[accessibleimage] Publications Don Parkes

Hi,
Dr. Don Parkes has sent me a list of his
publications. Sending it along to the list.
It is a wonderful tool for research and study.
So to you all Enjoy! And thank you Don for
sending it.
Regards,
Lisa
link address D.Parkes publications
www.tactileaudio.com/publications.htm

May 8 2004

Publications and media references (to be completed)

We are frequently asked about publications and references to
NOMAD and TGD, typically from students undertaking
assignments and research programs.
TGD products have been shown at CSUN Los Angeles, every year
since 1996, at Sight Village, Birmingham, England most years
since the first Exhibition
around 1994 (?). They have been shown at Workshops at NFB
(National Federation of the Blind USA), RNIB (UK), Japan
Braille Library, Malaysian Association
for the Blind, Singapore Association for the Blind, and a
number of European agencies including Bartimeus in Holland,
AVH in France, Tomteboda in Sweden,
ONCE in Spain and in Australia and New Zealand over the past
15 years.

Publications and references below are in date order. More
recently with fast advances in technology, items that were
of interest in the media and at
Conferences a decade or more ago are not exactly news worthy
any more! The Internet of course also carries much of that
news. 

Every effort will be made to provide interested parties with
copies of these references but they are NOT available at
this time in electronic format. 

1988 Audio-Tactile Mapping for the Visually Handicapped,
Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Association of
Educators of the Visually
Handicapped, Ormond College, University of Melbourne,
January 18-22 This pre-production report on the system at
that time called ATMAPSIT (Audio Tactile
Mapping and Spatial Information Tool) to be called NOMAD
when launched in 1989 describes the proposed system,
.."within the board there will be a grid of
touch sensitive 'wires' and a microprocessor. Onto this
board maps, plans and diagrams will be registered. Where
compass direction is important, this will be
accommodated ... it will be a stand alone device, not
requiring to be interfaced to any other equipment ,,,input
and output of ..voice ... other audible signals ..
ATMAPSIT will enable a visually handicapped user to have a
dialogue with a tactile map ...." This should be compared
with recent claims by a US manufacturer
in a publication on the Internet and claimed 'elsewhere' as
a basis for positive evaluation of a substantial novel
invention.

1988 Parkes, D.N, "Nomad": an audio-tactile tool for
acquisition, use and management of spatially distributed
information by visually impaired people.
Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Maps
and Graphics for Visually Handicapped People, International
Cartographic
Association, King's College, University of London, April
20-22 Eds. Dr.A.F.Tatham and Dr. A.G.Dodds, pp. 24-29.

1988 "Seeing is hearing", Research review in Mind: The
Magazine of Human Behaviour (pp. not available)

1988 "New Worlds set to open up for blind people" University
News Report, University of Newcastle NSW Australia,
Quotation from Professor
R.G.Golledge, University of California at Santa Barbara,
"It's incredibly easy for a blind person to use and has
great potential as an information and
teaching system". Professor Golledge had spent 5 months as a
Visiting Fellow attached to the Institute of Behavioural
Sciences in 1986 and returned in 1989
as part of a US National Science Foundation grant.

1989 Parkes, D.N A Tactile audio tool for extending the
spatial reach of blind people. 5th International Mobility
Conference : auspices World Blind Union,
Veldhoven, Holland January 23-29 

1989 Parkes,D.N and Dear R.J. A New Approach to Graphics
Processing for the Blind. "Can graphics be useful,
interesting, amusing, educative to those who
are blind and to those who are partially sighted?" We think
so. Australian and New Zealand Association of Educators of
the Visually Handicapped,
Newsletter Volume 24 N0.2 pp.7-8. "The tactile graphic as
used in maps, floor plans and educational diagrams is a very
important, but severely limited tool
because of the need to place text onto the tactile surface
with NOMAD ...... the only limitation to the variety of
graphics that can be handled will be the user's
imagination .... with this facility of sound painting it is
possible to paint a sound into any shape ...." 

1989 "Talking pictures go international" University News
Report No. 10 May, University of Newcastle NSW Australia.

1989 September Official launch of Nomad system in Parliament
House, Canberra, Australia by Minister for Science and
Technology, Rt. Hon. Barry Jones.

