Making Circuit Design and Prototyping Accessible for Blind or Low Vision People

我建议创建一个无障碍的电路设计和原型环境，适合在家中，学校或工作中使用，供盲人或低视力（BLV）人士练习入门级电子和电路。拟议的环境将由硬件和软件工具组成，可以在没有视觉的情况下使用。他们将使主要的STEM领域，如电气工程，计算机科学，计算机工程和物理，更容易和包容的BLV社区。这项研究很重要，因为BLV社区的成员在历史上一直被排除在电子相关的STEM领域的学习或工作之外。这是因为既定的方法是设计和传达设计理念过程的关键（例如，使用电路图）并快速地将设计思想转换成功能电路（例如，使用原型工具，如面包板）严重依赖于视觉信息，而BLV社区几乎无法访问这些信息。为了执行这项研究，我将遵循标准的HCI实践来迭代设计、开发和评估可访问的解决方案。特别是，我将研究新的可访问接口，传感器，硬件工具和软件工具，以克服电路设计和原型工作流程的关键阶段的可访问性障碍，从草图设计思想到构建和调试试验板电路。为了实现我的目标，我提出了一个三个目标的方法：（1）在电路设计和原型工作流程中推进对BLV相关可访问性障碍的理解。这些知识将指导接下来两个目标的开发：（2）设计和创建可访问和可扩展的工具，使BLV人员能够轻松绘制，编辑和共享电路图;以及（3）发明可访问的解决方案和设备，使BLV人员能够轻松构建，测试和调试功能试验板电路。拟议的工作是朝着我的长期目标迈出的关键一步，该目标旨在创建精心设计的无障碍教育和专业工具，使BLV人有平等的机会在需要电子技能的STEM领域学习和工作。这项研究的结果，如果成功的话，将有利于数百万儿童和成人在BLV社区和超越。从这项研究中获得的知识也将作为一个基础，使所有的STEM领域的各种能力的人访问。这将使加拿大成为该领域的国际领导者，使该国能够更好地为各种能力的人的STEM教育和职业发展的未来做好准备，最终导致技术改善当前的教育和工作基础设施。

I propose to create an accessible circuit design and prototyping environment suitable to be used at home, school, or work for blind or low vision (BLV) people to practice entry-level electronics and circuits. The proposed environment will be composed of hardware and software tools that can be used without vision. They will make major STEM fields, such as electrical engineering, computer science, computer engineering, and physics, more accessible and inclusive to the BLV community. This research is important because members of the BLV community have been historically excluded from studying or working in electronics-related STEM fields. This is because the established methods key to the process of designing and communicating design ideas (e.g., using circuit diagrams) and quickly converting design ideas into functional circuits (e.g., using prototyping tools like breadboards) rely heavily on visual information that is barely accessible to the BLV community. To execute this research, I will follow standard HCI practices for iterative design, development, and evaluation of accessible solutions. In particular, I will investigate new accessible interfaces, sensors, hardware tools, and software tools to overcome the accessibility barriers in the key phases of circuit design and prototyping workflows, ranging from sketching design ideas to constructing and debugging breadboard circuits. To achieve my goal, I propose a three-aim approach: (1) Advancing the understanding of BLV-related accessibility barriers in circuit design and prototyping workflows. This knowledge will guide the development of the next two objectives; (2) Designing and creating accessible and scalable tools to allow BLV people to easily sketch, edit, and share circuit diagrams; and (3) Inventing accessible solutions and devices to allow BLV people to easily construct, test, and debug functional breadboard circuits. The proposed work is a critical step toward my long-term goal, which aims to create well-designed accessible educational and professional tools to enable equal opportunities for BLV people to study and work in STEM fields requiring electronics skills. The outcome of this research, if successful, will benefit millions of children and adults in the BLV community and beyond. The knowledge gained from this research will also serve as a foundation to make all STEM fields accessible to people of all abilities. This will make Canada an international leader in the field, allowing the country to be better prepared for the future of STEM education and career development for people of all abilities, which ultimately leads to technology to improve the current educational and working infrastructure.