Non-visual Display

A non-visual display presents information to a user through senses other than vision — most commonly hearing (synthesized speech, earcons, sonification), touch (Braille output, vibrotactile patterns, force-feedback haptics), or combinations thereof. Non-visual displays are central to accessibility for blind and low-vision users, but are also relevant whenever vision is occupied or unavailable: for drivers, pilots, surgeons, or users of wearables where a visual display is impractical. Effective non-visual display design is not simply a matter of translating a visual interface property-for-property; perceptual research consistently shows that the best non-visual mappings often differ substantially from their visual counterparts (for example, magnitude is often better encoded as vibration amplitude than as displacement length on a haptic device).