Many blind and low-vision individuals are unable to access digital media visually. Currently, the solution to this accessibility problem is to produce text descriptions of visual graphics, which are then translated via text-to-speech screen reader technology. However, if a text description can accurately convey the meaning intended by an author of a visualization, then why did the author create the visualization in the first place? This essay critically examines this problem by comparing the so-called graphic–linguistic distinction to similar distinctions between the properties of sound and speech. It also presents a provisional model for identifying visual properties of graphics that are not conveyed via text-tospeech translations, with the goal of informing the design of more effective sonic translations of visual graphics.

The development of mathematical marking conventions from prehistory to the present is characterized by a trendfrom conventions with more iconic relationships to concrete structures of the physical world (such as more pictorial ancient landsurveying marks) to marking systems with less-iconic relationships to physical structures (that represent numbers, operations,infinity, and other more abstract concepts). We propose how certain constraints of perception-cognition induced conventionsthat made more-iconic (pictorial) marks controversial. These became too conceptually ambiguous to convey more abstractconceptual categories during the formalization of mathematics: Iconic properties of ancient proto-mathematical conventionsrecruited lower level perceptual capabilities developed to perceive-act in a concrete world of occluded surfaces-edges andwere suitable for conveying concrete structures (such as landforms during surveying). However, these were too conceptuallyambiguous to convey more abstract conceptual categories that emerged when mathematics was formalized because a (pictured)concrete structure can fall under many possible conceptual categories

The Covid-19 pandemic altered workplaces. For those with ‘office jobs,’ this meant working ‘virtually,’ or remotely, from home. This transition forced organizations and workplaces to exercise flexibility, adapt workflows and rely on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to work remotely. However, Blind and Partially Sighted Individuals (BPSI) face challenges accessing work digitally and remote communications through ICTs. In response, we report on the results of our longitudinal participatory design study investigating the impact of working and training over a distance for BPSI. What emerged is a conceptual model to assist in understanding how ICT interfaces convey spatial-topological cues for the construction of shared intentionality in virtual work environments. The implications of our model could be significant, as it aids understanding of what is lost and gained when transitioning to virtual work environments. This could inform the development of ICTs with cross-sensory interaction and national accessibility policies for the workplace.

Accessible data analytics—that can be experienced through vision, hearing, and touch—poses a challenge to in-teraction design. It is also a human rights requirement because many societies mandate that all individuals have the right toexperience products and services, yet not every individual accesses media visually. As more data is presented through visual-ization, accessibility for populations who do not access data through vision decreases.Guidelines that claim to make visual media accessible through text fail to translate the iconic properties of visual shapes, thussubtracting affordances for pattern recognition. Non-linguistic sonication can be a means for non-visual pattern recognition.Hearing is optimized for detecting locations on a horizontal plane, and our approach for presenting data analytics recruitsthis optimization by using an immersive binaural horizontal plane. We will demonstrate our approach via two case studies: Asonic translation of a map and a sonic translation of a computational fluid dynamics simulation.

As the theme of this year’s conference suggests, cognitive diversity among learners and educators is increasingly acknowledged. However, in our societies that increasingly require advanced education, training, and technical skills, the pressure to standardize learning objectives, delivery techniques and delivery tools, especially online, is high. In these situations, learners and educators of diverse cognitive phenotypes and abilities experience learning environments that are a poor match for their abilities, making effective delivery of educational content challenging. In addition to learning about our work developing cross-sensory interaction design principles, workshop participants will share lived experiences of the pandemic-induced experimentation in online learning over the past two years to co-design prototypes that address pain points identified by participants.