Tactile Graphics Assistant

A software tool developed at the University of Washington that automates parts of the tactile graphics translation process to help specialists more efficiently convert printed images into tactile form for blind users. The TGA pipeline includes image classification (identifying chart types), text segmentation and OCR, image simplification (reducing colors and replacing them with tactile textures), layout adjustment for Braille paper dimensions, and Braille text insertion. Designed to support both batch processing of entire textbooks and individual image translation, the TGA aims to dramatically reduce the time required to make STEM textbook graphics accessible.