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A Method for Presenting UML Class Diagrams with Audio for Blind and Visually Impaired Students

Published: 26 June 2024 Publication History

Abstract

Unified Modeling Language class diagrams convey relationships between code units in Object-Oriented software projects. They are commonly used in industry and extensively used in undergraduate computer science courses to convey common software engineering concepts. Unfortunately, class diagrams are a purely visual language - rendering them useless for programmers with visual impairments or blindness. This work addresses that deficiency with a novel auditory method that conveys relationship properties between classes using sonification techniques. Study results show that users can quickly and reliably perceive the presented relationships. The study was a proof-of-concept, with future work leveraging this mechanism to create a complete class diagramming tool accessible to students who are either blind or visually impaired.

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences
PETRA '24: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments
June 2024
708 pages
ISBN:9798400717604
DOI:10.1145/3652037
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 June 2024

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Author Tags

  1. UML
  2. accessibility
  3. blind
  4. class diagrams
  5. sonification
  6. visual impairment

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