Graphical User Interfaces for Blind Users: An Overview of Haptic Devices

Graphical user interfaces greatly enhanced usability of computer systems over older text-based systems. Unfortunately, blind users gain very little from the benefits of these graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Past research has looked at communicating graphical information to blind computer users through other channels such as haptic or auditory senses. In this report, I provide an overview of research on haptic devices, namely force feedback and tactile graphic displays and point to a few areas of usability research on tactile graphic displays.