Silicone Touch: an iPhone case for the visually impaired

A colleague saw this on Engadget.com recently and thought it was interesting. Basically, it is a sleeve that fits over the iPhone and has tactile buttons for controlling custom iPhone applications. While totally conceptual right now and extremely limited in its actual functionality (i.e., apps would need to be customized), it would be interesting if the basic interface could change by enabling an "access mode" such that the tactile sleeve could be functional.

A similar concept was presented in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager for a computer terminal that adapted to a visually impaired crew member -- "Year of Hell" - season 4 - episodes 8 and 9.

Anyway, the approach seems conceptually similar to the VisuAide Maestro, which is essentially a tactile-button sleeve that slips over a touchscreen PDA, plus accompanying software.

The ATOMS Project

The Assistive Technology Outcomes Measurement System (ATOMS) Project was launched by a five year assistive technology (AT) outcomes and impacts project funded in part by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) under the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects (DRRP) program.

The Green and Mean and Lighter and Better Perkins Brailler

New and imprtoved with less weight, less noise, and less force - it will be with you wherever you go.

The Boston Globe has a story this morning on the new and improved Perkins Brailler. Anyone who has used one of these stalwarts of access knows they are not the most user friendly for our 21st century ultra portable ideal of communication. While others have been mucking about with trying to add text to speech to cell phones, or make DAISY players that are unplugged on the go, or even tactile electronic paper, the engineers over at Perkins have been quietly redesigning and improving the most solid, most reliable, and most fundamental access tool of them all.

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High Tech Solutions Redefining "Disabled" - Boston Globe

Short but interesting article out of the Boston Globe titled High Tech Solutions Redefining "Disabled". The article is about how technology is being used to enhance the quailty of life for residents of The Boston Home, a not-for-profit specialized care residence for adults with advanced Multiple Sclerosis and other progressive neurological diseases located in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

According to the article, Boston Home has pulled out all the stops in order to provide residents with "diginity and independence - as well as pieces of the lives they had before they were disabled". From computers, to phone mods to bed lifts to mobility to safety and securty issues, the technology, as one resident puts it, "makes it a whole lot easier to be disabled."

Also of interest is that the facility has entered into a partnership with the MIT Age Lab for the development of wheelchairs integrating voice command technology. That may be cool in the future - but only if they can match the pimped out Gryphon Shield!

Assistive Technology Western Style

From our friend and solid ATHEN member Wink Harner of Mesa Community College comes word of the ...

11th Annual Assistive Technology Summer Institute
Assistive Technology: Basics & Beyond

Conference Sponsors:

• The Arizona Technology Access Program
  (A program of Northern Arizona University's Institute for Human Development)
• The Arizona Department of Education
• Arizona Rehabilitation Services Administration

WHEN
Monday, June 2, 2008 and Tuesday, June 3, 2008
7:30 AM till 4:30 PM (Pacific Time)

WHERE
Wigwam Golf Resort and Spa
300 W Wigwam Boulevard
Litchfield Park, AZ 85340

Portable Apps Update (and Accessibility)

The latest issue of PC Magazine has a brief article on creating the ultimate USB key. This sort of article is not unusual and appears every six months or so as new hardware and software finds its way to market. Reading such articles and checking out the websites and services they mention is a good way to keep up with what is new out there.

It's also fun to take a look back on this blog as I did and found a posting from December 2005 where I am excited about a getting my hands on a 4GB portable drive. Yeesh -- flash forward two-and-a-quarter-years and I can now get a 32GB flashdrive for less than the 250GB external harddrive I bought about a year ago! For that matter- I recently loaded an 8GB microSD card onto my BlackBerry. It cost me almost nothing as it was part of a package deal when I got my new device. Now that's what I call portable storage!

Anyway - the purpose of this post is to note that the Portable Apps site is still one of my favorites and to point out a their listing of accessibility items that may be of interest to the ATHEN community. These include the Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable, the Firefox Accessibility Extension, and the On-Screen Keyboard Portable. How useful any of these items is remains with the end-user. For example, I have heard good things about the Firefox extension but do not personally use Firefox as my web browser.

Accessing Higher Ground

My all time favorite conference (and the annual meeting of the ATHEN membership) is the Accessing Higher Ground conference put on by the University of Colorado at Boulder. This is the 10th anniversary and it gets better each and every year. Boulder is beautiful, the hotel is fantastic, the conference is small and the attendees are focused. This is the third year I have attended this conference but it seems like I have been going there forever!

