in their schools using the tactile graphics tools they currently use, and brainstormed how to teach using audio-tactile graphics.

Outcome: 

The study summarized following insights that inform ways in which we can further utilize audio-tactile graphics in school:

1. We demonstrated a workflow for producing audio-tactile graphics in schools with all educators typically involved in the production of traditional tactile graphics. 

2. Identified preliminary set of design guidelines for audio-tactile graphics that are grounded in school context 

3.  Designed a subsequent long-term deployment study for audio-tactile system for case study.

My role:

UX researcher responsible for end-to-end research plan, including conducting the co-design workshop, and analysis.

Co-design Workshop

Why co-design workshop?

1. User-Centered Approach: In co-design, educators are at the center of the design process for audio-tactile graphic tools. This approach ensures that the tools are customized to their specific teaching requirements and workflow, meeting their needs and preferences.

2. Expertise Integration: Co-design allows for the integration of special-ed educators' expertise in teaching and catering to the needs of visually impaired students. This fosters a collaborative environment where their deep understanding of pedagogical nuances and tactile graphics usage can shape the design process, resulting in invaluable insights.

3. Feasibility and Long-Term Adoption: When planning to deploy a product, including educators (i.e -the end-users) in the co-design process ensures that the proposed audio-tactile tools are compatible with their current workflow. This reduces interruptions and improves the ability to integrate new assistive technologies into existing teaching practices.

4. Creative Exploration: Co-designing with educators allows for the exploration of new and creative ways to integrate audio-tactile graphics into teaching methods. This collaborative approach can result in unique and innovative uses of the graphics that may not have been possible with traditional tactile graphics.

5. Collaborative Aspects of Production: Creating audio-tactile graphics in schools involves a lot of collaboration, and co-designing is a helpful tool to capture this collaborative process.

6. Iterative Refinement: Iterative cycles of feedback and refinement are possible through co-design, which aligns with the complex and evolving nature of exploratory research on audio-tactile graphics. Educator feedback can be progressively incorporated into the design process, resulting in a solution that is more refined and effective.

Participants: 

Transcribers, Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVIs), Access-Tech Specialists, Tactile-Graphic Artists.  

Location: 

Intermediate School District Offices in S-E Michigan where the participants typically designed tactile graphics. 

Co-Design Prompt:
Participants were provided with a prompt discussing the onset of hurricane Ian, and how the classroom teacher planned to go over the details of events. For this lesson, they would be creating an audio-tactie graphic of the path map based on the provided prompt, for a fictional blind high-school student - James, who has over 6 years experience reading tactile graphics.

Key Insights

1. Insights on how the job roles of educators would be different when designing audio-tactile graphics in schools, in comparison to their current job roles.

2. TVIs saw audio-tactile graphics would improve accuracy interpreting graphic among students when reading graphics independently, and allow educators to include elaborate labels when embedded as audio-labels instead of braille labels.

3. We identified teaching scenarios where using audio-tactile graphics can support educators in teaching blind and visually impaired students more effectively.

Opportunities