Parents and carers are invited to share their experiences of playgrounds for children with vision impairment and their parents and carers.

Please read the Participant Information Statement below before proceeding to the survey at https://sydney.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eevC9X8CNimjBZk

Participant Information Statement

What is this Study About?

You are invited to take part in a research study that investigates the experience of playgrounds for children with vision impairment and their parents/carers.

Outdoor spaces such as parks and playgrounds provide specific opportunities for intergenerational experiences between adults and children. Importantly, accessing local play opportunities goes beyond fun – it is fundamental to enhancing quality of life, enabling development, learning, flexibility, and resilience for intergenerational users (including the elderly). However, children and adults with diverse abilities and impairments face challenges in accessing local community areas when they are not designed with social inclusion in mind. Through surveys and group interviews of relevant stakeholders, we aim to determine a set of best practice guidelines for designing accessible and inclusive community environments that are fundamental for enabling the social inclusion of as many people as possible to enhance community integration, belonging, health and wellbeing.

You have been invited to participate in this study because you are either parent or carer with vision impairment visiting a playground with your child, or your child has a vision impairment. This Participant Information Statement tells you about the research study. Knowing what is involved will help you decide if you want to take part in the research. Please read this sheet carefully.

Participation in this research study is voluntary

By giving your consent to take part in this study you are telling us that you:

• Understand what you have read.
• Agree to take part in the research study as outlined below.
• Agree to the use of your personal information as described.

Who is running the study?

The study is being carried out by the following researchers:

• Dr Dagmar Reinhardt, Associate Professor, Architecture, The University of Sydney
• Dr Lian Loke, Associate Professor, Design, The University of Sydney
• Dr Sue Silveira, Macquarie University, NextSense
• Dr Kathleen Tait, Associate Professor, Macquarie University
• Leona Holloway, Inclusive Technologies, Monash University

What will the study involve for me?

You will be asked to participate in an online survey/questionnaire that will contain several questions regarding a) age and level of vision impairment for your child/or yourself; b) the frequency of use of the playground; c) the response on accessible equipment; d) your understanding of interactions that the playground enables for your child with other children; e) if you enjoyed the experience, and f) what improvements could be made. There is also an invitation for general additional comments and feedback about the experience of playgrounds that you and your children have had. The results of this study are planned to be published, and that publication will not contain your name or any identifiable information about you.

How much of my time will the study take?

The survey should take you about 10-20 minutes.

Who can take part in the study?

Any people over 18 years old can take part in this study.

Do I have to be in the study? Can I withdraw from the study once I’ve started?

Being in this study is completely voluntary and you do not have to take part. Your decision on whether to participate will not affect your current or future relationship with the researchers or anyone else at the University of Sydney. You are free to stop your participation in the survey at any time and may refuse to answer any questions that you do not wish to answer. Submitting your completed questionnaire is an indication of your consent to participate in the study. You can withdraw your responses any time before you have submitted the questionnaire. Once you have submitted it, your responses cannot be withdrawn because they are anonymous and therefore, we will not be able to tell which one is yours.

Are there any risks or costs associated with being in the study?

Aside from giving up your time, we do not expect that there will be any risks or costs associated with taking part in this study. If participating in this study causes you to feel anger or distress, please contact the Paediatric Vision Impairment Alliance Australia with whom we are partnering: Paediatric Vision Impairment Alliance Australia, email: pviallianceaustralia@yahoo.com, Beyond Blue on 1300224636; or Lifeline on 131114.

Are there any benefits associated with being in the study?

You can get a better understanding of playgrounds and support the blind/low vision community to work towards more accessible and inclusive playgrounds. If you are interested, you can also further participate collaboratively with us in designing new strategies for playgrounds in a follow-up workshop.

What will happen to information about me that is collected during the study?

By providing your consent, you are agreeing to us collecting personal information about you for the purposes of this research study. Your information will only be used for the purposes outlined in this Participant Information Statement unless you consent otherwise. Your information will be stored securely, and your identity/information will be kept strictly confidential, except as required by law. Study findings may be published, but you will not be individually identifiable in these publications.

