[il-talk] FW: [Nfb-announce] NYTimes: Interesting technology article

[Syed Yousufuddin]

> From: corbbo at gmail.com> To: corbbo at gmail.com> Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 14:55:20 -0500> Subject: [Nfb-announce] NYTimes: Interesting technology article> > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/business/04blind.html?pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper> > > The New York Times> > January 4, 2009> For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can’t> By MIGUEL HELFT> > MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.> > T. V. RAMAN was a bookish child who developed a love of math and > puzzles at an early age.> > That passion didn’t change after glaucoma took his eyesight at the age > of 14. What changed is the role that technology — and his own > innovations — played in helping him pursue his interests.> > A native of India, Mr. Raman went from relying on volunteers to read > him textbooks at a top technical university there to leading a largely > autonomous life in Silicon Valley, where he is a highly respected > computer scientist and an engineer at Google.> > Along the way, Mr. Raman built a series of tools to help him take > advantage of objects or technologies that were not designed with blind > users in mind. They ranged from a Rubik’s Cube covered in Braille to a > software program that can take complex mathematical formulas and read > them aloud, which became the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation at > Cornell. He also built a version of Google’s search service tailored > for blind users.> > Mr. Raman, 43, is now working to modify the latest technological > gadget that he says could make life easier for blind people: a touch- > screen phone.> > “What Raman does is amazing,” said Paul Schroeder, vice president for > programs and policy at the American Foundation for the Blind, which > conducts research on technology that can help visually impaired > people. “He is a leading thinker on accessibility issues, and his > capacity to design and alter technology to meet his needs is unique.”> > Some of Mr. Raman’s innovations may help make electronic gadgets and > Web services more user-friendly for everyone. Instead of asking how > something should work if a person cannot see, he says he prefers to > ask, “How should something work when the user is not looking at the > screen?”> > Such systems could prove useful for drivers or anyone else who could > benefit from eyes-free access to a phone. They could also appeal to > aging baby boomers with fading vision who want to keep using > technology they’ve come to depend on.> > Mr. Raman’s approach reflects a recognition that many innovations > designed primarily for people with disabilities have benefited the > broader public, said Larry Goldberg, who oversees the National Center > for Accessible Media at WGBH, the public broadcasting station in > Boston. They include curb cuts for wheelchairs, captions for > television broadcasts and optical character-recognition technology, > which was fine-tuned to create software that could read printed books > aloud and is now used in many computer applications, he said.> > With no buttons to guide the fingers on its glassy surface, the touch- > screen cellphone may seem a particularly daunting challenge. But Mr. > Raman said that with the right tweaks, touch-screen phones — many of > which already come equipped with GPS technology and a compass — could > help blind people navigate the world.> > “How much of a leap of faith does it take for you to realize that your > phone could say, ‘Walk straight and within 200 feet you’ll get to the > intersection of X and Y,’ ” Mr. Raman said. “This is entirely doable.”> > ADVOCATES for the blind have long complained that technology companies > have done a generally poor job of making their products accessible. > The Web, while opening many opportunities for blind people, is still > riddled with obstacles. And sophisticated screen-reader software, > which turns documents and Web pages into synthesized speech, can cost > more than $1,000. Even with a screen reader, many sites are hard to > navigate.> > Last year, the National Federation of the Blind reached a settlement > of a landmark class-action lawsuit against one company whose site > advocates found unusable, Target. In the settlement, the retailer > agreed to make its Web site accessible to blind people. The federation > assesses the usability of Web sites and currently certifies only a > handful as being fully accessible.> > One challenge is that technology often evolves much faster than the > guidelines that ensure Web sites work well with screen readers. In > December, the World Wide Web Consortium, an Internet standards group, > released Version 2.0 of its accessibility guidelines for Web sites. > The previous version dated back to 1999, when the Web consisted > largely of static Web pages rather than interactive applications.> > Obstacles on the Web take many forms. A common one is the Captcha, a > security feature consisting of a string of distorted letters and > numbers that users are supposed to read and retype before they > register for a new service or send e-mail. Few Web sites offer audio > Captchas.> > Some pages are just poorly designed, like e-commerce sites where the > “checkout” button is an image that isn’t labeled so screen readers can > find it.> > “The overwhelming percentage of the industry really hasn’t stepped up > to the plate to provide the blindness community with equal access to > their products,” said Eric Bridges, director of advocacy and > governmental affairs at the American Council of the Blind. Mr. Bridges > and other advocates argue that accessibility should be built into new > technologies, not added as an afterthought.> > People with other disabilities face similar challenges on the > Internet. “On the deafness side, the frustration is huge because of > all of the video out there without captions,” Mr. Goldberg said.> > MR. RAMAN, who before joining Google in 2005 worked at Adobe Systems > and as a researcher at I.B.M., is intimately familiar with > accessibility problems, both personally and professionally. In 2006, > he developed a version of Google’s search engine that gives a slight > preference to Web sites that work well with screen readers. The system > had to test millions of Web pages.