Last year the leadership of Accessing Higher Ground and ATHEN got together and now we are one of the sponsors of the conference. Besides the obvious perks of getting to pick which room to have the annual meeting and the ability to cut into the buffet line with no backsies, it is quite an honor to be so closely associated with this conference. ATHEN also sponsors an educational track of presentations by our members (refer to the conference program for specifi details):

PRE-CONFERENCE SESSIONS

• The AHEAD Institute on E-Text Production (2 day pre-conference workshop): Ron Stewart, Dolphin Computer Access and Gaeir Dietrich, High Tech Center Training Unit
• Hardware and Software Players for Digital Talking Books (DAISY): Robert Beach, KCCC

GENERAL SESSIONS

• Planting Textbooks and Harvesting DAISY: A Model Program for E-Text Production: Daniel Berkowitz & Adam Randazzo, Boston University
• Planting Textbooks and Harvesting DAISY (part II): A technical demonstration of the Boston University production process: Daniel Berkowitz & Adam Randazzo, Boston University
• Innovative AT Research at the University of Washington: Dan Comden, University of Washington
• DAISY for All: Ron Stewart, Dolphin Computer Access
• Lab: Designing Accessible PDF Forms through Adobe's LiveCycle Designer: Sean Keegan, High Tech Center Training Unit
• Software Players and Digital Talking Books (DAISY): Robert Beach, Kansas City, Kansas CC
• STEM and Blind Student- A Survey and Analysis of Current tools, Strategies and Solutions: Saroj Primlani, North Carolina State University
• Using the Duxbury Braille Translation Software: Gaeir Dietrich, High Tech Center Training Unit
• Lab: Using Adobe PDF to Create Alternate Media, Gaeir Dietrich, High Tech Center Training Unit
• Design of an Assistive Technology Online Class: David Schwarte & Joe Humbert, Purdue University
• Web Accessibility in Higher Education: How Are We Doing?: Terry Thompson, DO-IT, U. of Washington, Saroj Primlani, North Carolina State University
• Improving Math Access on the Web with MathML-based Web Pages: Sean Keegan, High Tech Center Training Unit

The Key Note speaker for this year is one of my favorite folks working in the Access Technology Field - E.A. Draffan. Trained as a Speech and Language Therapist, E.A. worked for several years within the fields of various communication disabilities before specialising in Dyslexia and Assistive Technology. She has since worked with disabled students in Further and Higher Education, set up an Assistive Technology Centre, trained assessors, developed a database of assistive technologies and is working with a research group at the University of Southampton (UK).

An Alternative to the Computer Mouse

A user interface, being developed at Stanford University, that tracks eye movement may provide an alternate way to use a computer. Originally developed for individuals with disabilities, the Gaze-enhanced User Interface Design (GUIDe) is designed to be more useful for able-bodied computer users. Since nondisabled users tend to have a higher standard for easy-to-use interfaces and thus eye-tracking technology that designed for the disabled hasn't appealed to them. Read more at the MIT Technology Review.

YouTube - Eye To Eye: An Online Library For The Blind

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jim Fruchterman talks with Byron Pitts in a YouTube - Eye To Eye interview. Jim is the CEO of Benetech, an Associate Member of the DAISY Consortium.
In the interview Jim says that his mission is "to use technology to help humanity." And, in the spirit of those who participate in DAISY developments, he announced "It is a badge of honor to be a geek."

This also appears as a story on the CBS Evening News - "Tech Entrepreneur Helps Blind To Read". If you visit the site, be sure to check out the related video.

If you have ever met Jim you know what an approachable down to earth nice guy he is. Don't let the MacArthur genius award get in the way of getting to know him. I especially like that he has taken on the mission of trying to convince the next generation of high-tech entrepreneurs to be socially conscious.

The rebirth of Braille - The Boston Globe

This was in the Boston Globe today - The Rebirth of Braille - and has garnered some attention on the listservs. Personally I never thought Braille was dead - just in hibernation. As the digital revolution has transformed writing, publishing, and communication in general - braille sort of found itself on the back burner for a time as it was (is) expensive and sometime impractical to hardcopy print materials yet the hardware necessary to access braille was (is) expensive. However, refreshable braille displays are becoming less bulky and less expensive and the Braille software that runs them is constantly improving.

Multimedia Edition

Several items of multimedia interest cropped up recently and in looking back through the 'drafts' folder I discovered a few more that deserve mentioning. I'll start by blowing my own horn (and those of a few fellow ATHEN members).

Back in November of '06 I did a workshop at the Carroll Center for the Blind on Accessible Textbooks for Persons with Print Disabilities. This was recorded by the Talking Information Center of Massachusetts and broadcast to their listeners. I have done similar presentations at other conferences but this was my first time being recorded into a podcast [mp3 download]. Ye gads I hate the sound of my own voice, but at least I am in good company with my compadre' Brian Charlson of the Carroll Center. Speaking of multimedia, I may have posted on this before but the slide-show at Boston.com featureing Brian and Keegan on GPS Navigation Systems for the Blind deserves another look.

