Collaborative Tactile Graphic Workstation for Touch-Sensitive Pin-Matrix Devices

To allow for producing high quality tactile graphics, the involvement of blind users in the production process can be a very vital approach. In this paper, we describe a collaborative tactile graphic workstation. Thereby, a sighted user works with a conventional vector graphic production software while a blind user can edit the same graphic on a two-dimensional pin-matrix device at the same time. The software architecture as well as the tactile user interface is described. Furthermore, some conflicts that can occur in a synchronous collaboration task within the system are discussed.