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#CSUNATC18 Audio: Vital Access to Graphics using a Tablet


Vital has created a web application that teachers can use to create accesible graphics using vibrations, text-to-speech, and sounds along with a Samsung tablet. J.J. speaks with Corrine Mueller, Cofounder of Vital, to learn more about the company's webapp and service in this podcast.
Blind Bargains audio coverage of CSUN 2018 is generously sponsored by the American Foundation for the Blind.

Transcript

We strive to provide an accurate transcription, though errors may occur.

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Transcribed by Grecia Ramirez

Almost live from beautiful San Diego, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of CSUN 2018, featuring team coverage from across the Exhibit Hall and beyond, brought to you by the American Foundation for the Blind.
For the latest technology news and accessibility information on cell phones, mainstream and access technology, personal medical devices, office equipment, digital audio players, and web-based and app technologies, log onto AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind’s monthly technology magazine, www.afb.org/AW.
Now, here’s J.J. Meddaugh.
J.J. MEDDAUGH: CSUN 2018, in the Exhibit Hall. I have found Corrine Mueller. She’s a cofounder of Vital. Vital does some really interesting things with making graphics accessible, especially on tablets.
Corrine, welcome to the podcast.
CORRINE MUELLER: Hi. Welcome. Thank you for having us.
JM: So Vital. It’s not vitalle, I thought it was because of the capital T on the name. But it is Vital. And tell us what is vital about Vital?
KM: Yeah. So we have software that makes learning content accessible on tablets. So the short version of what we do is putting tactile graphics on tablets. So software that you can pretty much take any learning content that you might have in your classroom, upload it to our web application, and add feedback to it. So I’ll get into a little bit of the feedback in a second, but – and once that content is created, we send it over to the tablet, and that’s where a student that is blind or low-vision can explore that learning content.
JM: So is this on an iPhone, or what platforms would the tablets be on?
KM: So right now, we’re on Android tablets --
JM: Okay.
KM: -- specifically a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. And we’re on this tablet because it has the ability to vibrate, one of the feedbacks that we use within our graphics.
JM: And iPads do not generally have vibration feedback, so you would lose it there.
KM: Not yet.
JM: Yes.
KM: So that’s what -- we’re hoping they come out with that soon. But they don’t have the ability to vibrate yet.
JM: Okay. So someone – a teacher has a graphic that they want to make accessible.
KM: Uh-huh.
JM: What’s the process like, and what does the student end up with?
KM: Sure. So they go into our website and just log into their account. And they can upload any graphic. So it might come out of Excel, it might just be an image off of Google, but they take that graph, they upload it, and it’s actually all synced up with Google Classroom as well.
JM: Okay.
KM: So they can put that into a course, upload it, and then bring it into the Edit tab on our website within that web application. So they go to the web app, and they actually – they can run OCR, so that’ll find all the text automatically within that graphic and tag it where they want the student to be able to hear what text is on that graphic.
They can add haptics, that’s vibrations. And we’ve got a library of five different vibrations, so they’re just, like, different patterns of vibrations just like you have on your cell phone that we can add to that, and it’s just like we have tactile discrimination on a piece of paper for tactile graphics.
JM: Is there a way to create custom haptic patterns, or are you limited to the five at the moment?
KM: Right now, we only have the five. And we’ll probably add to that, but right now, we have the five that you can use.
JM: Okay. So you can add the haptics, you can also add text-to-speech, I’m assuming?
KM: Uh-huh. Yup. And then, the last one – so text-to-speech, and then auditory cues. So different kinds of auditory beeps and buzzes that can also tell a person where they’re at. Think, like, on a bar graph. The best example is putting a very low tone at the bottom of that bar and a high tone at the top of that bar so that we realize when we’re at the bottom, and then we rise all the way to the top while we’re running our finger up that far.
JM: Is it spatial? Could you add a line from bottom to the top and have the tone go up continuously as you slide your finger up?
KM: Yes, you can.
JM: And you would –
