Blog
December 3, 2009
Its World Disability Day Again!
Filed under: Assistive Technologies, Elderly, Hearing, Learning, Mobility, Techshare India, Uncategorized, Visual — Shilpi Kapoor @ 2:41 pmWhere does education and the use of technology stand? A perspective on World Disability Day!
Its World Disability Day again, and where do we stand with regards to education and the use of technology? Though we have seen progress with the education of persons with disabled, we haven’t seen assistive technology play a role in their progress.
My perspective is that we have a long way to go.
I have met people with cerebral palsy who might benefit with a communication device or then struggles to use a mouse, but won’t adapt to a switch.
I have met people with low vision who can manage with magnification support but are forced into using a screen reader because no one would guide them and evaluate their needs.
I have met hearing impaired whose are so weak in their communication skills that they could use word prediction software to better their communication skills. So where does the gap lie?
Often the statements I hear are that I don’t want to use assistive technology or adaptive technology because:
- I don’t want to be different from “others”
- I didn’t know this product could help me
- I don’t know where to buy this from or it is too expensive
Let me break some of these myths today.
A person using spectacles and another wearing contact lenses are different from each other. The question I ask is so what if you are different?As long as you can be effective as any other person why should you worry about “so called tags”. If using an assistive technology gives you speed and efficiency, use it!
Educationist, government, assistive technology companies, need to come together to create awareness about assistive technology products and independent living aids.We need to not only have this information available, but we need to work on evaluation methodologies to choose the best assistive aid for the person.
We need to work with government and assistive technology companies to understand the needs of the Indian disabled population and the price points that will make things affordable and thereby accessible to all.
We need to work with the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and to evaluate the ADIP scheme. In addition, we need to work with the Ministry of Human Resource Development to ensure that there are evaluation and implementation processes in place to assist the persons with disability to move forward!Visit the Exhibition at Techshare India 2010 on February 15-16th, 2010 to see a lot of assistive technology that can empower the disabled people!This article has been provided by Shilpi Kapoor, Managing Director, BarrierBreak TechnologiesDisclaimer:The views expressed herein are solely those of the author as an individual with interest in accessibility and assistive technology and do not claim to represent those of Techshare India, BarrierBreak Technologies or Net Systems Informatics. No Comments
November 26, 2009
Accessibility Knowledge Series III – Mobile Accessibility
Filed under: Accessibility, Accessibility Knowledge Series, Assistive Technologies, Developing Technologies, Hearing, Techshare India, Visual — Shilpi Kapoor @ 7:01 pm
Mobile Accessibility
With the advent of technology Mobile Phones are becoming more and more powerful and feature rich devices and are great temptation to have one with us. The visually impaired users are no exception to this.
Apart from making and receiving call and to sending SMS a phone is a gadget full of features including variety of communication options, navigation aid, reading appliance, internet device and yes, great asset of entertainment with the option to play and record multimedia content.
Thus the mobile technology is growing at a rate out of imagination but for Person with disability, it is not that easy to opt for high tech solutions that are made available to their non disabled counterpart.
Hold on, you will be happy to know that there are companies like Code Factory working to Make Mobile Phone Accessible to visually impaired and hearing impaired.
The Screen Reader and Magnifier are available for High-tech Phones running Either Windows Mobile or Symbian Series 60 or Blackberry (Orator). The software is capable of rendering Text in Audio or in Braille on a Braille Display. Thus making most of the things accessible out of the box such as personal information management, browsing internet, etc.
There are few interesting advantages of using a high-tech Mobile Phones with accessibility products.
- For instance using Mobile Geo can give the sense of independence in navigation and is very helpful in determining Point of Interest while navigating on a unfamiliar vicinity.
- The tools like color recognizer can help you to identify colors of different objects giving sense of independence over color choices.
- On account of learning, Daisy Books can also be played on a mobile Device thus evading the need to carry a separate device to read books. The Daisy player provides all the option available on any other hardware / software Daisy player.
Thus technology is changing lives of every one with no exception of Disabled people.