> > “You wouldn’t have found a single page that fully complied with the > accessibility guidelines,” Mr. Raman said. Still, the system could > detect which pages worked reasonably well with screen readers.> > The service is not being used as widely as he had hoped. Still, it has > had an impact. Several Web site operators whose sites weren’t showing > up prominently in Google search results asked Mr. Raman how they could > fix their sites so they would rank better.> > The service includes a screen magnifier that enlarges individual > search results. Mr. Raman says the feature is intended to help low- > vision users, but it could also prove useful to a much larger > population, especially on cellphones and other devices with small > screens.> > For his own use, he has built a highly customized system that allows > him efficient access to much of what he needs on his PC and on the > Web, stripping out anything that could slow him down. For instance, > the system goes directly to the article text on the news sites he > reads regularly, bypassing navigational links and other features found > on most Web pages.> > On a recent day, Mr. Raman was working on a research paper about the > future structure of the Web. A monitor hung above the desk. It is > usually turned off, unless he wants to show a colleague or visitor > what he is working on. He typed at his keyboard, his head slightly > tilted to one side, listening to his screen reader through a pair of > wireless headphones.> > The screen reader is calibrated to speak at roughly triple the speed > of a normal voice. To the untrained ear, the output is > incomprehensible, but it allows Mr. Raman to “read” at roughly the > same speed as a sighted person.> > Processing information quickly is a skill he has developed over the > years: a video on YouTube shows him solving his Braille Rubik’s Cube > in 23 seconds. When he is not typing, Mr. Raman, who wears large > sunglasses, is often folding and unfolding pieces of paper into tiny, > origami-like geometrical shapes at prodigious speed.> > He shares a work area at Google with Charles Chen, a 25-year-old > engineer, and Hubbell, Mr. Raman’s guide dog. (Hubbell has his own Web > site.)> > Mr. Chen, who is sighted, developed a free screen reader for Web pages > that works with the Firefox browser. Working together, the two > recently added keyboard shortcuts that help blind and low-vision users > navigate quickly through Google’s search results. They’ve also > developed tools to make sophisticated Web applications, like e-mail > and blog readers, suitable for screen-reading software.> > Now, much of their effort is focused on touch-screen phones.> > “The thing I am most interested in is all of the stuff moving to the > mobile world, because it is a big life-changer,” Mr. Raman said.> > To show their progress, Mr. Raman pulled his T-Mobile G1, a touch- > screen phone with Google’s Android software, from a pocket of his > jeans. He and Mr. Chen have already outfitted it with software that > speaks much like a screen reader on a PC. Now they are working on ways > to allow blind people, or anyone who is not looking at the screen, to > enter text, numbers and commands.> > That development would complement voice-recognition systems, which are > not always reliable and don’t work well in noisy environments.> > Since he cannot precisely hit a button on a touch screen, Mr. Raman > created a dialer that works based on relative positions. It interprets > any place where he first touches the screen as a 5, the center of a > regular telephone dial pad. To dial any other number, he simply slides > his finger in its direction — up and to the left for 1, down and to > the right for 9, and so on. If he makes a mistake, he can erase a > digit simply by shaking the phone, which can detect motion.> > He and Mr. Chen are testing several other input methods. None of these > technologies have been rolled out, but Mr. Raman, who is already using > the G1 as his primary cellphone, hopes to make them freely available > soon.> > (Few screen readers are available for smartphones today, and they can > often cost as much as a phone itself.)> > What may become the most life-changing mobile technology — a phone > that can recognize and read signs through its camera — may still be a > few years away, Mr. Raman said. Already, some devices can read text > this way. But because blind users don’t know where signs are, they > can’t point the camera at them or align it properly, Mr. Raman said. > Once chips become powerful enough, they will be able to detect a > sign’s location and read skewed type, he said.> > “Those things will happen,” he said. When they do, sighted users will > benefit, too.> > “If you have the technology that can recognize a street sign as you > drive by it, that is helpful for everyone,” he said. “In a foreign > country, it will translate it.”> > Mr. Raman’s innovations have already made their way onto millions of > PCs. At Adobe in the 1990s, he helped to adapt the PDF format so it > could be read by screen readers. That was required for PDF to be used > by the federal government, and it eventually led to the technology’s > being embraced as a global standard for electronic documents.> > “It was incredibly important to us as a business, and to the blind,” > said John Warnock, the chairman and founder of Adobe.> > Mr. Raman says he thinks he has the largest impact when he can > persuade other engineers to make their products accessible — or, > better yet, when he can convince them that there are interesting > problems to be solved in this area. “If I can get another 10 engineers > motivated to work on accessibility,” he said, “it is a huge win.”> > Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company> > > > _______________________________________________> Nfb-announce mailing list> Nfb-announce at nfbnet.org> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-announce_nfbnet.org> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Nfb-announce:> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-announce_nfbnet.org/syedy2003%40hotmail.com
_________________________________________________________________
Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass.
http://windowslive.com/oneline/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_anywhere_122008