1989 Parkes, D.N and Dear R.J Nomad: Tactile-Audio Graphics
for Visually Impaired Children, Australasian Seminar Series,
Technology Serving Children
with Disabilities, Westmead Hospital Conference Centre,
Sydney NSW September : Technical Aid to the Disabled 

1990 Kuns, J, HumanWare Evaluates the Nomad - "A teacher can
easily program the Nomad to correspond to any graphic.
Orientation and Mobility
instructors can create graphics of streets, buildings,
campuses, etc. and [for] blind users to explore the
relationships between various locations in a new
environment. Angles and spatial concepts that are often
difficult to understand can be rapidly taught (or often
self-taught) ... potential for individualization and
independent instruction is fantastic. The idea of turning
learning into tactile games is now possible by using Nomad.
An exciting new product ... it's
HumanWare" HumanWare Feb/Mar Vol 2,1 

1990 Parkes, D.N, Graphics for Blind Children: An
Interactive System called Nomad. Australian and New Zealand
Association of Educators of the
Visually Handicapped, Homai College, Auckland New Zealand,
January 6-12

1991 Parkes, D.N and Dear,R.J, Making and Using High
Resolution Audio-Tactile Orientation and Mobility Plans and
Maps with the Nomad System, VI
Confrencia Internacional de Movilidad, O.N.C.E Madrid, Spain
September 9-12. "High resolution tactile graphics may be
prepared in many ways .. of the
40 options available to the user (aged from 6 or 7 upwards)
all are selected by touching and listening .... among the 16
menu items ... for reading graphs, note
writing on a simple wordprocessor ... paint in sound ... it
amounts to painting a sound frequency onto a line."

1991 Parkes, D.N and Dear R.J, Enabling Access to Graphics
and Text based Information for Blind, Visually Impaired and
Other Disability
Groups.Proceedings Vol 5 First World Congress on Information
Technology, Computerization and Electronics in the Workplace
for People with
Disabilities. Washington D.C. December 1 - 5. This paper was
prepared while Parkes was a Senior Research Fellow at King's
College, University of London,
1991 and includes an image of Nomad and a London Underground
Transport audio tactile map.

1991 IBM Quarterly Spring, pp14-16. "How Professor Don
Parkes and computer specialist Richard Dear got together to
develop NOMAD". Quotation from
article: "Exported by Quantum Technology has won world-wide
recognition, including the USA. Here is how Technology
Update, (April) the American
bi-monthly consumer's guide to technology for blind and
visually impaired persons, opened a recent article on NOMAD:
"Imagine exploring a tactile map of the
world and hearing it announce the name of the country your
finger touches. Imagine looking at a raised line city map
and hearing it announce the number of
miles or kilometres between two landmarks. You are looking
for the retina on a tactile, anatomical drawing of the human
eye. As you explore with your fingers,
the drawing is directing you to move up or down, to the
right or left".

1991 "Using Nomad" in Precinct 11 10 June, University of
Liverpool, England. "This is a marvelous aid for a blind
student on a course which involves being
familiar with graphs and charts, but it will have many other
general uses as a means for improving access for the blind".
The article also shows a picture of an
Economics student at the University of Liverpool, using
NOMAD. This report should be considered in the light of
subjective and inaccurate statements by a
recently established US company and published on the
Internet.

1991 Rolls Royce, Bristol England a blind engineer uses
NOMAD

1992 Scanlon, L. Computers will make graphics accessible to
visually impaired , The Courier-Journal, Saturday October
10. "With the map of the United
States, for example, a young person might need only the
states' names. But an adult could get more sophisticated
information about individual cities or the
industries of an area .."

1992 Pennisis, E. Talking Maps: Technologies to give the
visually impaired a sense of place, Science News Vol. 142
N0.23, pp392-393 "Its unique and its
very user -programmable,comments Schrier" Shrier was senior
technology evaluator at the American Foundation for the
Blind, New York and wrote a Review
of Nomad in the AFB Journal. "Repeated touches on the same
spot elicit ever more detailed geographic messages, says
Tatham ... thus the electronic map
sidesteps the limitations of Braille and may even exceed
regular maps in the amount of information squeezed into a
unit of space ...". Tatham was "The
Keeper" of maps at the Royal Geographic Society in London
and Chair of the International Cartographic Association
Commission on Tactual and Bold Print
Mapping and Chief cartographer at King's College, University
of London.

