assistive technology

See amazing new technologies that give Internet access to disabled people.

About Victor Tsaran:

Victor Tsaran is one of those people whose story makes you stop in your tracks. He grew up in a Ukrainian orphanage and is now a talented computer engineer
in the U.S. He's an accomplished musician and songwriter. And he also happens to be blind.

There are more than 50 million people in the U.S. with disabilities, including blindness, hearing-impairments, mobility difficulties and cognitive and neurological
problems knowing how disabled people use the Web is the first step to making the Web accessible.

Victor runs a special program at Yahoo! specifically developed to help people understand the various assistive technologies that are available to help those
with disabilities use the web.

Resources for the Blind, Inc. (RBI) in collaboration with IBM Philippines concluded the 8th National Computer Camp for Blind Students. Twenty (20) visually
impaired students from high school and college levels gathered for a week-long basic training in computer literacy – computer applications,
such as keyboard skills, word processing, web page creation, social Internet networks (Facebook & Friendster), and the use of adaptive software that enable
individuals to use computers regardless of blindness or visual impairment. This year’s participating students came from various schools across Luzon, Visayas
and Mindanao.

The training took place at the IBM Plaza, the computer giant’s headquarters located in Eastwood City Cyberpark in Libis, Quezon City last November 2-6,
2009. More than 170 visually impaired students from all over the country were trained under the program since its introduction in 2001. The Computer Eyes
training program is an exemplary model showing how technology has been bridging the gap for the visually impaired and the digital divide in the Philippines.

As we embark on another decade most of us take surfing the web for granted. But for the nearly eight million people* in the UK who have health conditions
such as blindness or visual impairment, colour blindness, hearing impairment, dyslexia or mobility impairment, this simple everyday task can be an extremely
frustrating experience.

The reason behind this exasperation is almost certainly the fact that many websites have not been built to make them easily accessible to disabled people,
many of whom are increasingly using assistive technology to help them glean information from the internet. This software can provide users with a speech
or Braille output via a screen reader, text magnification to make reading online content easier and allow them to move around websites using their voices
instead of a keyboard or mouse.

Greetings from Brazil. I'm currently attending the Encontro Internacional de Tecnologia conference. This conference explores how to obtain and promote assistive technology in Brazil. I was invited to speak about assistive technologies, where I discussed the relation of assistive technologies and accessible mainstream technologies.

I have worked with many people who started losing their vision but still wanted to be able to use the computer. It is not to say that it is an easy task, but it is definitely possible to go through this challenge, and keep using the computer. Actually, the computer can be great to perform tasks which you were able to do with perfect vision.

Bristol/Hong Kong-based Ocean Blue Software, a specialist digital TV software house, has developed “talking” digital TV technology for set top boxes and televisions that could potentially benefit millions of people who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, severely dyslexic, and elderly.

On June 8, 2009 a href="http://www.apple.com">Apple has announced the new, iPhone 3G S it's newest iPhone. Instead of reviewing the features, I will discuss why is it a great advancement in the field of accessibility. Apple has implemented many accessibility features into it, which might become a large breakthrough for people to access mainstream, off the shelf products, without having to use extra assistive technologies.

How Can You Help When Somebody Becomes Disabled In Your Environment?

You can often hear that due to an accident or illness, somebody becomes disabled. The most frequent question I get from people is that somebody just recently became disabled in their family or circle of friends and they would like to help, but they are not sure how. Either because they don't know what is the best thing to do, or they have an idea, but it appears to be very expensive.

One of the most frequently overlooked disabilities is cognitive disability. Often times, it is not even listed when talking about disabilities, and legislation does not cover it as other kinds of disabilities. Nevertheless, many people have cognitive disabilities, and the lack of accessibility makes it extremely difficult for them to use the computers.

There are people who have very limited ability to move their hands, or they cannot use their hands at all. Fortunately, computers are available to them as well. The combination of built in operating system functionality, voice recognition systems and switches among other assistive solutions can help them interact with their computer.