Can I tell other people about the study?

Yes, you are welcome to tell other people about the study.

What if I would like further information about the study?

When you have read this information, Dagmar Reinhardt will be available to discuss it with you further and answer any questions you may have. If you would like to know more at any stage during the study, please contact Dagmar Reinhardt (email: dagmar.reinhardt@sydney.edu.au or via phone +61 407346473).

Will I be told the results of the study?

All collected data will be anonymous and therefore we could not contact you and tell you about the results of this study directly. However, please feel free to contact researchers and make enquiries regarding future publications resulting from this study.

Can I participate further in this study?

All participants are invited to further participate in the study and discuss and co-design inclusive and accessible playgrounds. Should you choose so, you can indicate in the survey if you like to be contacted regarding future research.

What if I have a complaint or any concerns about the study?

Research involving humans in Australia is reviewed by an independent group of people called a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC). The ethical aspects of this study have been approved by the HREC of the University of Sydney (2022/648). As part of this process, we have agreed to carry out the study according to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007). This statement has been developed to protect people who agree to take part in research studies. If you are concerned about the way this study is being conducted or you wish to make a complaint to someone independent from the study, please contact the university using the details outlined below. Please quote the study title and protocol number.

The Manager, Ethics Administration, University of Sydney:
Telephone: +61 2 8627 8176
Email: human.ethics@sydney.edu.au
Fax: +61 2 8627 8177 (Facsimile)

InfoSonics combine spoken words, audio tones and beats to convey data over time through sound.

We are seeking people who are blind or have low vision to take part in a study comparing InfoSonics with traditional sonifications and written descriptions for COVID-19 data in Victoria. Experience this topical information in a new way. Depending on time and availability, you may also be invited to listen to InfoSonics for weather and historical data.

For more information or to book a time to participate, please contact
leona.holloway@monash.edu (phone 042 042 6823) or
kate.stephens@monash.edu

Hurry! This study closes on 10 September.  Participation is expected to take around 90 minutes. You will be provided with a $20 shopping voucher as thanks for your time.

In our survey about the vision impaired community’s access to information to COVID-19, you told us that you want more information about recommended daily living practices for people who are blind or have low vision. We hope that the collated information below is of value.

Health and daily living advice – general

The Coronacast podcasts from ABC are highly recommended. Designed for listening audiences, all information is fully described.

Restrictions and advice in Australia

Refer to the Australian Government website for the most up-to-date essential information on issue such as who should be self-isolating, public gathering restrictions, and what services are available.

COVID-19 symptoms

The Coronavirus Checker is an accessible tool to evaluate your health and provide advice based on best clinical practices, CDC guidelines, illness severity and risk factors like age and pre-existing conditions.

Hand washing

Proper hand washing with soap is an important means of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Thanks to Audio Described Aotearoa for providing this hand washing technique description.

Face mask sewing instructions

The Canadian Network for Equitable Library Services have provided instructions on how to sew your own face mask. The instructions are descriptive and no tracing is necessary. See https://nnels.ca/covid-19-mask-sewing-instructions.

Health and daily living advice for people with a vision impairment

Virtual meetings

Blind Citizens Australia are working hard to provide COVID-19 information and resources for people who are blind or vision impaired. They are offering “BCA Happy Hours” for people who are blind or vision impaired, regardless of whether they are a BCA member or not. The first two weeks of meetings will focus on hearing from you around how BCA can support you to remain connected during these changing times as well as provide a social outlet whilst we are all self-isolating. Based on your feedback, they will then provide an updated schedule of virtual catch-ups and activities. The BCA Happy Hours will take place on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:00am – 12:00pm, and on Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30pm to 8:30pm.

The Braillists in the UK offer a range of advice for vision impaired people in relation to daily living practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also offer weekly virtual meetings.