1992 Tatham, A. How to make Tactile Diagrams, The World
Blind No. 9 with aid from O.N.C.E, Madrid "At Maryland
University (Wiedel) and at Baruch
College, New York (Luxton) work is being undertaken to
enable the computer-controlled preparation of thermoform
masters ... One of the most exciting
developments of recent years has been the audio-tactile
system NOMAD invented at Newcastle University ... by Prof.
Don Parkes (see fig. 5) ..."

1993 McMullen, M, Japanese look at touch-pad map, The
Newcastle Herald : The Nation p.7 "Dr. Masaki Tauchi from
the National Rehabilitation Centre for
the Disabled, in Japan... The electronic maps sidestep the
limitations of Braille lettering ... already being marketed
in 15 countries and their plans for a more
portable version." The more portable version referred to,
took the form of AudioPIX in 1995.

1993 Nomad Invasion - the First Wave Has Arrived, The APH
Slate American printing House for the Blind."Nomad is
contagious. I haven't seen anyone
who has walked up to it and not fallen in love with it."

1993 Australia's World Class Achievers - Nomad - world's
first computer-based graphics system for the visually
impaired. Telecom Australia Telephone
Directory: front cover for Area Code 049 NSW. " Nomad
consists of a computer-connected touch sensitive pad with a
built-in speech capability. Raised line
drawings are placed on this "talking" surface. Spoken
descriptions, geometric calculations, graph reading,
learning shapes and spatial listening are some of the
innovative features of the system. Nomad has been
commercially developed by Quantum Technology in Sydney. The
system works with 7 languages including
Japanese and is used in homes, schools, universities and
other facilities across 14 countries. Among them the
Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco. In
London the Underground Transport System Authority is
supporting development of Nomad maps at the Royal
geographical Society. The Government, hotel and
real estate sectors in the USA have also shown a keen
interest in Nomad which is already being used by sightless
sailors on oceangoing yachts in Europe."

1993 Parkes, D.N Extending the Reach of a Blind Individual:
The NOMAD information system. A paper prepared for a
workshop at Texas Tech
University, April 13 1993. A copy of this paper is held but
I cannot for the life of me remember presenting it, sorry!

1993 "NOMAD: des images pour non-voyants", 14 May from
Austrade Office in Paris. Also from the Business Exporter
1993, "An Australian designed and
manufactured hi-tech aid for the blind has been awarded the
prestigious GRAND PRIZE for ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY at
Autonomic in Paris, a major
European Exhibition of products and services for the
handicapped .... purchased 500 units ...and further sales
under way in Japan, Holland, Germany, Sweden
and France." 

1993 National City to Assist Blind Bank Customers via
Talking Computer, Wall Street Journal New York, 30 April
"National City Corp. and the American
Printing House for the Blind .. said its Kentucky unit is
the first company to offer the system, which is called,
NOMAD... has a touch sensitive pad ... the
system, manufactured by the non profit organization American
Printing House for the Blind ..." 

1993 Audio Tactile Teaching System for Visually Impaired
Tomorrow's World: The Australian Initiative with Foreword by
Rt. Hon. Paul Keating, Prime
Minister of Australia p.57 "A unique teaching system offers
an exciting interactive means of imparting information
..integrated speech and multi-media sound
capability... Firstly a graphic .. is recorded into the
computer ... a tactile version ... made of puff ink or any
suitable medium is then placed on the pad ..user
interacts with NOMAD by touching points on the graphic to
request, or be offered, audible information ..." 

1994 Parkes, D.N, Multi-media Audio-Tactile Maps and Plans:
a sound space for blind users with the 'Touchblaster' Nomad
system : Paper to International
Tactual Mapping Commission Symposium, University of Sao
Paulo, Brazil, February 20-26 

1994 Parkes, D.N Audio Tactile Systems for Designing and
learning Complex Environments as a Vision Impaired Person:
Static and Dynamic Spatial
Information Access. Conference on Learning Environment
Technology, Australia 1994 (LETA 94) Adelaide 25-28 Sept.

