At MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), researchers are making strides in accessibility with the development of a new system known as Tactile Vega-Lite, aimed at assisting blind and low-vision individuals to better comprehend data through tactile charts. Usually, designers have to wade through extensive guidelines, such as the 426-page book set by the Braille Authority of North America in 2022, and juggle multiple software applications to convert traditional charts into tactile ones. Tactile Vega-Lite seeks to streamline this process by allowing users to directly turn spreadsheets into both standard and touch-based charts, according to MIT News.
The tool developed by MIT CSAIL could significantly reduce the design time needed for creating tactile graphics. With Tactile Vega-Lite, educators and designers not only get to quickly create these accessible charts but can also precisely tweak them for presentation—a balance between professional editing precision and educational efficiency. "Since their needs differ, we designed a program that’s easy to use, provides instant feedback when you want to make tweaks, and implements accessibility guidelines," Mengzhu “Katie” Chen SM ’25, a recent CSAIL affiliate, told MIT News.
One of the standout features of the program is its ability to intuitively make decisions for users. Senior author and MIT postdoc Jonathan Zong SM '20, PhD '24 highlighted that Tactile Vega-Lite has "smart defaults to ensure proper spacing, layout, texture, and Braille conversion" which follow industry best practices for touch-based reading experiences, as noted by MIT News. The team has consulted with experts in the field and aims to assist those without extensive tactile design experience to present data effectively for tactile readers.
The program's code editor facilitates quick alterations to elements like axis labels and tick marks. Tactile Vega-Lite employs abstractions as shortcuts, allowing users to make adjustments with simple code phrases. For example, users could just change the code in the "Texture" section to instantaneously alter the fill style of graph bars. Moreover, plans are in motion to enhance the user interface for those less seasoned in coding, potentially replacing code abstractions with more straightforward clickable buttons. Chen and her colleagues are additionally working to introduce machine-specific customizations to the program, which would allow users to preview how their tactile chart would look post-embossing and accordingly make any necessary edits.
While Tactile Vega-Lite is poised to significantly increase the accessibility of tactile charts, Zong pointed out the importance of human review for final guideline compliance checks. The team continues to incorporate Braille design rules, understanding the irreplaceable value of expert oversight, as detailed by MIT News. Outside expert Stacy Fontenot, who owns Font to Dot and wasn't involved in the research, observed, "Tactile Vega-Lite has a straightforward interface for creating informative tactile graphics quickly and accurately, thereby reducing the design time in providing quality graphics to tactile readers." This spring, more details about the tool will be presented in a paper at the Association of Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
The research has been supported by a National Science Foundation grant and reflects input from collaborators such as Rich Caloggero from MIT’s Disability and Access Services, as well as the Lighthouse for the Blind. The project's inclusive approach exemplifies MIT's ongoing commitment to making information more accessible to everyone.