Now then ... enough about me ... how about these podcast and video stars from among the ATHEN membership. First up is Dan Comden of DO-IT in a video detailing the Universal Design of Computer Labs (available on Google Video). Produced by the Research Channel.org, this 11 minute video does an excellent job of covering the basics. Speaking of Google Video - it was pointed to me recently that do-it-yourselfers can caption and subtitle their own videos when they are put up on the web.

Dan Comden also makes an appearance in a podcast at the EmpTech site where he discuses automated tactile image production software being developed at the University of Washington. You can link directly to the podcast here [mp3 format] and also link to further information on the project. Also available through EmpTech is a podcast interview with ATHEN President Ron Stewart [mp3 format] regarding the use of electronic documents in various formats, including Daisy. This is actually a mirror download of the interview originally done for the Disability 411 podcast. The podcast includes a transcript of the conversation with Ron -- the info is great but those of us who know Ron know that listening to his delivery is half the fun.

The use of podcasts in education is definitely expanding as a recent story at CNN.com describes - Publishers cater to growing use of MP3s for schoolwork describes efforts at community colleges and universities through the use of iTunes and audible.com. Unfortunately, this story 9as per usual) misses the point of accessibility in regards to these efforts. When it comes to accessibility in podcasts, the processes and technology necessary to make them so is readily available. A good pair of tutorials on making podcasts and vodcasts accessible is available through the High Tech Center of the College of the Redwoods. And from the Napa Valley Register comes a story about the growing number of students using MP3 players as a study tool.

If you are interested in checking out more podcasts on technology and access issues, check out our list of favorites in the right column of this blog -->

AT Wiki (I just like the sound of it ..ATWiki...ATWiki...ATWiki...)

The Georgia Tech Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA) - caretakers of the National Public website of Assistive Technology has put up a Wiki devoted to all things Adaptive, Assistive and otherwise having to do with Access Technology!

Early in the history of this blog I encourged the membership of ATHEN to take on such an endeavor. That was when Wiki's were in their infancy (y'know - about a year ago) and since then I have developed a greater appreciation for what goes into them. They are a lot of hard work!

So now I encourage all members of ATHEN to join the AT Wiki as an Author.

Ken Sawicki Video on Demand

Alt-Media listserv member Ken Sawicki of Antelope Valley Community College (by all means one of the coolest college names around) guest lectures in an Intro to Computer class and was captured on video this year. True to his AT roots - here are his comments:

Since October is disabilities awareness month, I thought I'd post this... It needs to be captioned, and perhaps have some descriptive video, but it's a good start.

'Tis a pity the technology upstages him I could make some comment about how only a blind guy would wear white to be filmed in front of a projector screen - but that might come off as insensitive. And insensitive is something I am never accused of being

What the world needs now -- is OCR ... sweet OCR....

The uber-geeks of Google have announced their intention to release (re-release?) Tesseract OCR. Interesting, but nothing to get very excited about at this point - unless you are truly into the whole open-source/linux movement. There may be promise here one day - especially considering that everything Google touches tends to turn to gold. The Google team brings to mind a slew of Indiana Jones types scouring the digital-Amazon (the river, not the shop-at-home site) for lost relics of a bygone era.

Outside of the announcement by Google I had a hellava time finding anything on "Tesseract OCR". Plenty of neat stuff on Tesseracts, but not much on the OCR namesake - and I have the library resources of a major university to play with. I am actually suprised I did not find more flash based sites with Tesseracts - it would seem that math types would spend more time creating little tessies and releasing them into the wild - but they are all probably playing with SodaRace.

I finally found something on Linux.com that provides a fairly decent overview of the program (history, what it does, tech notes, etc.). This article puzzles me as it seems like these folks have been hiding in a server closet for years having never heard of some of the exceptional commercial OCR programs available in 2006 instead of harkening back to a program that was "one of the top-tier performers at UNLV's OCR competition in 1995"

NINTEEN-NINETY-FIVE!!! Are you sh**ting me?!?! And there are people out in the world excited about resurrecting this thing. What - I ask - is the point! I remember OCR technology in 1995 and it sucked compared to what we have today. Give me my Abbyy Fine Reader and a sweet scanner anyday over some long forgotten OpenSource OCR program.

