Interactive sonification of choropleth maps

Auditory information is an important channel for the visually impaired. Effective sonification (the use of non-speech audio to convey information) promotes equal working opportunities for people with vision impairments by helping them explore data collections for problem solving and decision making. Interactive sonification systems can make georeferenced data accessible to people with vision impairments. The authors compare methods for using sound to encode georeferenced data patterns and for navigating maps.