The document discusses tools developed by the Diagram Center for enhancing image descriptions using description templates across various academic subjects. It presents evaluation results from an experiment comparing templates in terms of time, word count, accuracy, and usefulness. The project is backed by the U.S. Department of Education and includes details for contacting project collaborators and registering for user trials.

1. DIAGRAM Center’s
Tools for Improving
Image Descriptions:
Description Templates
#CSUN14
Josh Miele, Ting Siu,
Val Morash, Lucia Hasty, and
Steve Landau for
Touch Graphics, Inc.
@TouchGraphicsUS

2. Pearson
subject
Total
images
No
description
needed
Needing
description
Majors Biology 2005 270 87%
Intro Psych 525 90 83%
US History 1226 420 66%
US Government 352 46 87%
Communication 154 42 73%
Interpersonal
Communication 176 39 78%
Intro to SPED 176 150 15%
Ed Psych 175 120 31%
Ed Research 53 16 70%

5. Description Template Tool:
Venn Diagram, Pie Chart, Line Graph

6. Evaluation Experiment
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
Image 7
Image 8
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
Image 7
Image 8
n = 20
with template
without template

7. Evaluation Experiment
With
Template
Without
Template
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
Image 7
Image 8
10 observations
● Time
● Word Count
● Accuracy
● Usefulness
Analysis:
● ANOVA
● Post Hoc T-
Tests

8. Project collaborators:
● Josh Miele, Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Center
● Steve Landau, Touch Graphics, Inc.
● Lucia Hasty, Rocky Mountain Braille Associates
● Yue-Ting Siu, University of California, Berkeley
● Val Morash, University of California, Berkeley
Project Management for Benetech
● Julie Noblitt, DIAGRAM Center
● Anh Bui, DIAGRAM Center
This project is supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs
(Cooperative Agreement #H327B100001). Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and
do not necessarily represent the position of the U.S. Department of Education.

9. For further information please contact:
Steve Landau
email: sl@touchgraphics.com
phone: 800-884-2440
To register as a field tester in upcoming user trials please contact:
Ting Siu
email: ts@touchgraphics.com
For more information about DIAGRAM Center, please contact:
Anh Bui
email: anhb@benetech.org
phone: 650-644-3400