By Suzanne Robitaille Disney has announced plans to unveil audio description assistive technology for its outdoor theme parks as it currently does for more than 30 narrated indoor attractions and rides. Audio descriptions, provided via headsets, guide visually impaired guests and others who can’t fully experience the visual aspect of visiting a Disney theme park. Using [...]
He gets it, I said aloud to no one in particular. I listened to the robotic-sounding voice on my screen reader that was turning the words I was reading into comprehensible spoken text. I was talking about Samuel R. Bagenstos, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division, who had just told the House Judiciary panel that access to new technologies for people with disabilities is “not simply a technical matter, but a fundamental issue of civil rights." All I have to say is Hallelujah!
I have been to plenty of Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conferences, and this year has all the usual stuff (though gadgets are getting smaller every year!) As I walked the exhibit halls, I was haunted by the recent New York TImes Sunday Magazine article, Listening to Braille, where the author bemoans the decline of [...]
Intel is the first company that greets you at the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) 2010 conference in Orlando, where I’m checking out new gadgets for people with disabilities. (Great timing, as it’s freezing up north.) It’s always a good sign for the industry when a major tech player sets up shop with a glossy [...]
The media is talking about braille and literacy, a topic jump-started by a New York Times Magazine article, “Listening to Braille,” by Rachel Aviv. The author writes that new technology may be undermining Braille literacy as people who are blind are now “reading” via e-books, iPods, telephone news services and other text-to-speech devices. Aviv’s article centers [...]
On November 6 the FCC held a Field Hearing on Broadband Access for People with Disabilities at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The hearing is one of many that will discuss ways to bring access to broadband to the nation’s 54 Americans with disabilities. The meeting included panelists from A.G. Bell, the American Foundation for [...]
I wonder if Intel feels sheepish right now. Here they are, thinking they’ve just launched a great new product for the blind, a mobile device that reads text aloud. Intel partnered with assistive tech pioneer HumanWare and reached out to the blind community to get their input, too. But the Intel Reader, announced yesterday, has [...]
By Suzanne Robitaille If you have trouble seeing whether you’re paying for your lunch with a $20 or a $50 bill, there’s a new banknote identifier on the market. iBill is a banknote identifier from Orbit Research that’s designed for the blind and the visually impaired. The device costs $99, which is less expensive than [...]
An experiment is helping the blind see images they’ve never seen before. The three-year research project involves surgically implanted electrodes, a camera worn on the bridge of the nose and a video processor, according to the New York Times. Scientists involved in the project, the artificial retina, say they have plans to develop the technology to [...]
knfb Reader Technology's Mobile products include cell phone programs that read aloud printed text for those with print disabilities, such as vision loss and dyslexia.
