IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2015 - 16

opinion

Mindy Hartman

T

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2015.2425812
Date of publication: 19 June 2015

16

Tools for the
Vision Impaired

M. HARTMAN

echnology has helped
to improve my life
in many ways. Talking products such
as alarm clock s,
thermometers, scales, caller ID, and
mp3 players have helped to simplify
my life. Additionally, more sophisticated devices with built-in Braille
displays have allowed me as a visually impaired person to experience
the benefits of personal computing.
Technology has greatly increased
the quality of my life and made me
extremely independent.
Yet someone could throw all the
technology in the world at me, and
it would not be useful if all they saw
was my blindness. Sighted people
more often than not make assumptions and decisions about the needs of
the blind. Many believe they know our
requirements and capabilities before
they even ask us questions about
how we do things or what adaptations
might be made, if we cannot function
optimally in a particular situation.
I have used so many different talking gadgets. However, the piece of
assistive technology I cannot bear to
be without is my Apex - a very powerful, portable notetaker with a builtin Braille display. I am a totally blind
Braille reader who only tolerates synthesized speech when I am forced to
use my laptop with a screen reader
for tasks I cannot do with the Apex.

I use the Apex for hours every day
because, with its built-in Braille display for output and Braille keyboard
for input, I can work more efficiently
just as a sighted person reads and
writes print. The Apex is also intuitively designed for the blind, making
it much easier to use than a regular
computer because one doesn't have
to learn a complicated set of commands to control the Braille display
or speech. I use the Apex to surf
the web, email, read books, take
notes, maintain my list of contacts,
keep track of my finances, and much
more. In fact, I am using my Apex to
write this article.
I use my laptop when I must visit
websites that are not accessible with
the Apex. This often happens when I
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

need to do online shopping, stream videos, attend webinars, and use Skype.
My pocket-size Victor Stream talking mp3 player is helpful when I want
to listen to podcasts or music on the
go and would otherwise be unable to
locate the specific files I want to hear.
A major challenge blind people
face is the full or partial inaccessibility of websites and programs that
do not work well with Braille displays and screen readers because
of too many graphics. When
no audio challenge is available,
Captcha is another insurmountable
challenge. The pace of change is so
rapid, that it seems to me that companies that design the hardware and
update the software for assistive technology simply cannot keep up. More
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june 2015



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