Technology

Having a disability can truly affect many aspects of a person’s life. But try to ask yourself this: What if you had, not one, but two disabilities? You may probably think to yourself, “I’d most likely just stay at home and have someone to take care of me 24/7.”

You are not the only one having this opinion, as many people would think of the same thing. But let us read on and find out if this would really be the case.

In most electronic devices today, sound is included as a primary or secondary feature. This provides a good deal of convenience for users as it enables them to be aware of certain events without looking at the device.

However, sound may not be that useful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. So to solve this issue, providers of electronic devices have thought of an ingenious feature that can be used when sound is not a good option. This feature incorporates vibration which is activated during specific events.

Imagine yourself without the ability to hear, not even the slightest sound. How would you carry out your daily tasks and activities? What would you do to complete them properly?

We’ll try to answer these questions and much more by following a person with a hearing disability for one day. We will focus on how he uses technology in his daily life.

Through the last three weeks, we followed Lisa, who is a blind woman, and examined how she uses technology to help her. Today, we will start talking about people with low vision.

When talking about sight-related disabilities, most people would quickly think of blind individuals. There is, however, another similar disability, and it involves limited or low vision. A low vision individual does not have perfect eyesight, but at the same time, he cannot be considered as totally blind.

We’ll find out more about this disability by following a person having this visual impairment. Here, we will take a look at the disability-related issues he encounters and how he uses mainstream and assistive technologies to solve these issues.

In part 2, we followed Lisa, a blind woman and examined what kind of challenges she faces using everyday technologies, such as the computer, a mobile phone, the internet, or just reading the menu in a restaurant. In this part, we will see how Lisa does her groceries, reads the mail, or watches movies.

Before you pay for a movie ticket or for a new pair of shoes, you would always make sure you’re handing the seller the right amount. This is really simple, you just have to give a quick look at your money, take out the right amount, and that's it.

But for people who cannot see, this becomes a difficult task. Here, we will talk about the problem faced by blind people, and discuss the possible solutions for this issue.

We just looked at what is Braille, and how it is used in modern technologies. Now, let's see if Braille is in practice a good idea, or worth using for blind people.

Recently, we have seen a significant decline in Braille literacy among blind people in the U.S, and also in some other countries. At the same time, we have seen instances wherein blind people attain success in education and employment. This led to the belief that blind persons can now do without Braille.

Let us find out if Braille is indeed something which the blind can live without.

In part 1, we followed Lisa, a blind woman and examined what kind of challenges she faces using everyday technologies, such as a coffee maker, an alarm clock or a microwave. In this part, we will follow Lisa to work and see how she uses her computer, her mobile phone, or how she orders from a restaurant.

Let's look at an ordinary day with the eyes of a blind person. There is so much to take for granted which is not given to others, for example, because they can't see. What happens with people who are totally blind? All of a sudden, many things are done very differently. Sometimes, accessible technologies will solve the problem. This includes any technology which can be used equally well by those who can see and those who can't. In other cases, special technologies need to be used to achieve the same that others do just by using their sight. This is technology which is specifically developed for blind people.

Let's follow a blind person through a whole work day. For the sake of the example, we will call her Lisa.

We will examine how technology helps Lisa throughout her whole day. We will not discuss anything else, but instances, where information technology can help her. We won't look at any other issues she might be facing. There are many more challenges we could talk about, but in order to overcome those, information technology itself will not solve the problem. In this post, I will only demonstrate how much information technology can make a difference.

There are so many instances where, through minor modifications, you can make a mainstream product accessible. Nevertheless, there are also situations where your only option is assistive technology.

Here, we will take a look at situations wherein creating assistive technologies is appropriate, and situations where mainstream technologies are sufficient for persons with disabilities.