1995 Parkes, D.N Access to Complex Environments for Blind
People:Multi-Media Maps, Plans and Virtual Travel. 17th
International Conference
Proceedings, International Cartographic Association, Vol 2,
Barcelona, Spain pp. 2449-2460 . "The audio-tactile spatial
information access system is
designed as a self-contained system that could be situated
in a public place allowing blind users (and others) to
obtain detailed information about their
immediate environment. Typically this system would be used
to provide detailed information about a building .... the
Topsign symbol has .... one purpose. The
purpose is to identify the correct positioning of the
graphic. Braille is no help here if one cannot read Braillle
.... there are essentially three sound types that can
be placed onto a graphic: synthesized speech in a range of
languages, nine computer generated frequencies for
'painting' onto lines and into areas:
digitized sound including speech in any language.... the
system is multi-media... a tactile electronic atlas of Latin
America .. initiative of Dr,D.R.F.Taylor
Carleton University Canada and Dr. Regina Vasconcellos,
University of Sao Paulo Brazil.... AudioCAD has been
designed to enable blind and sighted people to
prepare maps and plans, designs and other graphics that can
be embossed and printed ... enabling blind people to express
their visual mental activities (as
Nemeth has described them)...."

1996 Brull, M Los Ciegos pueden dibujar desde la
computadora. El Cisne, Buenos Aires "... AudioPIX y el
AudioCAD, producto que permite a las personas
ciegas producir imágenes visuales o tàctiles, interactuando
efectivamente con la computadora ..." Brull was responsible
for the translation of TGD TGD QikTac,
AudioPIX and AudioCAD command sets and manuals to Spanish
and for the organization of workshops in Buenos Aires
supported by the Department of
Education. 

1996 Parkes, D.N, BP World Atlas AudioTactile Graphics
Reading System, Published and distributed by Repro-Tronics
Inc. NJ. on Flexi-paper.
Descriptive comment : "A tactile (Braille button)
interactive contents page enables the user to be told, in
synthetic or digital speech about text windows
(articles about the place of interest), lower levels (more
detailed demographic, social and recreational information
about a place), mini graphic (a small index
image of the larger graphic). See also the NOMAD system
application to an atlas of Latin America developed in 1995
with funding from the Pan American
Institute for History and Geography and visit Carleton
University Canada site for more details on their
considerable contribution to mapping, Department of
Geomatics and Geography" see 1999 .

1997 Brull, M and Parkes, D.N It may not be easy, but it is
possible: A new form of literacy. The World Blind, Journal
of the World Blind Union, Vol 14 pp. 48-50

1998 Parkes, D.N Tactile Audio Tools for Graphicacy and
Mobility: "A Circle is either a Circle or it is not a
Circle". British Journal of Visual Impairment,
Vol. 16. No. 3 pp 99-104 "TAGW [a product name that preceded
the new version of TGD Workshop 2004] A tactile audio
graphics tool kit for improved
graphicacy amongst visually impaired people ... AudioCAD
.... is combined with AudioPIX, AudioTRIP and TraceMe .....
[all are components of the new TGD
Workshop but with AudioCAD and AudioTRIP provided as
optional FREE products to TGD Workshop owners]

1999 Talking maps open doors for the blind: Carleton Prof.
leads innovative research project, The Charlatan, October 14
"It's very empowering", says
Professor Taylor, "The modern map is not just something you
look at, ... it involves sight, sound, and touch". These
comments refer to the TGD AudioPIX
system and the workshops associated with it with delegates
from many countries of Latin America as part of the PAIGH
project, initiated by Taylor.Members of
the CNIB were also present and the CNIB director of
government relations and international liaison says,
..."There is a lot of potential for educational and
mobility applications here - to be able to do things they
couldn't do before."

2000 7th International Workshop on Computerized Braille
Production (including Tactile graphics), Sarawak State
Library, 16-22 October Kutchin. National
Council for the Blind, Malaysia and Sarawak State Library:
sponsored by Japan Braille Library, Tokyo.

2001George, B and Kiernan, J.P L'Amerique au Bout des
Droits. Americas pp. 54-55. The article refers to an
ambitious program, funded principally by the
Pan American Institute for Geography and History, to produce
an electronic atlas of Latin America, including a tactile
atlas. TGD AudioPIX was purchased in its
English Spanish and Portuguese languages for use in
countries throughout Latin America. Its use in training at
Workshops in Canada, 'au Centre de researches
en géomatiques et en cartographie de l'Université Carleton à
Ottawa, au Canada' is discussed in some detail.

2004 Gardner, J.A and Bulatov, V Directly Accessible
Mainstream Graphical Information. ViewPlus Technologies, Inc
"This technique of enhancing tactile
information with additional audio was pioneered by
Parkes..."

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