Blind or visually impaired persons access documents by using a screen reader that reads a text out loud or displays it on a special hardware braille device. However, a large body of technical and scientific material remains inaccessible to them because mathematical equations and diagrams are represented as images and not as text that a screen reader can read.
This is according to Dr Rynhardt Kruger who recently obtained his doctorate in Electronic Engineering at Stellenbosch University (SU). For his PhD, titled technical document accessibility, Kruger developed methods that could make it easier for blind or visually impaired people to read non-textual graphical information in electronic documents.
As someone who was born blind, Kruger says he knows first-hand how difficult it is to read equations and diagrams in scientific documents. “During my studies, it was not always easy to access the material in my textbooks. I realised that many technical documents do not adhere to existing accessibility standards for blind or visually impaired people.”
Despite this, Kruger became the first blind person at SU to obtain both his BSc honours and master’s degrees in computer science. For his Honours project, he developed a programme that allows blind musicians to study music notation. For his master’s degree, Kruger researched methods to allow blind people to access online virtual worlds.
He is passionate about broadening access for people with disabilities and says it is important to continuously search for assistive technologies that blind or visually impaired people can use to read equations and diagrams in scientific texts.
