[Electronics-Talk] FW: [GTTsupport] The promise and pitfalls of assistive technologies for people with…

Tue Jun 18 19:56:28 UTC 2019

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From: Madison Martin via Electronics-Talk
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Subject: [Electronics-Talk] FW: [GTTsupport] The promise and pitfalls of 
assistive technologies for people with…

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From: GTTsupport at groups.io [mailto:GTTsupport at groups.io] On Behalf Of Albert 
Ruel
Sent: June-17-19 4:35 PM
To: GTTsupport at groups.io
Subject: [GTTsupport] The promise and pitfalls of assistive technologies for 
people with…

The promise and pitfalls of assistive technologies for people with visual 
impairments
Author:
Date Written: Jun 6, 2019 at 5:00 PM
Date Saved: 6/17/19, 2:12 PM
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5164698 Apps and gadgets designed to help 
visually impaired people can improve users’ quality of life ー at a cost 
Chelsea Mohler is legally blind. She guesses people offer her help upward of 
10 times per day - help she most often doesn't need. While she wants to be 
respectful toward others, she also finds the ongoing offers taxing. And that 
makes asking for help when she really does need it even more complicated. 
She speaks with Piya about the assumptions wrapped up in the contract of 
help, and how a new technology is helping her obtain support on her own 
terms. 16:16 Born with a vision impairment, Chelsea Mohler is accustomed to 
using assistive technologies. But in recent years, one particular innovation 
has offered a new kind of help with tasks such as taking an Uber, ordering a 
coffee or picking out an outfit.
Aira is a paid service that provides blind and low vision individuals with 
telephone access to agents who describe users' surroundings to them in real 
time.
ADVERTISEMENT
In Mohler's case, an Aira agent is able to tell her what they're seeing by 
way of her cellphone camera, which she straps to her chest.
"It's been pretty life-changing," Mohler told Out in the Open host Piya 
Chattopadhyay.
When sacrificing personal privacy is worth it Of course, inviting a paid 
agent somewhere in North America to watch your every move means kissing much 
of your privacy goodbye. While Aira is active, users' phones transmit not 
just video, but also data from other apps like Uber and Lyft. Location 
information is collected and screen sharing is routine.
But users like Mohler say the service provided is well worth it.
"What I love about it is that it's a paid service and… there's an 
expectation when you pay for help that it's of a certain quality."
Watch a video feed of Chelsea Mohler using Aira as she makes her way to the 
CBC building in Toronto:
To help mitigate concerns around privacy, Aira offers a "privacy mode" 
function, which allows users to pause their assigned agent's access to 
device video and audio. When they're ready to resume the call, they can 
deactivate this feature. For example, a user might activate "privacy mode" 
while changing into clothes that an Aira agent helped them pick out.
Mary Fernandez, an Aira user from New Jersey, says the app's agents do an 
excellent job of maintaining professional boundaries and that their 
around-the-clock accessibility has helped facilitate her return to school.
"As a graduate student, you don't keep normal hours," she said. "Aira 
reduces the amount of help that you need from other people and gives you the 
ability to get that help at whatever time and place you need it."
The unanticipated costs of assistive technologies What does concern 
Fernandez is cost. Aira users pay between $99 and $329 US per month, 
depending on how many minutes they use. Right now, Fernandez's university is 
footing that bill and she hopes an employer might one day do the same. But 
she says for a lot of people, that's simply out of reach.
"That's extremely prohibitive considering that the majority of blind people 
in the United States are unemployed."
A 2018 report from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind states the 
unemployment rate - defined as those who are not working but have been 
looking for work within the last four weeks - among people with sight loss 
to be 15.8 per cent, or approximately triple that of the general population. 
It found the full-time employment rate of the aforementioned group to be 28 
per cent.
>From glasses that capture video and display it on high-resolution screens 
directly in front of users' eyes, to apps that help identify objects and 
text captured in photos, technological solutions to low vision are 
everywhere.
But like Aira, many of these interventions are costly and rely on the 
innovations of individual developers or cash-strapped startups.
In January, Albert Ruel, an advisor to the Canadian Council of the Blind, 
warned CBC's On the Coast that the proliferation of assistive technologies 
has led to reduced interest in comparatively accessible solutions such as 
braille, which don't rely on voice technology, phones, smart glasses and 
other gadgetry.
Wouldn't it be great if I could have a more inclusive experience in my job, 
and within education, and use Aira for more enriching experiences like going 
hiking?
Meanwhile, legislative efforts to make accessibility the norm are faltering.
In Ontario, where Mohler lives, a report done in March recently found that 
the province's now 14-year-old Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities 
Act has failed to deliver on many of its promises. Among other concerns, its 
author — former Ont. Lieutenant Governor David Onley — flagged that many 
organizations are struggling to meet accessibility standards when it comes 
to website design.
Fernandez says the same is true of the U.S., where persistent issues of 
inaccessibility create a need for interventions like Aira where there 
shouldn't be one.
"I don't want to put Aira out of business, but wouldn't it be great if I 
could have a more inclusive experience in my job, and within education, and 
use Aira for more enriching experiences like going hiking?"
• When you're deaf, it's hard to admit you don't like it, says woman who got 
cochlear implants
'There's not a power imbalance'
Despite the costs and occasional frustrations, Mohler and Fernandez agree 
that Aira has transformed their lives for the better, particularly since it 
helps mitigate some of the social difficulties associated with asking for 
and receiving help.
"It's different than [asking] a friend because there's not a power 
imbalance," Mohler explained. "You're paying for the service. It's their job 
to assist you. And of course they want to do their job and do it well 
because they probably want to keep it."
Mohler says that navigating the world as a blind person means dealing with a 
lot of assumptions — about whether you need help, what kind of help you 
need, and when you're perfectly fine on your own.
She says Aira takes some of those assumptions out of the equation.
"Let's find ways that we can receive assistance in an empowering way."
With files from CBC News. This story was written in conjunction with the Out 
in the Open episode "Support Systems".

Thx, Albert

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