Try sitting at your computer to write a letter — blindfolded. Bigger challenge: Still wearing the blindfold, try searching the Internet. Seems like it would be impossible for someone who is visually impaired to use a PC, right? Or suppose you can’t hear and want to interact with someone far away. The simplest solution is to cyber chat — but your correspondent doesn’t have Internet access. Adaptive technology can solve these problems .
For visual impairments, solutions range from magnification or screen enlargement and color adaptations for those with low vision (about $400) to screen readers and Braille translators for the totally blind. A screen reader actually is equal parts software and hardware. A screen-reading program such as IBM’s Screen Reader/2 (www.austin.ibm.com/sns/snssrd2.html), which works with Microsoft Windows when running on the OS/2 platform, and IBM’s new Home Page Reader for the Web (www.austin.ibm.com/sns/hpr.html), will identify whatever the mouse points to. Then a device is needed to give synthetic speech output — to tell you what the mouse is “seeing.”
Two of the more popular screen readers for Windows are Jaws by Henter-Joyce (www.hj.com) and Window Eyes by GW Micro (www.gwmicro.com). Both of these use software text-to-speech synthesis, as does IBM Home Page Reader, so no additional hardware is needed for the speech output.
The Hadley School for the Blind in Winnetka teaches adults to use these systems, whether for their own use, or to support a child or other loved one, or even an employee who is visually impaired.
According to George Abbott, access technology specialist at Hadley, “Now that Microsoft is building accessibility into their standard software, with Windows and a good sound card in your PC, you don’t need a $400-$1,500 piece of hardware anymore.”
Abbott points out that people who have lost their sight later in life tend to prefer the speech output method over Braille. For the 20 percent of blind people who read Braille, there is a Braille machine that attaches to a standard keyboard. When the user puts his or her hands on the device, Braille bumps form under their fingertips to spell what is on the computer screen. However, it doesn’t provide information about graphics, such as click points on a Web site. The ideal scenario? A combination of the fingertip and screen-reading systems. The cost? $5,000 and up for the Braille display; about $600-800 for screen-reading software.
To print documents in Braille, there are Braille embossers, which cost $1,600-$4,000. A page of print translates to three pages of Braille, so double-sided embossing might be a consideration if you output a lot of copies. HITEC Group International in Burr Ridge (800/288-8303; www.hitec.com) sells software and peripherals for the disabled (and those with mobility and speech limitations), from screen-reading software to technology for the hearing impaired.
For the hearing impaired, PC’s and the Internet are opening lines of communication like never before. Richard Uzuanis, vice president of HITEC, explains. “For those with a hearing loss, the primary problem is with using a telephone. TTY/TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) technology is 60 years old, and a very limiting, single purpose device. Now we’ve integrated the technology with the personal computer to make the computer function as TTY, which requires a special modem.
“Ironically, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone by accident, as he was trying to develop a way to communicate with his deaf wife,” Uzuanis continues. “The very instrument he created locked out the deaf. “
For most hearing impaired, visual communication is vital. The advent of full-motion video on the Internet will enable such people to communicate on-line with American Sign Language. HITEC offers WorldView TTY servers with a special modem and free Internet service for one year for $799 (PC not included). HITEC also offers an alternative for companies that use Integrated Voice Response (IVR) (push one for customer service, push two for, etc.), which creates a block for the hearing impaired. Their WorldView product can be expanded from PC-based to corporate-based. PC adaptives can have the biggest impact on those who are severely limited in movement and/or speech capabilities. Twelve years ago, Silvio Cianfrone and two fellow principals from Telex Corp. created the CINTEX to enable a brain-injured young man to communicate. “David” had not spoken in six years. Cianfrone set up a system that David could use by tapping a device with his head to type words into a computer.
The dramatic impact of CINTEX on David’s life — and the lives of its creators — spurred the birth of NanoPac (800/580-6086; www.nanopac.com), Cianfrone’s Tulsa, Okla.-based company. From setting up a way for a man who is blind and deaf to “watch” TV and videos, to enabling a woman to communicate who is blind, paralyzed and unable to speak, the company evaluates the needs of a client and equips the person with whatever it takes to meet those needs.
If no system exists to solve the problem, NanoPac creates one.
Lucent Technologies’ new HomeStar home wiring system (www.lucent.com/netsys/homestar/) ($700-$2,000 installed) enables control of environmental issues like heat, lighting, TV and stereo controls — even opening drapes and raising the head of a bed — from a PC. Sounds great, right? But how do the disabled afford these systems, which can empower them to live independently? Cianfrone says the majority of NanoPac’s clients’ funding comes from state vocational-rehabilitation agencies, the Veteran’s Administration for military veterans, from employers of the disabled, or even community fundraisers like aluminum can collections or spaghetti dinners. Computer giants like IBM, Apple and Microsoft have philanthropic arms to help those in need of assistive technology.
FUNDING SOURCES
State of Illinois’ State Treasurer offers a Ready Access Program, providing low-interest loans that start at $1,000 to support people with disabilities achieve the goal of independence. (312) 814-8964 or 814-1793
The Lyons Club (hearing and vision loss): www.lionsclubs.org
Sertoma (hearing loss): www.sertoma.org
Optimist International: www.optimist.org
Rotary International: www.rotary.org
Kiwanis: www.kiwanis.org
Jaycees: www.usjaycees.org/links/chapter- links.shtml
HARDWARE/SOFTWARE
Computer software and hardware adaptation Web sites:
Apple Disability Resources: www.apple.com/education/k12/disability/
Microsoft Accessibility Homepage: www.microsoft.com/enable/
Pulse Data Technology Solutions: www.pulsedata.co.nz/index.html
Lucent Technologies HomeStar: www.lucent.com/netsys/homestar/
IBM Special Needs Systems: www.austin.ibm.com/sns
DISABILITY WEB SITE
Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium: www.tiac.net/users/bingham/
Northern Illinois Center for Adaptive Technology: (815) 229-2163
Technical Aids & Assistance for the Disabled Center; 312/421-3373 (Voice/TTY); 800/346-2939
EKA Disability Resource, Products, Services and Communication Home Page: www.eka.com/
Untangling the Web: West Virginia Rehabilitation Research & Training Center: www.icdi.wvu.edu/Others.htm
Alliance for Technology Access Email: stafla@aol.com
HEATH Resource Center, national clearinghouse for information about assistive technology; (800) 544-3284; www.heath-resource-center.org; e-mail: heath@ace.nche.edu;
Trace R&D Center publishes a comprehensive resource book of accessibility products; (608) 262-6966 e-mail: info@trace.waisman.wisc.edu
