[gui-talk] Fwd: E-Access Bulletin, February 2010: Braille Struggles Under Threat From Audio Technologies.

[Steve Pattison]

 From:    Dan Jellinek dan at headstar.com
 To:      eaccess at headstar.com

+++E-ACCESS BULLETIN
Access To Technology For All, Regardless Of Ability
- ISSUE 122, February 2010.

A Headstar Publication.
http://www.headstar.com/eab/ .

Please forward this free bulletin to others (subscription details 
at the end). We conform to the accessible Text Email 
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++Issue 122 Contents.

01: Braille Struggles Under Threat From Audio Technologies 
- Exclusive translation of report from Italian newspaper La 
Repubblica

02: Proposed US Law Would Force Product Accessibility
- Consumer electronics would have to include non-visual 
interfaces.

03: Researchers Plan To Automate Web Image Description
- UK academic network launches globally pioneering work.

News in Brief: 04: Diary Date - e-Access '10 event date set; 
05: Tablet Features - Apple's iPad and accessibility; 06: 
Southampton Toolbar - internet accessibility download

++Section Two: Focus.
The Decline of Braille: Doomsday For The Dots? The advent 
of information technology and audio learning has provoked a 
decline in the take-up of Braille, with the traditional Braille 
system being altered to provide for the age of the internet. In 
an article for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, translated 
exclusively for E-Access Bulletin, Alessandra Retico 
investigates whether we should fight to retain Braille, and 
how new technologies may be able to complement and 
increase the effectiveness of the system.

[Contents ends].


++Section One: News.

+01: Braille Struggles Under Threat From Audio 
Technologies.

The future of Braille is being threatened by the rise of digital 
audio technologies, but it continues to hold valuable potential 
to enhance the lives of blind people, according to an article in 
the Italian newspaper La Repubblica translated exclusively 
for this month's E-Access Bulletin by Margherita Giordano.

Braille could become a "dead language" as new technologies 
such as telephone services with synthetic voices to read 
newspapers; talking computers and audio-books mean the 
tactile alphabet is being used less and less, the article says. 
These days, only 25% of Italian people who are blind 
(362,000) and 10% of blind Americans (1,300,000) know 
Braille, compared with a figure in the US of more than half of 
all blind children in the 1950s, according to a recent issue of 
the New York Times.

Braille has been adapted for the computer age with an eight-
dot version corresponding to the digital 'ASCII' screen 
characters, used in refreshable Braille displays that translate 
lines of text on a computer screen. However these displays 
remain very expensive and are not as popular among young 
people as text-to-speech tools, the article says. "More 
prosaically, why should you read Harry Potter in 36 volumes 
when you can listen to it in MP3 format?" 

Braille's supporters, on the other hand, cite scientific studies 
that show the importance of reading in a child's cognitive 
development. They say it is a way to emancipate the blind, 
offering independent and unmediated access to knowledge.

The way forward could lie in a combination of languages and 
techniques: "old and new, dots and bits", the article says.

Tommaso Daniele, Chairman of the Italian Union of the 
Blind (Unione Italiana Ciechi), told La Repubblica that new 
technologies have the power not to destroy Braille but to 
enhance it. "We deny the assumption that they are 
competitive. The two . . . work together, they are 
complementary. Technology is revolutionising the lives and 
the autonomy of blind people, allowing them to surf the net 
and to read texts that would be too bulky and expensive if 
translated into Braille". 

But Braille has its unique strengths too, Daniele says. "It is 
original, universal, it is a direct way to access 
communication...reading is slower, but allows a better 
learning process. It does not need any mediation".

NOTE: For the translation of the full article by Alessandra 
Retico for La Repubblica see Section Two, this issue. 
Margherita Giordano is the translator of the Italian edition of 
our newsletter, which is supported by the Cavazza Institute of 
Bologna.

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://bit.ly/9t5O3L


+02: Proposed US Law Would Force Product Accessibility.

Manufacturers and suppliers of consumer technology devices 
in the US could be forced to make all their products 
accessible to blind consumers, if proposed legislation is 
passed by Congress.  

Introduced by Jan Schakowsky, a Democratic House of 
Representatives member from Illinois, the Technology Bill of 
Rights for the Blind Act 2010 ( 
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h4533/text ) is based 
around creating accessible alternatives to what it calls 
"increasingly complex user interfaces" found in consumer 
electronics. 

