Tactilelink ʻŌnaehana Hoʻonaʻauao Kiʻi Hoʻopā na Nuoran Chen, Yilin Niu and Siming Jin

ʻO Tactilelink ʻŌnaehana Hoʻonaʻauao Kiʻi Hoʻopā na Nuoran Chen, Yilin Niu and Siming Jin he mea lanakila hanohano loa o ka 2026 A' Design Award Keleawe ma ka Māhele Hoʻokūkū Hoʻolālā Hoʻonaʻauao, Mea Kōkua Aʻo a me ʻIke Hoʻomaʻamaʻa.

KeleaweHoʻonaʻauao· 2026

Tactilelink ʻŌnaehana Hoʻonaʻauao Kiʻi Hoʻopā

na Nuoran Chen, Yilin Niu and Siming Jin

Mea Kūʻai: Nuoran Chen

Mea Lanakila A' Design Award Keleawe ma ka Māhele Hoʻonaʻauao

6,726

Mea Lanakila i Hōʻoia ʻIa

Hōʻoia i ke Kūlana Makana no #177478

Nānā ma A' Design Award Hoʻolaha Nūhou Hōʻailona Makana

Nā Waihoʻoluʻu

Ka Hoʻolālā

E Pili Ana iā Tactilelink ʻŌnaehana Hoʻonaʻauao Kiʻi Hoʻopā

He ʻōnaehana hoʻonaʻauao kiʻi hoʻopā ʻo Tactilelink no nā haumāna makapō a me nā haumāna ʻike pōkole ka maka. ʻO ke aʻo kuʻuna ma ke ʻano lima ma luna o ka lima, kaupalena ia i ke kūʻokoʻa o ka haumāna a hilinaʻi ʻia ma luna o kahi helu liʻiliʻi o nā kumu loea. Hoʻohui ʻo Tactilelink i kahi kīhāpai papa i paʻi ʻia me ka mīkini paʻi 3D, nā kiʻi laina hoʻokiʻekiʻe o nā kiʻi kaapuni uila, a me ka polokalamu e holo ana ma nā ʻōnaehana like ʻole. Alakaʻi ka hoʻokani leo i kēlā me kēia haumāna i kahi ʻāpana i hoʻopaʻa ʻia, no ka mea, loli ke kiʻekiʻe a me ka ikaika o ke kani me ka mamao o ka manamana lima. Hiki i nā kumu ke hahai i kekahi mau haumāna i ka manawa hoʻokahi a hoʻomākaukau i nā moʻolelo leo no ka nānā kūʻokoʻa ʻana ma hope o ka papa.

Ka Hoʻomaikai

E Pili Ana i ka A' Design Award Keleawe

Ua lanakila ka hoʻolālā Tactilelink ʻŌnaehana Hoʻonaʻauao Kiʻi Hoʻopā i ka A' Design Award Keleawe, he ʻike hoʻohanohano nui loa i hāʻawi ʻia i nā hoʻolālā kūʻokoʻa i ʻike ʻia ma o ka hana noʻeau, ka akamai a me ka makakoho. He mau hana mākaukau a hana noʻeau kupaianaha nā lanakila Keleawe e hōʻoia ana i ka ʻike nui, ka noʻonoʻo a me ka maʻalea o kā lākou poʻe hoʻolālā. Manaʻo ʻia ʻo ka hoʻolālā Tactilelink ʻŌnaehana Hoʻonaʻauao Kiʻi Hoʻopā he mea i mahalo nui ʻia, hoʻohiwahiwa ʻia a aloha ʻia, he ʻoihana a hou loa. ʻO kēia hoʻolālā i lanakila i ka A' Design Award Keleawe e hoʻohui ana i nā hana maikaʻi loa o ka hana noʻeau, ka ʻepekema, ka hoʻolālā a me ka ʻenehana, a maikaʻi no kona nānā ʻana i nā kikoʻī. Hoʻokō maikaʻi ka hoʻolālā Tactilelink ʻŌnaehana Hoʻonaʻauao Kiʻi Hoʻopā i nā pono, hoʻopā i ka makemake, hoʻohiwahiwa i nā manaʻo a huki i ka makemake e ʻike.

Ma Hope o ka Hoʻolālā

ʻEke Nūhou

Nā hōʻoia, nā lālā hui a me nā kikoʻī ʻenehana i hāʻawi ʻia e ka mea hoʻolālā.

Nā ʻAno Kūʻokoʻa: Tactilelink is an affordable tactile graphic education system for blind and visually impaired students. Traditional hand-over-hand instruction limits students' independence and strains an already scarce specialist workforce. SoundPath lets a single instructor guide multiple students at once through sonification and voiceover annotations, making tactile graphic learning accessible, scalable, and independent.
Nā Ana a me ka Hoʻopili: The physical components include a 3D-printed tablet frame (290 × 226 × 7 mm) and several tactile graphics of Arduino diagrams (279.4 × 215.9 mm). The digital component is cross-platform software that works as both a tablet app and a desktop web app, creating a flexible teaching system.
Nā Lepili: Accessibility, Tactile graphic, Education system, Inclusive education, Blind Arduino
ʻEnehana Hana: Tactilelink is built with simplicity, affordability, and accessibility in mind. For student’s system, it combines 3D-printed tablet frames with software optimized for common educational tablets, ensuring easy setup and scalability. It uses sonification to guide students in exploring and learning raised-line graphics. For instructor’s system, it’s an one-step, AI empowered software help they instruct multiple students easily, reducing their workload, expanding the educational capacity to more underserved blind students.
Pilikia Hoʻolālā: The hardest part was shifting from designer to facilitator. Co-design challenged us to suspend our assumptions, especially as sighted designers. We wrongly assumed blind users would prefer vibration cues over sound. In reality, sonification was less fatiguing and more effective. This required overcoming internal bias, embracing user knowledge, and adapting to insights often overlooked due to our own perspective.
Noiʻi: This research is user-centered design. Our goal was to create an affordable system for teaching tactile graphics to visually impaired students. We observed Blind Arduino sessions and collaborated with the East Bay Center for the Blind, then used co-design workshops, Wizard of Oz prototyping, and usability testing with teachers and students. Results showed sonification on existing hardware best supported group learning, offering insights that impact education, accessibility, and inclusive design.
Hoʻoulu Manaʻo: The idea came from observing an Arduino class at the East Bay Center for the Blind, where one instructor had to physically guide each student's hands through circuit diagrams one by one. With nearly 5,000 specialist teachers short across the U.S., this one-on-one model is unsustainable. Inspired by sonification, we use continuous pitch changes to guide students to target components independently, enabling one teacher to instruct multiple students simultaneously, in person or remotely.
Ka Lōʻihi o ka Papahana: This project started in August 2024 and finished in December 2024.
Kaʻina Hana: During class, the instructor taps a selected component on the tactile graphic for students to explore. Students navigate to the component following sonification guidance: the pitch and intensity of the sound shift based on how close their finger is to the target. Teacher can observes their progress on their interface to provide real-time support. After class, teachers could use the software to create detailed audio annotation and design the component-learning sequence, publishing it to student’s device. Students could review the knowledge independently without teacher’s presence by following the sonification guidance.
Nā Lālā Hui: Nuoran Chen
Yilin Niu
Siming (Susie) Jin