The World Blind Union will be holding a series of Facebook Live sessions to advocate an inclusive response to COVID-19. The first session on Thursday 16 April is on the topic of “Guidance and mobility, personal security in COVID-19 times”.

Sighted guide technique

Blind SA recommends that blind people and sighted guides avoid sneezing in the crook of the elbow
as advised by the authorities. They recommend that blind persons and sighted guides instead sneeze into a disposable tissue.

Rather than holding the elbow during sighted guide, the upper arm or shoulder can be held.

Sighted guide technique can also be adjusted through use of a belt. The belt should be sanitised before using. The guide takes the one end while the blind person holds on to the other end. That is, the belt looped on the upper arm of the blind person and the guide. This will provide information through the movement of the guide.

Guide Dog Handling

Guide Dogs Victoria have assured their clients that taking your dog for a walk for exercise is permitted and helpful. However, do not let people pet your dog while on a walk. When you get home you can wash your dog’s feet in soap and water, just as you would wash your hands, to minimise the chance of contact contamination.

Guide Dogs NSW have provided further advice for guide dog handlers.

Guide Dog Handlers are being asked to sit in the back seat of taxis and ride share services to maintain social distancing. The dog should sit in the foot well of the back seat with you. Ask the driver to move the passenger seat as far forward as possible and remove the dog’s harness so it does not become caught under the front seat. Recommended steps are given on the Guide Dogs Victoria COVID-19 update page.

Learning, working and leisure from home

Natalie Shaheen has compiled a comprehensive list of resources for distance learning and blind students. Refer to https://nlshaheen.com/covid19/.

The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) are compiling a list of free accessible resources for students and adults to use at home. Refer to the APH Resources and Activities for accessible lessons and books, access technology tutorials, Zoom webinar accessibility tips and more.

Paths to Literacy have compiled a list of fun and meaningful activities to support children with vision impairments learning at home.

Melissa Riccobono, first lady of the NFB, will be hosting a webinar on “Home schooling, how to help our children in time of Covid-19″ on Wednesday 22 April at 12 noon EST, which equates to Thursday 23 April at 2am Australian EST. The live event can be joined at www.facebook.com/BlindUnion/ and it will be recorded for later viewing.

Zoom is a popular platform for online meetings and gatherings. Advice on accessibility in Zoom can be found at:

• Zoom accessibility FAQs
• Zoom accessibility instructions for people with visual impairments
• Zoom hot keys and keyboard shortcuts
• Zoom access with keyboard commands
• Jonathon Mosen on “Zoom from a blindness perspective“
• New Horizons podcast on Zoom for Teleconferencing by Blind Citizens Australia
• Using Zoom on a Braille Note Touch by Paths to Literacy
• How to Use Zoom by Women With Disabilities Australia
• Pro Zoom scripts for JAWS to allow greater control over alerts, chat messages, hand raising, etc.

Shopping

Australians with a disability are eligible for priority online shopping and delivery. You must first set up an account on Coles or Woolworths online shopping. NDIS are sending out the required code via SMS, email or post. If you have not already received your code, phone NDIS on 1800 800 110.

Pharmacies around the country can offer free delivery to customers on prescriptions under 500g. The initiative incorporates Australia Post’s contactless delivery in line with current COVID-19 guidelines. For more information on this service, please contact your local pharmacy directly.

Blindness services operations

Aira continues to operate its full service, offering live visual descriptions and assistance by phone. However, it has relaxed its policy of no background noise in order to accommodate agents who are parents and must keep their children home from school.

The Brailler Boys are “business as usual” for Perkins brailler repairs, albeit by mail only.

Alternative format production and lending libraries, including Vision Australia, Queensland Narrating House, Braille House and RIDBC continue to produce and distribute books in accessible formats.

Potential transmission of the virus via tactile reading materials

COVID-19 can survive for up to 24 hours on paper. It is suggested that braille books be placed in quarantine for a day before being shared.

Thermoform pages are made from PVC. It can be cleaned with soap and water, alcohol, bleach solution or hydrogen peroxide. Do not use acetone to clean thermoform pages.