Many of these devices, from televisions and dishwashers to 
office equipment such as photocopiers and fax machines, are 
operated by touch-screen technology or other visual displays 
that are not accessible to blind people, the bill says. "This 
growing threat to the independence and productivity of blind 
people is unnecessary because electronic devices can easily 
be constructed with user interfaces that are not exclusively 
visual", it says. 

The draft law builds on guidelines set out in Section 508 of 
the Rehabilitation Act, which requires US Government bodies 
to engage in accessible IT and electronics procurement ( See: 
http://www.section508.gov ). 

The bill is divided into three parts: first, to commission study 
to determine non-visual control methods for consumer 
electronics; second, to create a set of "minimum non-visual 
access standards" to which devices should conform; and 
third, to establish an "office of non-visual access 
compliance" to carry out the study and enforce the access 
standards. 

Peter Abrahams, accessibility and usability practice leader at 
IT research organisation Bloor Research ( 
http://www.bloorresearch.com/ ), told E-Access Bulletin that 
as well as being a significant step for accessible 
manufacturing of consumer electronics, the bill could, in 
theory, also be used to enforce website accessibility. "I can 
imagine you could say that [a website] is the interface to a 
product or service, and therefore it has to be accessible and 
be covered by the same bill. My view is that in the future it 
could be used to push [the web accessibility] agenda as well." 
 

However, it may take some time for manufacturers and 
website owners to be affected by the technology bill, even if 
it is passed, warned Abrahams. The bill needs to pass both 
houses of the Congress by a majority vote, before being 
examined and signed by President Obama. This process, 
combined with setting up the office of non-visual access 
compliance and carrying out the study and report as set out in 
the bill, means it could be several years before the proposed 
legislation comes into effect. 

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://bit.ly/cRZVrs


+03: Researchers Plan To Automate Web Image Description. 

Groundbreaking work to try to enable computers to describe 
visual content on web pages begun this month with the 
formation of a new UK academic research network.  

The network is aiming to develop a web browser plug-in 
which would be able to analyse an image and describe it to a 
visually impaired user. It is one of a number of projects 
exploring computer vision and computer language 
programming to be undertaken by the new V&L Net ( 
http://www.vlnet.org.uk/ ) - the Vision and Language 
Network of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research 
Council (EPSRC). 

The network, which will run for three years, is co-ordinated 
by Dr Anja Belz from The University of Brighton. She told E-
Access Bulletin that it was important to improve web 
accessibility from the user side, as many site owners still 
ignore legal requirements to deliver accessible pages. "We're 
looking at developing a general purpose tool which would 
give visually impaired internet users some degree of access to 
any visual information that's out there." 

The project is thought to be the first of its kind and the 
completed tool would make a significant improvement on 
current accessible web browsers or extensions to traditional 
screen-readers that try to make sense of an image file name, 
Belz said. However, she said it is likely to be many years 
before image description capability is achieved to satisfactory 
quality and the tool is made available. 

Other V&L Net projects to assist the visually impaired include 
a tool that describes the colour and pattern of an object (an 
extension to current 'colour teller' software), which could be 
available in the next five to 10 years; and a product label 
reader which scans information on packaging, such as food 
labels, and reads it to the user, a task currently difficult to 
achieve with standard optical character recognition 
technology unless the product is completely flat.

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://bit.ly/99GolJ


++News in Brief:

+04: Diary Date: A date has been set for e-Access '10, the 
conference and exhibition on access to technology for people 
with disabilities, hosted by E-Access Bulletin's publisher 
Headstar. The event, which features workshops, case studies 
and seminars from leading industry figures, will take place on 
24 June at Earls Court, London. To register and for more 
information, visit:
http://bit.ly/atNK9r 

+05: Tablet Features: The new iPad 'tablet' computer from 
Apple contains several new accessibility features for disabled 
users: increased magnification of many programs currently 
used on the smaller iPhone and iPod Touch; an optional 
external keyboard, increasing accessibility for blind users and 
others that find touch-screen operation difficult; and built-in 
speakers, meaning those with mild hearing impairments may 
be able to use the iPad without external speakers. The iPad 
also contains all the accessibility features already built in to 
the iPhone, including a 'VoiceOver' screen-reader (though 
this will include fewer languages than the iPhone); full-screen 
zoom; white-on-black display option; mono audio; and 
closed-caption support:
http://bit.ly/b22Q8U 

+06: Southampton Toolbar: A toolbar to increase internet 
accessibility, including social networking sites, which is 
compatible with any web browser has been developed by 
researchers at The University of Southampton. The Joint 
Information Systems Committee (JISC) 'TechDis' Toolbar 
features text-to-speech, simple magnification and a spell-
checker, and can be installed onto websites or downloaded by 
users:
http://bit.ly/c2iJtw

[Section One ends].


