AutoChemplete - STEM Accessibility Project: W4A Publication & Open Source Availability

AutoChemplete - STEM Accessibility Project: W4A Publication & Open Source Availability

  • Date: 25.04.2023
  • We are happy to announce the publication of the paper titled "AutoChemplete - Making Chemical Structural Formulas Accessible". The paper will be presented at the 20th International Web for All Conference and is now available in the W4A 2023 proceedings. The paper describes the development of an interactive labeling tool for chemical structural formulas that is accessible to blind and low vision students. The tool has been made open source and is available for download on GitHub

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    The tool, called AutoChemplete, uses computer vision techniques to predict the molecule from an input image of the structural formula. It then generates accessible representations of the molecule that can be easily understood by visually impaired students. AutoChemplete was developed based on interviews with blind and low vision chemists and accessibility professionals to ensure that it meets their requirements. 

    The development of AutoChemplete is a significant step forward in making STEM subjects more accessible to visually impaired students. It has been developed in cooperation with ACCESS@KIT and cv:hci (Prof. Stiefelhagen). The work is connected to the KIT real-world lab “Accessibility”.