Effective Practices for Description of Science Content within Digital Talking Books
Example I: Complex Diagrams and Illustrations

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1. Illustrated Chart
2. Diagram with Embedded Data

Illustrated Chart

Guidelines:

• The various relationships between the finches can be replicated in a table.
• This is a case in which the table requires more work to discern the relationships than the illustration does. A b/vi person would have to review the table several times to establish the patterns that a sighted person sees almost instantly. However, the table does allow for quick review of data which a narrative-style description would not.
• This table, like all tables, can be rendered differently. In this case, the alternate would be to have the categories run down the left-hand column instead of across the top row. Compare the two tables.
• If the colors of the finches' feathers are important, an additional column can be added to the table.

Description:

An illustration showing 10 different finches and their variations is depicted in the following table.

Adaptive radiation: Darwin's Finches

NAME	FINCH	BILL	FOOD
Vegetarian tree finch	Tree finches	Parrot-like bills	Fruit eaters
Large insectivorous tree finch	Tree finches	Grasping bills	Insect eaters
Small insectivorous tree finch	Tree finches	Grasping bills	Insect eaters
Woodpecker finch	Tree finches	Probing bills	Insect eaters
Warbler finch	Warbler finch	Probing bills	Insect eaters
Cactus ground finch	Ground finches	Probing bills	Cactus eaters
Sharp-beaked ground finch	Ground finches	Crushing bills	Seed eaters
Small ground finch	Ground finches	Crushing bills	Seed eaters
Medium ground finch	Ground finches	Crushing bills	Seed eaters
Large ground finch	Ground finches	Crushing bills	Seed eaters

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Diagram with Embedded Data

Guidelines:

• Despite the beauty of this illustration, its main purpose is to show the storage fluxes in carbon. The data are easily laid out in tables.
• While the illustration itself is colorful and visually interesting, it doesn't provide additional information beyond the labels and numbers. Indeed, some survey participants commented that the description provided below was excessive and that only the tables were needed. As always, the description provider must determine both the intent of image and the intended audience.

Description:

The diagram is titled "Carbon Cycle." Colorful pictures depict farms, forests, rivers, oceans and industry. Four arrows encircle the diagram, representing the cycling of carbon. Smaller arrows illustrate Storage of Carbon and Fluxes in Carbon through Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land. Amounts are measured in G t C - gigatons of carbon.

Carbon Storage and Annual Fluxes in Carbon are depicted in the following tables.

Carbon Storage

Storage Area	G t C
Atmosphere	750
Vegetation	610
Fossil Fuels and Cement Production	4,000
Soils	1,580
Surface Ocean	1,020
Deep Ocean	38,100
Marine Biota	3
Underwater Dissolved Organic Carbon	less than 700
Ocean Sediments	150

Fluxes in Carbon

Flux	G t C
Atmosphere to Vegetation	121.3
Vegetation to Atmosphere	60
Soils to Atmosphere	60
Forest Fires to Atmosphere	1.6
Atmosphere to Evergreen Forest	.5
Fossil Fuels and Cement Production to Atmosphere	5.5
Surface Ocean to Atmosphere	90
Atmosphere to Surface Ocean	92
Surface Ocean to Marine Biota	50
Marine Biota to Surface Ocean	40
Marine Biota to Dissolved Organic Carbon	6
Marine Biota to Deep Ocean	4
Surface Ocean to Deep Ocean	91.6
Deep Ocean to Surface Ocean	100
Dissolved Organic Carbon to Deep Ocean	6
Deep Ocean to Ocean Sediments	.2

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Funding for this project is provided by the National Science Foundation.