Australian Workshop on Accessible Graphics’ – By Rajat Prakash & K. Sriram

How do we ensure the 1 billion visually-challenged and print-disabled people have equal access to all the information and content? The solution was addressed at the e-workshop hosted by ANZAGG (Australia & New Zealand Accessible Graphics Group) on the 18th of May, Mr. Rajat Prakash and Dr. K Sriram took part on behalf of Continual Engine.
Mr. Prakash shared his insights on making graphics accessible by generating accurate ‘Alt text’ through Continual Engine’s Invicta. Alt text allows visually challenged or print disabled users to describe a specific image clearly through braille, voice, or a screen reader. Invicta is powered by state-of-the-art deep learning and computer vision technologies. The Alt text generated by Invicta is similar to a friend describing complex content to a blind user in words. This includes graphs, engineering diagrams, mathematical equations, chemical structures, and table images. Mr. Prakash demonstrated remediation use cases by Invicta in Chemistry, Physics, Math, Engineering, and Accounting.

Invicta’s AI algorithm is trained extensively on millions of images, ensuring alt text with high accuracy and consistency at a fraction of the cost and turnaround time. In addition, dedicated in-house subject matter experts review, edit, and deliver the content based on the client’s preferred format. This ‘expert-in-the-loop’ feature has allowed Invicta to provide a scalable, cost-effective solution for leading educational institutions, publishers, and content providers across the world, including Pearson Education and Macmillan Learning. The alt text generated by Invicta is certainly a disruptive & innovative way to access specialized content for visually challenged & print disabled users. Upon hearing about Invicta, the participants seemed excited and thrilled, Mr. Nikhil D’Souza from NextSense commented, “It is fascinating technology! “

The ‘ANZAGG: Technologies for Creating Accessible Graphics’ workshop, which lasted for 1.5 hours, was part of the 4-day round table conference themed ‘Inclusion and Access to Information in our Changing World’. The conference welcomed delegates from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the USA, Canada, India, and South-East Asia. The workshop was facilitated by Ms Leona Holloway, Research Assistant at Monash University. The participants highlighted various methods of making graphics accessible to the visually challenged and the print disabled; these include manual, mechanical, and digital forms of making graphics accessible. A few examples are dynamic tactile displays, magnetic drawing boards, braille embossers using thermal technology heating papers, DIY maps, Thermographic powder printing, braille embossing powder, CNC machine milling & QR codes.

The ANZAGG workshop was a small step in the meaningful journey of making all content accessible to all in the future!

In the Image:

First row – from left to right- Greg Stilson (APH), Leona Holloway (Monash University), Nikhil D’Souza (NextSense),

Second row – from left to right- Peter Cracknell (Quantum RLV), Bob Marek (Hungry Fingers), Sam Boswell (NextSense),

Third row – from left to right- Marcin Matys (TEXTURE), Rajat Prakash (Continual Engine), Angela Reynolds (Guide Dogs NSW), K. Sriram (Continual Engine)

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Editors:

Debangku Sarma

Digital Marketing Associate
Continual Engine

Vijayshree Vethantham

Senior Vice-President, Growth & Strategy
Continual Engine US LLC

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