Reference:
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/codefactory and on our blog at http://codefactoryblog.wordpress.com/
Website: http://www.codefactory.es
This Accessibility Knowledge Series has been provided by Caroline Ragot, Marketing Director, Code Factory, S.L
Disclaimer:The views expressed herein are solely those of the author as an individual with interest in accessibility and assistive technology and do not claim to represent those of Techshare India, BarrierBreak Technologies or Net Systems Informatics.
Contribute
Got an idea/product that would bring a change for persons with disabilities? Send it across to techshare@barrierbreak.com
November 12, 2009
Accessibility Knowledge Series I – Audio-Visual Content Accessible to All!
Filed under: Accessibility, Accessibility Knowledge Series, Assistive Technologies, Hearing, Techshare India — Shilpi Kapoor @ 8:30 pmAudio-Visual Content Accessible to All!
Whenever I talk of accessibility, one of the first reactions is that accessibility is for the visually impaired. Since we don’t visually see any problems with the deaf and hearing impaired, people are of the opinion that deaf or hard of hearing DO NOT face any accessibility issues.
It’s time to break this myth, especially in a day an age where content is available in audio-visual formats, the deaf or hard of hearing are at a major disadvantage.
Often you and I have problems in communicating with the deaf or hard of hearing since we might not know sign language, we often resort to gestures and to writing out what we are trying to explain to them. In the case of the web or on television or in movies where audio-visual is being used, the deaf or hard of hearing are surely impacted.
So whats the solution for them? It’s very simple, “Captioning“. I have often noticed that persons having no disability are watching captioned movies. People who don’t understand the accent often use captioning, senior citizens also can benefit from captioning. So it isn’t only the deaf and hard of hearing!
Shouldn’t we be captioning audio-visual files? Find out a lot more at Techshare India 2010.
Reference:
This Accessibility Knowledge Series has been provided by Shilpi Kapoor, Managing Director, BarrierBreak Technologies
Disclaimer:The views expressed herein are solely those of the author as an individual with interest in accessibility and assistive technology and do not claim to represent those of Techshare India, BarrierBreak Technologies or Net Systems Informatics.
Contribute
Got an idea that would bring a change for persons with disabilities? Send it across to techshare@barrierbreak.com
No CommentsFebruary 12, 2009
Web Accessibility Development
Filed under: Developing Technologies, Elderly, General, Hearing, Learning, Mobility, Visual — Mamta Tandel @ 7:01 pmWeb Accessibility refers to making the web site accessible to all, irrespective to the type of disability and the medium which people use. It is crucial that accessibility is looked at on every stage of website development, be it design, content writing and integration.
Web Accessibility Development is not drastically different from regular web development. Web Accessibility Development has an edge over ‘regular’ Web Development; it involves combination and correct use of:
- Valid markups
- Valid Styles
- Web page compliant with:
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- Different laws, for example in US – Section 508
- Scripts
- Client-side scripts
- Server-side scripts
- Content with:
- Appropriate heading structure and links
- Appropriate color contrasts
- Consistent navigational structure
- Text alternatives for images
- Accessible forms
- Accessible tables (data tables and not layout tables)
- Link to third-party plugins such as PDF, Excel, Word etc
- Accessible documents especially PDF
The above list doesn’t end… an important aspect of Web Accessibility Development includes testing the web pages created. Not only by automated checks but crucial and most importantly by end users including people with different types of disabilities such as visual, hearing, mobility and learning disability. It would be an added advantage if a senior citizen could test the web pages to certify that a web page is actually simple and easy to understand!
So, web accessibility development is for those who believe that there web site is not only for a section of a group in the world, but also includes 60 million of the lot that people believe cannot access or work with the web. Web accessibility development is for those who believe that web site is not a mere creation of fancy and jazzy web pages but an information portal or a source where all users can access the CONTENT and INFORMATION with ease.
Bottom line: Web Accessibility Development looks at not only FACE-VALUE but ADDED-VALUE!
No CommentsJanuary 5, 2009
BarrierBreak launches “BCAT” – A tool to create Accessible Flash based Elearning course
Filed under: Assistive Technologies, Authoring Technologies, Developing Technologies, Elderly, Flash, Hearing, Learning, Mobility, Visual — Shilpi Kapoor @ 9:49 pmRight to education is universal. Education has evolved from blackboard to keyboard. Elearning has broken the geographical barriers and made it possible for people to access knowledge with ease and convenience.