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++Section Three: Focus

+07: The Decline of Braille: Doomsday For The Dots?

by Alessandra Retico 

They are letters you can touch: six little dots you brush with 
your fingers, 64 combinations to encode the world. But now 
Braille, the blind person's Esperanto, is set to become a dead 
language. 

New technologies mean the tactile alphabet is being used less 
and less, as sound takes its place: technologies such as 
telephone services with synthetic voices to read newspapers; 
talking computers and audio-books. Many young blind 
people no longer learn the physical grammar that would allow 
them to communicate with any other user in any language, 
preferring to put on their headphones. These days, only 25% 
of Italian people who are blind (362,000) and 10% of blind 
Americans (1,300,000) know Braille (compared with a figure 
in the US of more than half of all blind children in the 1950s, 
according to a recent issue of the New York Times). Invented 
in 1829 by Louis Braille, who became blind at the age of six 
and inspired by a military code for the transmission of 
messages at night, the system still survives, but faces strong 
competition from information technology. 

So, is it goodbye? Not quite, but the six dots that, for more 
than 180 years, have translated letters, musical notes, 
numbers and chemical formulas, are no longer enough. The 
old Braille has added more signs to conform to the language 
of the web: eight dots instead of six and 256 combinations in 
all, to allow blind people to read web pages. The translation 
from video screen to fingertips takes place by means of a 
refreshable Braille display, translating the words and icons 
appearing on the screen into relief text using tiny pins rising 
and falling, running information into a line of 20 to 80 
characters. 

Enhanced and enriched, this is the Braille of the internet age. 
But it is still very expensive, and not very popular: even if the 
National Health Service delivers these displays for free, 
young people prefer to use their ears to connect to the web.  

This is the era of sound. Marshall McLuhan argued that 
technology would bring Western culture back to a tribal and 
oral state: the decline of the world of writing would give birth 
to a post-literate generation. From the beginning, Braille has 
had its detractors, who considered it an arcane and marginal 
form of communication, a segregational code. Others have 
supported it as a way to emancipate the blind, offering 
independent and unmediated access to knowledge. But today, 
more prosaically, why should you read Harry Potter in 36 
volumes when you can listen to it in MP3 format? 

Should we worry? Braille's supporters cite many scientific 
studies that show the importance of reading in a child's 
cognitive development. For them, casting writing aside would 
be like returning to pre-Gutenberg times, when culture was in 
the hands of intellectuals and churchmen. But others argue 
that after all, we have only been reading for 6,000 years and 
mass literacy is a relatively recent phenomenon. The way 
forward could lie in a combination of languages: old and 
new, dots and bits. 

Tommaso Daniele, Chairman of the Italian Union of the 
Blind (Unione Italiana Ciechi), is among the supporters of the 
old reading system and has been struggling for many years to 
promote it, especially in schools. He argues that new 
technologies have not set Braille aside - if anything, they 
have enhanced it.

"We deny the assumption that they are competitive. The two . 
. . work together, they are complementary. Technology is 
revolutionising the lives and the autonomy of blind people, 
allowing them to surf the net and to read texts that would be 
too bulky and expensive if translated into Braille". 

But Braille has its unique strengths too, Daniele says. "It is 
original, universal, it is a direct way to access communication. 
It originated from a brilliant idea, which made it accessible to 
everybody. And it is very useful for training: reading is 
slower, but allows a better learning process. According to the 
Italian writer Camilleri, it is the only language that you can 
touch with your fingers. It does not need any mediation".

NOTE: This article by Alessandra Retico first appeared in 
Italian in the newspaper "La Repubblica" of 21 January 
(Copyright La Repubblica 2010). Many thanks to Margherita 
Giordano for this translation. 

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://bit.ly/b84WWr

[Section Two ends].


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[Special notice ends].


++End Notes.

+How to Receive the Bulletin.

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Please send comments on coverage or leads to Dan Jellinek 
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Copyright 2010 Headstar Ltd http://www.headstar.com .
The Bulletin may be reproduced as long as all parts including 
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is also cited.

+Personnel:
Editor - Dan Jellinek.
Reporter: Tristan Parker.
Editorial advisor - Kevin Carey.

ISSN 1476-6337.

[Issue 122 ends.]

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
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Skype:  steve1963
Twitter:  steve9782