The SourceForge.net dowload site provides merely a one-line description: "A commercial quality OCR engine originally developed at HP between 1985 and 1995. In 1995, this engine was among the top 3 evaluated by UNLV. It was open-sourced by HP and UNLV in 2005." Of course it was open-sourced by UNLV - they were probably cleaning out old storage and figured something this good should not be tossed. Hey, I know - let's give it to Google (he, he) they'll take anything! After all - it did win their in-house competition more than a decade ago. And, of course, we all know how well things are going over at HP - they have bigger things to worry about then where UNLV tosses their trash. [off the record - UNLV will only acknowledge a long-term platonic relationship with Tesseract].

Thanks Google - but I'll pass. Please bring us more nifty stuff like the Google Personalized HomePage. I have basically shunned all other options and am working on moving several years worth of PDA dated into the trusted hands of Google. If you have not yet discovered the tabs in the GPHP you are truly missing out! I am also very much looking forward to where Google Scholar is headed - even the reference librarian for my program is excited.

The Short and Long of MP3 Math

Alt-Media Listserv patron Scott Mcafee of the College of the Canyons asks:

What is the best software for creating "MP3 Math"? How does one even scan the math; what program recognizes all of the symbols and the structure of the book? Am I going to have to type in each page myself, or is there a simple solution out there for converting a text based Math book into audio format?

ATHEN expert on such matters Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich provided quite the blog-worthy answer to Scott's dilemma:

The short answer to converting a math book to MP3 is "no." The longer answer is below.

Math is not easy to convert to speech. For one thing, there are no synthesized voices that can read math zymology, so if the student is needing to hear "x squared," you would have to write those words out in English in place of the symbol. The symbol x followed by a superscripted 2 would be read "ex two."

More advanced symbols are not verbalized at all and can, in fact, crash the Text To Speech system. One cannot, for instance, create a math book using the HTCTU Phoneticom tool.

Alternatively, you can relatively quickly create a Web page of MathML that can be read with a combination of TextHelp and MathPlayer. Sean Keegan [of the HTCTU] just did a presentation on this method at AHEAD 2006 and may be able to send you some materials *. The only way to create an MP3 from that, however, would be to capture the audio out stream from the computer as the page is being read in real time--a time consuming process.

Math can also be converted to a program called WinTriangle, which can be used on the computer; however, this program also linearizes equations (i.e., takes them out of their spatial orientation and reworks them in a straight line) and it takes some getting used to.

Whichever solution you use, you would have to scan the book and OCR it (possibly with Infty, which is a math OCR plug-in). You would then need to convert the book using a math equation editor--either MathType (an MS Word plug in) or Scientific Notebook. It is a labor-intensive process. A math book could easily require a hundred hours (or more) of processing time.
If you are looking for a quick solution, then send the book to RFB&D. They will create a DAISY book for you. I believe that gh Braille may also convert math, but I'm not sure. I do know that it may cost you a lot of money to have them do it.

*Sean Keegan of the HTCTU did a presentation at the AHEAD conference [in July '06] on
Creating Accessible Math for the Web Using MathType.

• Mathtype integrates into MS Word as an equation editor
• You can copy/paste equations from the MathType interface to Scientific Notebook in a variety of formats (MathML, Tex, LaTex, etc.).
• Using an export feature in MathType, you can export MS Word documents as Web pages with the equations in the document retained as MathML on the Web page.
• If you view the Web page in IE, you need a free plug-in called MathPlayer to view, speak, enlarge the math equations. Just right-click on the equation and select "speak equation" to hear the equation read with a text-to-speech voice.
• If you are using a screen-reader or Read/Write Gold, then all you need to have is MathPlayer installed to speak the equations (no right-click necessary).
• If you view the Web page in Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox, you will need to install MathML fonts in order to view the math equations.
• Sean has uploaded a test page where you can see MathML in action using either IE (with MathPlayer) or Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox. [NOTE: this file will download onto your computer and you will need the free plug-in as noted above]

Sean advises:

I think it is VERY important to realize that text-to-speech reading of math equation works O.K. when the equation is simple. As soon as you begin to get more complex equations, you are really limited by the ability of the text-to-speech engines to read/interpret MathML content. To really derive useful recordings of math equations, I would suggest [working through] RFB&D as they have individuals trained to narrate as well as content experts for the subject matter.

For those of you truly interested in Math MP3's of another nature - I recommend googling "Math Rock", "Mathcore", or for that math'r "Tech Metal".

Handheld device will help the blind read

Kurzweil National Federation of the Blind Reader has gotten quite a bit of ink on the listservs. Though a bit pricey at $3,500 - the price is sure to come down as popularity grows. Several ATHEN members and others on the listservs are doing some Beta testing on this and other products.