Tablets turned into Braille keyboard by US researchers
BBC News
“A team of US researchers has devised a way for people with impaired vision to use the touchscreen of a tablet such as an iPad as a Braille keyboard.
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Blind
Modeling web-based information seeking by users who are blind
Brunsman-Johnson C et al, Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 2011
Purpose.
This article describes website information seeking strategies used by users who are blind and compares those with sighted users. It outlines how assistive technologies and website design can aid users who are blind while information seeking.
Method.
People who are blind and sighted are tested using an assessment tool and performing several tasks on websites. The times and keystrokes are recorded for all tasks as well as commands used and spatial questioning.
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RFID Helps Blind Workers Do Their Jobs
Catherine O'Connor, RFID Solutions Online
“Blind Industries and Services of Maryland is employing radio frequency identification at its facility in Salisbury, MD, to help its vision-disabled workers accurately pack boxes with the correct types and quantities of items. The system was provided by SimplyRFID, an RFID solutions provider and software developer based in Warrenton, Va.
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A ‘visual-centred’ mapping approach for improving access to Web 2.0 for people with visual impairments
Jay C et al, Disability and Rehabilitation. Assistive Technology, 2010
On simple Web pages, the text to speech translation provided by a screen reader works relatively well. This is not the case for more sophisticated ‘Web 2.0′ pages, in which many interactive visual features, such as tickers, tabs, auto-suggest lists, calendars and slideshows currently remain inaccessible. Determining how to present these in audio is challenging in general, but may be particularly so for certain groups, such as people with congenital or early-onset blindness, as they are not necessarily familiar with the visual interaction metaphors that are involved.
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Video Game Research Project To Help Blind Children Exercise
redOrbit
“VI Fit, a project at the University of Nevada, Reno, helps children who are blind become more physically active and healthy through video games. The human-computer interaction research team in the computer science and engineering department has developed a motion-sensing-based tennis and bowling exergame that can be downloaded for free at www.vifit.org.
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Computers Can Effectively Detect Diabetes-Related Eye Problems, Analysis Finds
Science Daily
“People with diabetes have an increased risk of blindness, yet nearly half of the approximately 23 million Americans with diabetes do not get an annual eye exam to detect possible problems.
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A Burst of Technology, Helping the Blind to See
Pam Belluck, The New York Times
“Some of the 37 other participants further along in the project can differentiate plates from cups, tell grass from sidewalk, sort white socks from dark, distinguish doors and windows, identify large letters of the alphabet, and see where people are, albeit not details about them.
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Device to Help the Blind
Carolyn Bloch, Federal Telemedicine News
“Amazingly, a new device has been developed for the blind and visually impaired that uses the brain to see—not the eyes. This device called BrainPort manufactured by Wicab Inc., located in Wisconsin helps to partially restore vision by using the nerves on the tongue to send signals from a camera system to the brain.
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Driving blind
Daniel de Vise, The Standard
“A voice rose above the chatter in the University of Maryland parking lot: “Blind man driving!” Twenty blind people took turns piloting a car on this muggy morning, the first public test of technology that might one day overcome barriers to putting the sightless behind the wheel.
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New Technology Paves Way for Visually Impaired Internet Users
“IBM previewed a unique Social Accessibility collaboration software, developed by IBM Research, which allows Internet users to improve Web accessibility, particularly for those who are visually impaired.”
Article
eHealthNews.eu, 31 July 2008
Web-based program gives the blind Internet access
“Blind people generally use computers with the help of screen-reader software, but those products can cost more than $1,000, so they’re not exactly common on public PCs at libraries or Internet cafes. Now a free new web-based program for the blind aims to improve the situation.”
Article
Donna Gordon Blankinship, AP, 19 July 2008
Smarter Computer Interface for Blind Proposed
“Current computer interfaces for blind people just don’t cut it, as far as designer Jonathan Lucas is concerned. Mr Lucas is proposing a more intuitive interface, called Siafu, that blends a tactile screen, capable of displaying braille as well as images, with an input system, all designed around a conceptual material called Magneclay. The key here is the word “conceptual”.”
Article
MedGadget, 29 February 2008
