Overview

Project overview

Motivation and goal

Despite blind software professionals can read and write source code (taking advantage of assistive products such as screen readers), they can seldom access graphical diagrams that are used in software engineering to depict software models. This hinders them from advancing in their careers and gaining access to more qualified jobs and higher rank positions. In this context, GRACES starts with the goal to qualify blind individuals not only as software developers (coders) but also as software engineers (who deal with software specification, analysis, design, modelling, architecture...). The access to graphical information will help them achieve improved professional qualifications, extend their careers, achieve more effective communication at workplace, and get more extensive training.

Objectives

The main objective of GRACES is to develop a software assistive technology to help blind software engineers access software models in their workplace (which are usually represented through visual diagrams). This software will:

• Present the software models to blind indivduals, using the most appropriate sensory modalities, according to the content features and their functional capacities.
• Deal with different types of software models or diagrams, especially those who provide the highest value to its users (chosen from among e.g. UML, IE, BPMN, etc.)
• Potentially create/edit models to be shared with sighted individuals.
• Be compatible with relevant products, namely general-purpose assistive technologies (e.g. screen readers) already used by blind individuals, and mainstream modelling tools already used by sighted software engineers.
• Be ready for extension, thanks to a modular architecture.