Project: Developing Tactile Graphics for Blind Students in Computer Science Student Researchers: Beth Bell, Tomoko Maruyama, Rachel Novak Advisor: Joan M. Francioni, Mingrui Zhang Institution: Winona State University The Computer Science Department at Winona State University is involved in a project to make its CS curriculum accessible to students with visual disabilities. As part of that project, two blind students will be starting in the CS major in the fall of 2001. These students will be taking CS1 in the fall and then CS2 in the spring. The focus of the CREW project will be to develop tactile graphics for these two classes that are effective in portraying the relevant course concepts to the blind students. We have, in place, the hardware and software necessary for generating the tactile graphics. Thus, the research component will involve determining what, in fact, are effective tactile representations of the diagrams. "Effectiveness" will be a function of the information we are trying to depict and the ease of getting to that information for someone who is blind.