0.1 Phy1002: if you can imagine it, you can draw it using svg  (Page 6/23)

I use Inkscape all of the time to create SVG files for the drawings that I need. However, I don't know of any blind students that have attempted to use Inkscape . It doesn't look to me like it would be very accessible for blind students.However, it is free, so you should give it a try just so you will know for sure.

SVG drawing editors for blind students

I am unaware of any SVG drawing editors that are designed for use by blind students who are unable to use a mouse. (If you know of any, please let me know.) Therefore, I will provide an SVG graphics library that I have designed specifically for blind students in this module. It isn't Inkscape ; far from it. However, it does not require the use of a mouse and it works well. It is my hope that theuse of my library will make it possible for you to use SVG to draw the diagrams that you need tosuccessfully pursue your coursework in physics and other technical areas.

Seeking improvements in the interface

There are a large number of excellent blind programmers scattered around the world. It is my hope that one or more of those programmers will pick up the challengeand develop an improved interface for the library that will make it even easier for blind students to drawusing SVG.

I would like to see a JavaScript version of an SVG drawing editor designed for use by blind students. That's not because JavaScript is my favoriteprogramming language, which it isn't. That is because JavaScript has the lowest barrier to entry of any programming environment that I am aware of. (See my JavaScript module here .

How does it work?

Basically what I will provide in this module is an SVG graphics library written in the Java programming language along with a template and instructionsfor you to use in writing Java programs to produce the drawings that you need.

I don't have a fancy interface to go with the graphics library. Instead, I will provide a template that you can use to write a new Java programfor each new drawing. The procedure will be to write a program that encapsulates the drawing that you have in your mind. When you run the program, it willproduce the SVG file that describes your drawing.

If you determine that there are errors in your drawing, you can make corrections to your program code and run it again to get a new version of the SVGfile.

Raw SVG code versus my SVG graphics library

Only you can decide whether you prefer to write raw SVG code or you prefer to use the graphics library. I will present examples of both in this module.

I will point out one major advantage of using the library, however. Once you learn how to write Java programs that incorporate the library tocreate drawings, there is nothing to prevent you from expanding those programs to also solve physics problem and draw graphs of the results.

For example, suppose you have a physics assignment to compute and draw the trajectory of a projectile. Using raw SVG code, you would first need to computeand save the coordinates of the projectile as a set of incremental data points. Then you could write raw SVG code incorporating that data to draw the trajectory.