Swell paper is made from polystyrene and can also be cleaned with soap and water, alcohol, bleach solution or hydrogen peroxide. However, the rough surface of the raised areas may be resistant or susceptible to cleaning. Options are to spray the page with lacquer before use then clean as above; or place the tactile graphic in quarantine for 72 hours after each use.

How accessible is information about COVID-19? How have you been accessing information about the spread of the virus, health tips and shopping services? What further information would you like to access?

If you are an adult who is blind or with low vision, you are invited to complete a brief survey to answer these questions and and help direct creation of accessible media by Monash University’s Inclusive Technologies group.

The survey and related information can be found at the following links:

• Explanatory statement with more information about the survey http://accessiblegraphics.org/research/covid19/
• Survey Part A: Your current access to information about COVID-19 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9T598BK
• Survey Part B: Background information about you https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9TYFQZL
• List of accessible information on COVID-19 http://accessiblegraphics.org/2020/03/22/covid19/.
• Survey Part C: evaluating the accessible COVID-19 formats https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FYGKWGS

 

If you would prefer to complete the survey in a different format, please contact Leona.Holloway@monash.edu

2020 has been a time of rapidly evolving information, with data visualisations used as an important means of understanding the spread and prevalence of COVID-19. Efforts are being made around the world to ensure that people who are blind or have low vision are able to access the same information.

Data tables and graphs

Accessible data tables

The Accessible COVID-19 Statistics Tracker by Tyler Littlefield gives up-to-date data on the spread of coronavirus as simple, easy to navigate data tables. This includes global statistics on total cases, deaths, active cases and recoveries; along with statics by country.

The Australian Government’s “Coronavirus Australia” app, free for download on apple and android devices, gives the number of confirmed cases in each Australian state as a list under “Current Status”.

Descriptions

The Australian Government Department of Health website provides meaningful descriptions of the trends and data shown in their Coronavirus at a glance infographic on the current COVID-19 situation in Australia. It is updated daily at 3pm.
Note: The PDF graphic for download is inaccessible. Instead, stay on the web page and skip to “Description:” at the end of the page.

Sonifications

Our team at Monash University has created the following sonifications, best heard using stereo headphones or speakers.

Flattening the curve

On the left we hear the curve (number of active cases) without protective measures as a siren, with higher pitch indicating more cases. White noise static comes in when the healthcare system exceeds capacity.
On the right we hear the curve with protective measures as a choir. The white noise static fades in as the healthcare system approaches its capacity but fades out quickly.

COVID-19 cases in Australia from 24 February to 20 April 2020

A week is marked with a ‘Grandfather clock’ in all of these sonfications for COVID-19 cases in Australia from 24 February to 20 April 2020.

Active cases are the metallic ‘glockenspiel’ in the left speaker:

 

Recoveries are the ‘harp’ in the right speaker:

 

Deaths are ‘bleeps’; between 1 and 7 notes per beat:

 

Active cases, recoveries and deaths are also given together:

Spread of infection worldwide from 21 January to 25 March

Professor Pedro Rebelo from the Sonic Arts at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast, has produced a sonfication using sound to illustrate the spread of COVID-19 infection and deaths using WHO data from 21 January to 25 March 2020. Further information and the sonification are available at http://www.qub.ac.uk/sarc/research/Covid-19DataSonification65/.

Tactile graphics to print or emboss

Naomi Cogan Rosenberg of the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired has created a series of tactile graphics on COVID-19 that can be printed onto swell paper or embossed using a ViewPlus Tiger embosser.

See https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1L3Gvw4uuAoZWTv5i2iIT1f2HRYW6boMF for tactile graphics illustrating the concept of flattening the curve, speed of spread, symptoms, total number of cases by location, and instructions on how to print/emboss them.

Desmos “flattening the curve” graphic

The concept of “flattening the curve” is also explained and illustrated using a Desmos accessible graph.