Despite the benefits offered by Elearning, it is not possible for students with special needs to access Elearning courses. Students using assistive technologies can with little ease access HTML based elearning but are deprived of the rich learning experience provided by technologies such as Flash. The common myth that prevails is that ‘Flash cannot be made accessible’ Its time that we over come this myth and change the mind set to ‘Flash can be made Accessible’
Net Systems Informatics & BarrierBreak Technologies have taken the initiative to break this myth and have launched the Beta version of “BarrierBreak Course Authoring Tool (BCAT)”. BCAT is designed and developed to assist teachers/authors in creating accessible Flash based Elearning courses. BCAT is an easy to use tool with in-built keyboard and screen reader support enabling students with disabilities to experience the power of Elearning!
BCAT comprises of two main components, Course Authoring Tool based on Moodle Learning Management System and Flash Architecture to access the course contents. In addition, the teacher/author can add various accessibility options to the course such as: Alternate Text, Captions, and Transcripts.
Once the course is published, the contents are generated in to XML and users can access the course using a Flash player. The Flash course thus created provides users with an “Accessibility Panel” to meet their needs:
- Show/Hide Captions
- Audio Transcript
- Change Themes
- Small/Large Icons
- Show/Hide Labels
- Text Size
We invite users with disabilities, teachers/authors, accessibility community at large to access BCAT and provide their valuable feedback and suggestions to make BCAT a tool for inclusive education.
To access Beta version of BCAT, visit: http://www.n-syst.com/lms/login/signup.php
Once you sign up, you will receive an email including further instructions. Along with the email, you will receive a ReadMe file, documentation for creating a course, documentation for using the course and bug report file.
The Beta Test Run is open until 20th January 2009. All suggestions are highly appreciated and will help us to make BCAT more user-friendly and accessible for all.
peace, veiky
No CommentsDecember 17, 2008
Do people with disabilities need access to libraries? How can we support them with assistive technology?
Filed under: Alternate Formats, Assistive Technologies, Elderly, Hearing, Learning, Mobility, Visual — Shilpi Kapoor @ 1:48 pmPeople with disabilities have an equal right to education and accessing information is a key to education. Libraries are an integral part of education institutes whether schools, colleges and universities.
So what is the type of support that people with disabilities need beyond accessible infrastructure. Let me list some of my thoughts down.
For students with low vision, who can see if with magnification, it would be good to have desktop magnifiers for patrons to access the books and newspapers. This would give people the option to magnify the text and read the documents easily. Check out Optelec ClearView + .
The Optelec ClearView + would be great in public libraries where even senior citizens visit the library.
For people with who can’t read with magnification, alteast having one computer, with scanning support and a screen reader support would be an advantage. Check out a combination of Cicero and Supernova.
To provide access to the books in alternate formats like braille, large print and daisy (digital talking book) format it would be essential to have a software that would do this. Check out EasyConverter
Providing books in alternate format will also help print disabled and students with learning disabilties.
It would be a good start to see this available for persons with disabilities in Indian libraries.
No CommentsJuly 17, 2008
Registrations are now open! Techshare India 2008 Road Shows – Breaking the Barriers
Filed under: Assistive Technologies, Elderly, Hearing, Learning, Mobility, Techshare India, Visual — Shilpi Kapoor @ 12:46 pmHi all,
It’s been some time I blogged about Techshare India 2008 Road Show that would be organized at Bangalore and Mumbai.
I am excited to let you all know that registrations are now open for Techshare India 2008 Road Show that will be held at Bangalore on 29th August, 2008 and during October, 2008 at Mumbai.
We are having speakers who has rich experience in the area of people with disabilities, accessibility and assistive technologies. Some of our key speakers would be Shilpi Kapoor of BarrierBreak Technologies, Dr. Poonam Gupta of CDAC Noida, Vikas Sharma of AccessAbility, Omprakash Subbarao of Yahoo! India and many more…
Besides presentations, there will be state-of-the-art Experience Zone demonstrating different assistive technologies and devices for people with disabilities.
Visit Techshare India Website for updates and registration process!
No Comments|
