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Student, Joint Doctoral Program UC Berkeley and SF State
erinfoley@berkeley.edu

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About me: I study how multimodal engagements with data through improved access to the core aspects of working with data can facilitate data literacy and data visualization literacy. I have a focus on non-visual learners, including blind and visually impaired learners, who have unique sensory and neuro-diversities and aim to enhance blind and visually impaired learners' ability to access and understand the information displayed in digital formats in order to increase learning abilities and goals in highly visual fields such as STEAM. My research interests are inspired by my career working with blind and visually impaired young adults as a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist. I am currently a second-year student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Special Education between UC Berkeley and San Francisco State. In addition to being a doctoral student, I am also working to obtain my Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI) credential and am an Adjunct Lecturer at San Francisco State in the Orientation and Mobility Program.

Research interests: Accessible educational materials, non-visual access, sensory and neuro-diverse learners, Universal Design for Learning, design-based research, multimodal learning, embodied cognition, learning sciences, access technology.

Hobbies: When time permits, I enjoy writing in the Fantasy and SciFi genres, camping with my partner and dog, and being outdoors as much as possible, including taking my yellow lab on daily walks.

Contact: erinfoley (at) berkeley (dot) edu

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About me: I study how multimodal engagements with data through improved access to the core aspects of working with data can facilitate data literacy and data visualization literacy.

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Mending Perspectives on Digital Maps: Reconfiguring a Non-Visual World

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Mending Perspectives on Digital Maps: Reconfiguring a Non-Visual World

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Using design-based and participatory design methods while attending to cognitive load, this study aimed to create a heuristic training protocol on the use of SGA digital maps to allow for independent exploration and travel of new spaces. Involving a key stakeholder as a representative of the population of interest throughout the iterative process allowed for the emergence of a productive instrument.

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This is a map I created to identify the Lands of Disneyland Park using Google MyMaps

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SAS Graphics Accelerator enables users with visual impairments or blindness to create, explore, and share data visualizations. It supports alternative presentations of data visualizations that include enhanced visual rendering, text descriptions, tabular data, and interactive sonification. Sonification uses non-speech audio to convey important information about the graph.

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SAS ® Graphics Accelerator Sample Graphs

Back to SAS Graphics Accelerator product page

This page contains sample graphs for the SAS Graphics Accelerator. Install the SAS Graphics Accelerator and load this page in your browser to view alternative presentations of these graphs.

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SAS ® Graphics Accelerator Sample Graphs Back to SAS Graphics Accelerator product page This page contains sample graphs for the SAS Graphics Accelerator. Install the SAS Graphics Accelerator and load this page in your browser to view alternative presentations of these graphs.

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Skip to content

Summary

This post explains how to create non-visual digital maps that contain points of interest such as intersections, bus stops, buildings, and other landmarks. The resulting maps can be posted on your website or shared with students via email.

The scale of the maps can range from a city block, to a campus, to an entire metropolitan region. You can create maps that are used by many students, e.g. a map of a school or college campus. Students may use the map to orient themselves as a freshman and then refer back to the map at the beginning of every semester when they need to find new buildings.

Students with visual impairments or blindness can access the maps using a pair of headphones and a standard computer keyboard. They can pan around the map, zoom in or out, and quickly perceive where points are located in relation to each other. This interaction provides a very effective way for students to orient themselves to a new school or plan travel to a new destination.

Step 0: Before you begin

You must have a Google account.

You must install the Google Chrome browser.

You must install SAS Graphics Accelerator in Google Chrome.

Step 1: Create a map in Google My Maps

Go to mymaps.google.com.

Click the Create A New Map button. It is near the top left of the page and it is red.

Click the text box that contains "Untitled map".

Enter a title for the map.

Click Save.

Step 2: Add points to the map using Search

Use search bar at the top to search for locations.

Select one or more results.

Click the Add To My Map button which is near the bottom left of the page.

You can search for a wide variety of objects including:

A specific place such as the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

A specific address such as 11 West Jones Street, Raleigh, NC.

An intersections such as Wilmington Street and Edenton Street.

Categories such as restaurant, Italian restaurant, park, parks in Raleigh, bus stop, etc.

Step 3: Add points for places you see visually on the map

Click on objects you see visually within the map such as buildings or intersections.

Click the Add to Map button.

Step 4: Add points for any random location on the map

Click the Add Marker icon which is near the Search bar at the top of the page.

Click anywhere on the map such as the main entrance of a building, an intersection of two sidewalks in a plaza, or a landmark that is easily located using hearing.

Enter a name for the point.

Click Save.

Step 5: Test the map using SAS Graphics Accelerator

Wait about one minute after your last change to the map so your changes can be automatically saved on the Google server.

With the map open in Google My Maps, click the Accelerate button in the bottom right corner of the map to open the map in SAS Graphics Accelerator Map View. If you don't see an Accelerate button, install SAS Graphics Accelerator using the link above.

Within Map View, press Page Up / Page Down keys on Windows (or Fn Key and Up Arrow/ Fn Key and Down Arrow on Mac) to explore objects in any direction around your current virtual location.

Press H on your keyboard within Map View for additional commands.

Read the SAS Graphics Accelerator Maps: Student Uploading and Accessing Maps post to learn how students explore non-visual digital maps.

Step 6: Share the map with your student

Note: Your student must first install SAS Graphics Accelerator in Google Chrome.

With the map open in Google My Maps, click the share button near the top left corner of the screen under the title of the map.

Enable the Enable Link Sharing button (toggle on); I recommend enabling the Public button (toggle on)

Select the Copy button to the right of the URL (symbol is a page on top of a page)

Open an email to your student.

Paste the link into the email.

Copy/paste the following instructions into the email:

Click the link above to open the map in Google Chrome.

Activate the Accelerate button in the bottom right corner of the map to open the map in SAS Graphics Accelerator Map View. Tip: In JAWS or NVDA, press B to find the next button on the page and press spacebar to activate it.

In Map View, press Page Up / Page Down keys on Windows (or Fn Key and Up Arrow/ Fn Key and Down Arrow on Mac) to explore objects in any direction around your current virtual location.

Press H within Map View for additional commands.

Read the self-guided maps tutorial to learn more about non-visual digital maps.

Resources

Posts in this series:

By Ed Summers

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How to Create Accessible Digital Maps Using SAS Graphics Accelerator and Google Maps - Perkins School for the Blind

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Quickly create customized, accessible digital maps that students can use to build mental maps and answer map-related educational questions.

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SAS Graphics Accelerator Google Plug-In 

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SAS Graphics Accelerator Google Plug-In 

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Enables users with visual impairments or blindness to create, explore, and share data visualizations.