Speech-based Mark for Data Sonification

TL;DR

This paper introduces SpeechTone, a novel speech-based mark for data sonification that encodes data into speech attributes, enhancing data accessibility for visually impaired users.

Contribution

SpeechTone extends the Erie declarative grammar for sonification by incorporating speech attributes, enabling more effective and familiar data sonification methods.

Findings

Effective encoding of data into speech attributes

Demonstrated through three practical examples

Enhances accessibility for visually impaired users

Abstract

Sonification serves as a powerful tool for data accessibility, especially for people with vision loss. Among various modalities, speech is a familiar means of communication similar to the role of text in visualization. However, speech-based sonification is underexplored. We introduce SpeechTone, a novel speech-based mark for data sonification and extension to the existing Erie declarative grammar for sonification. It encodes data into speech attributes such as pitch, speed, voice and speech content. We demonstrate the efficacy of SpeechTone through three examples.