SAS accessible graphs and maps

SAS is a data analytics software, transforming data into information graphics to help aid understanding and decision making. The SAS Graphics Accelerator is a free plugin for Google Chrome created by SAS to enable people who are blind or have low vision to gain interactive access to such graphics. On behalf of the SAS accessibility team, Ed Summers has created free sample accessible data visualisations about coronavirus (COVID-19) that support alternative presentations such as enhanced visual rendering, text descriptions, tabular data, and interactive sonification. You must download the SAS Graphics Accelerator in order to use these graphics.

See https://support.sas.com/misc/accessibility/Samples/COVID-19/index.html for instructions on how to use the graphics and links to the sample graphics: bar charts depicting locations with the most confirmed cases overall, confirmed cases in the last 5 days, deaths and deaths over the last 5 days; maps showing confirmed cases, deaths and death rate; and time series line graphs showing total confirmed cases vs death rate for the world, Canada, China, Italy, Spain and the USA.

Enquiries can be sent to accessibility@sas.com

Structure of the virus

This tactile graphic is designed to be printed on swell paper. It gives a COVID-19 structure tactile graphic with labelled components.

A 3D printable model of the virus created by Sean Tikkun is available for download and printing.

For a more fun activity, you may like to make your own paper-mache COVID-19 pinata and then smash it to pieces!

Daily living advice

Advice on daily living practices during the COVID-19 pandemic, including advice that is specific for people with a vision impairment, is given at http://accessiblegraphics.org/covid-19living/.

Help shape future technologies for the people who are blind or have low vision by registering to assist with research by Monash University’s Inclusive Technologies group.

In order to ensure that our work is community driven, Inclusive Technologies is creating a register of people interested in our work who are blind or have low vision, educators, accessible formats producers, O&M experts and other members of the accessibility community.

The register will be used for invitations to your chosen activities: Serving as an expert advisor or participating in research on topics such as 3D printing for touch readers, optimal layout for tactile graphics, interactive audio labels, sonification, e-textiles and accessible virtual reality.

The explanatory statement, consent form and questionnaire are given below in print and braille. You may also respond via phone. The process should take no more than 15 minutes to complete.

For more information or to register via phone or email, please contact Ramona Mandy at Ramona.Mandy@monash.edu.

Please note that you must complete the consent form before filling out the questionnaire. Links to the BRF files will take you to dropbox, where the download option allows you to save the file to your device or to your dropbox account.

• explanatory statement – clear print (.docx)
• explanatory statement – braille (.brf)
• consent form – clear print (.docx)
• consent form – braille (.brf)
• questionnaire – clear print (.docx)
• questionnaire – braille (.brf)

Do you work in a classroom with a touch reader in the lower primary years?
If so, please let us know about your use of accessible materials for the curriculum via an online survey at https://forms.gle/BDy4fPpysUqLFe3XA.

An offline version is also available.

We were thrilled to have a paper accepted at ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction. The paper is entitled Accessible Maps for the Blind: Comparing 3D Printed Models with Tactile Graphics.

Kim Marriott represented our group, presenting the paper and participating in the invitation-only workshop on Inclusive Educational Technologies: Emerging Opportunities for People with Print Disabilities.

DemoLAB is a creative tech demo night co-hosted by Media Lab Melbourne and ACMI. Participants are invited to come along to share ideas and projects over pizza.

As part of Melbourne Design Week, we will be speaking at DemoLAB about our work creating innovative accessible objects for the vision impaired community using emerging low cost technologies. Registration is free.

Date: Tuesday 20 March 2018
Time: 6-10pm
Location: ACMI X, 2 Kavanagh street, South Melbourne

The 6th Australasian Orientation and Mobility Conference will be held on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 April 2018 in Melbourne at Bayview on the Park.

Monash researchers Matt Butler and Leona Holloway are excited to be presenting at the conference on the topic of 3D printing for accessible maps.

Earlybird registrations are open until February 14 and the draft program will be available on the OMAA website in early February. We hope to see you there!