KM: Yeah. So it’s very customized.
JM: You would pretty much, kind of, indicate a range or – of a tone or some – somehow, you would do that on the web – on the web app?
KM: Right. Yup. So you add an audio gradient to those graphics.
JM: Okay. Now, to clarify – and I know this is not a challenge unique to you guys – but the web app – the creation of the graphics is not necessarily something a blind person could do at the moment; correct? You’d have to be sighted to do it?
KM: Yeah. Not yet. So in the future, we’d like to automate the process completely, of making those graphics more accessible and adding that feedback to them. But at this moment, we’re kind of, learning where we need to add that feedback and where the best placement is for all the different types of graphics that we run into in classrooms. So right now, no. But in the future, we hope so.
JM: Perhaps with some possibilities with programs that generate graphics, say, Word or Excel, you can do graphs and things like that, where you know you’re – the theme is going to be consistent with what you’re going to get from it every single time; right? That would help you out.
KM: Right. Yeah. I think that’s definitely possible that we can take that data input, create a graph, and then shoot out an image that has the correct feedback applied.
JM: What’s the pricing model? Do you pay software as a service, or is it per image, or –
KM: It’s a subscription base. So the subscription is three ninety-nine a year for a student. And then it’s free for all teachers and support staff to create unlimited graphics for their students.
JM: And they’d also need to buy the tablet?
KM: Yes. And the tablet that we use, it’s about a 500-dollar tablet. But the tablet can be used for anything else. So you could download any other app on it. You know, we are open to being able to use that hardware for whatever need for that student.
JM: Do you sell the tablet, or would they just get it wherever?
KM: We sell the tablet as well. So we can bundle the tablet with the software and we can provide all that so it can be set up in the classroom.
JM: So the student subscription, if you download the app, I guess they put in some sort of passcode or something to make the app sync up, or –
KM: Yeah. So what we can do – so back on the web app end, we use Google Classroom to sync students and teachers together.
JM: Okay.
KM: And then we also built out – so if you’re not within Google Classroom, we can do that ourselves. So you can create a Vital account; you log in; if you’re a teacher, you create a course; you add the students; you enroll them, it’s called, within that course; and then you can share all the content that you add to that course automatically with that student.
JM: Are there any low-vision cues that go with the haptics and sound and everything else?
KM: It’s – the way the feedback’s applied is no different for someone that’s low-vision, but we do allow – we actually use the engrained accessibility features that are within the tablet – the color contrast – we can use all that. TalkBack within the tablet so that whether it be someone low-vision or that’s blind, can use the accessibility features.
JM: Does it coexist with TalkBack, or do you have to turn TalkBack off while you’re in the app?
KM: It coexists.
JM: Okay. Awesome. The website? What’s the address?
KM: It’s http://www.vital.education.
JM: Oh. That’s right. One of those new fancy domain names. Hey. Dot, education.
KM: Yes. It’s nice.
JM: Actually, let me ask you one more. Speaking of education, I just thought of this. Sharing graphics between classrooms. Say you have different schools using the same curriculum, is that possibility available right now, or –
KM: That’s going to be coming. That’s a good point. So soon, we’d like to add – we’re going to be adding a repository. It’s almost like a library of all the graphics so that teachers aren’t limited to just the graphics they created. They can share these graphics with other teachers and soon build up this repository of all the digital accessible learning content that might be out there for our students.
JM: Awesome. Once again, http://www.vital.education. Yes. One of those new domains. That is a real web address. And how can people get in contact with you?
KM: So they can reach out to us at our website. There’s a contact form. Or they can catch us at info@vital.education.
JM: And you have a Twitter?
KM: We have a Twitter as well. It’s @Vital; 4, the number, 4; education.
JM: Thank you so much, Corrine. We really appreciate it.
KM: Thank you.
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Copyright 2018.

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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.


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