assistive technology

One second is all it takes to know what time it is. That is, if you can see your watch or clock. On the other hand, if you are blind, have low vision, or are deaf blind, it would be a very different situation. You may even think of resorting to the help of others in doing this vital task due to the disability you have.

There are, however, a number of assistive technologies you can use to independently know the time. Below we talk about some of the most common time-related devices and software for blind and visually impaired persons.

ThinkContacts is a new mobile application being developed by Nokia which would allow a disabled person to select a contact from a list and place a phone
call to that person using only their mind. The app, which is designed for Nokia's N900 Maemo platform, works with an accompanying headset that reads the
user's brainwaves to measure attention levels. If the attention level is higher than 70%, the software scrolls to the next contact in the list. If the
attention level is higher than 80%, the software makes a phone call to the selected contact.

It's one of the latest developments in making accessible smartphone applications for the disabled, the blind and deaf.

Mumbai: At the St Xavier’s Resource Centre at Fort, a visually challenged group of boys and girls sits before computer screens wearing headphones. But,
before you mistake them for a bunch of students bunking classes to surf the net, you can spot them taking printouts in Braille.

The centre that started in September, 2003 has helped the visually challenged make significant in-roads into the web world, sparing them exclusion from
the e-world of books, email, social networking sites and search engines. “You cannot change every obstacle but you can start by filling small gaps,” said
Dr Sam Taraporevala, director of the centre.

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 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.