Blind

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.

August 5, 2010, Washington, D.C.:-- COAT celebrates the passage of the "Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010" (S. 3304)
by the U.S. Senate today by unanimous consent. Due to the extraordinary efforts of advocates across the country and in Washington, D.C., COAT has secured
a monumental step forward in accessible technology.

Could a blind person drive a car? Researchers are trying to make that far-fetched notion a reality.

The National Federation of the Blind in the US and Virginia Tech plan to demonstrate a prototype vehicle next year equipped with technology that helps a
blind person drive a car independently.

The technology, called "nonvisual interfaces," uses sensors to let a blind driver manoeuvre a car based on information transmitted to him about the surroundings:
whether another car or object is nearby, in front or in an adjacent lane.

Smartphones can be pretty clueless when it comes to blind or visually impaired users.

For millions of consumers with normal vision, smartphones offer almost effortless conference calling, e-mailing and Internet browsing. They make it easy
to find a gas station, a rental car or a recipe. Vast music libraries and video games are expected features for a device with a $200 to $600 price tag.

But for many in the blind and visually impaired community, the absence of physical buttons on most smartphones makes interactions with some devices virtually
impossible.

Recently the US Senate held a congressional hearing on legislation to improve access to the Internet and other technologies for blind and deaf individuals. In the US House of Representatives, the Committee
on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on their version of this legislation called the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, by updating
the statutory provisions found in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990,
the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Committee Chairman, Henry Waxman, said that that this hearing was ‘the first step in a process to ensure that Americans with disabilities can more fully
participate in our evolving Internet-based society.” Chairman Waxman stated that he wanted the hearing “to outline and clarify where agreement exists …
and where some adjustment may be necessary.”

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of blind people, and three blind students who have applied or
are considering applying to law school in California-Deepa Goraya, Bruce J.
Sexton, and Claire Stanley-filed an amended lawsuit yesterday against the Law School Admissions Council and four California law schools for violating
provisions of the California Disabled Persons Act, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The suit was filed because the law schools require or encourage applicants to use a centralized Internet-based application process provided by the Law
School Admissions Council (LSAC) through its Web site (
www.lsac.org )
that is inaccessible to blind law school applicants. Blind students must
seek sighted assistance to use the LSAC system. Furthermore, blind law school applicants cannot perform other tasks on the LSAC Web site, such as
downloading official study materials for the Law School Admissions Test
(LSAT) that is required by almost all U.S. law schools.

Before you think I went totally crazy, let me explain where this question is coming from. Recently I was checking this blog's traffics statistics, and I found that somebody asked this same question in Google, which led to this blog: "Can blind people see?". First, I thought it is just some nonsense, they can't. That's why they are blind. but the more I thought about it, maybe for some reason somebody asked this question in all sincerity, so let me answer it.

When somebody is blind, there are whole lot of things which are given for many, but the lack of sight takes it away. By default, blind people are not able to enjoy many things which eye-sight provides. They cannot enjoy a harmony of colors, cannot explore the environment farther than their arms' reach, they cannot read regular print books, etc. However, as these things are very important to function in life, many technologies were developed to compensate for the lack of site. Here I will discuss some, and will provide links for additional reading.

This is one of the most common question asked by sighted people when they meet or hear about blind computer users. Here, I’ll not only answer this question, but I’ll discuss where it may have come from. I’ll also add in some interesting facts along the way.

We all know by now that blind people love accessible web sites. But what most people are wondering about is how exactly do blind people surf the Net in the first place. Do they browse web sites like sighted people? Do they have different techniques?

Here, we’ll explain in detail how blind persons read and navigate web pages. Helping us out in this discussion is Ed. Ed is totally blind and is currently learning how to read web pages. Today he wants to visit a few web sites, but first, there is something he needs to run in his computer.