The broader impact of this Small Business Innovations Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be to improve access to digital content by the vision impaired community. This access will improve the quality of life for the vision impaired as well as improve the probability of employment. Multiple studies have shown a connection between Braille literacy and employment rates. Creating a tactile display not only improves access to digital media through braille usage, but also allows several new paths to interact with digital content, including through maps, vertical math and graphical images currently not accessible with existing devices. Our research into a new cell creates a basic building block for new graphical tactile displays. The proposed project targets the problem of creating a low cost and refreshable tactile display cell for the use by the vision impaired. The objective is to design, fabricate and test a series of tactile display cells and then perform a merit evaluation for both usability by the vision impaired and for scaling into low cost production. This research will draw on technology under development for computer display Braille cells, and then modify these designs for use in tactile displays. Samples will be produced based on multiple designs and evaluated for technical and economic merit. The end goal will be to demonstrate tactile display cells which are practical for use by vision impaired, allowing access to graphical information via digital media for the first time. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
