Information Perceptualization

Information perceptualization is the mapping of abstract data or information onto perceptual properties across multiple sensory modalities — vision, hearing, touch, and occasionally taste or smell — in a coordinated, multimodal display. It generalises the more familiar notion of 'data visualization' beyond vision, asking not only how data can be seen but how it can be heard, felt, or sensed more broadly. The concept was articulated by Nesbitt (2001) and is directly relevant to accessibility research, because it frames sonification, haptification, and multimodal display not as workarounds for disability but as first-class design spaces with their own perceptual constraints and opportunities. In accessibility practice, information perceptualization underlies screen-reader output, audio descriptions, vibrotactile data displays, and accessible mathematical-graph presentations for blind users.