[Nfbf-l] Assistive Technology: How iPhones Help Blind People See

[Alan Dicey]

Dear Friends,
I thought some might find the below article interesting.
With Best Regards,
God Bless,
Alan
Plantation, Florida

Assistive Technology: How iPhones Help Blind People See
Jacqueline Vanacek, SAP
iPhone innovations have created a new way for the blind and visually 
impaired to "see."
In my recent interview with accessibility experts Victor Tsaran at PayPal 
and Ted Drake at Intuit INTU, I saw how these technologies turn smartphones 
into powerful assistive devices that employ one physical sense to supplement 
or replace another.
Victor Tsaran, who is blind, shared that "there are about 650 million people 
with disabilities in the world, 50 million of whom are blind."

An accomplished composer, musician and software engineer, he spoke 
passionately about his own transformation through technology to overcome 
society's stereo types and assumptions about his abilities.

Touch screen technology has been a huge game changer for the blind and 
visually impaired. Accessibility software is a growing field which makes 
technology work for the disabled.

Design for accessibility is part of the larger field of human-computer 
interaction. Human-computer interaction is a hot topic in the tech 
community. Designing around how humans interact with machines is sparking 
new user interfaces that use movement, gestures and behaviors to trigger 
computer responses.

Ted Drake further explained how Intuit invests heavily in user testing to 
ensure that everyone can benefit from their products. For example, Intuit is 
working with non-profit My Blind Spot to make QuickBooks content accessible 
to the blind via screen readers which convert tactile commands into voice.

The power of accessibility software and other assistive technologies can 
turn a smartphone or computer into a disabled person's eyes, ears, voice or 
whichever
sense is needed to communicate and participate more fully in everyday life.

VoiceOver is one of Apple's award-winning iOS assistive technologies. The 
gesture-based screen reader tells users which button or icon they have 
touched
on the screen. A double tap on the icon then invokes the function. This 
helps blind or visually impaired users know what is happening on their 
devices
to better control them.

Other innovations like Siri and Dictation help users type, read calendars 
and launch apps like Facebook FB and Twitter.

A key point that Ted Drake made about expectations is that "when truly 
innovative products come out, it's because" developers "didn't really think 
about
pre-conceived ideas. They didn't say 'well a blind person can't use a phone 
that's only glass, because there are no tactile buttons. They said here's a
glass surface. Let's make it accessible ..' "

Accessibility innovations have also led to using a smartphone's camera to 
allow the blind and visually impaired to shop, count money and live 
independently
in ways many of us take for granted.

Ted and Victor demonstrated some assistive apps written for the iPhone 
camera, which one might not think would be useful to a blind person. But 
Victor
took a picture of a dollar bill, sent the image to a crowd sourced group of 
volunteers, like Amazon's Mechanical Turk Internet marketplace, and received
an immediate answer through the iPhone's VoiceOver.

He uses that capability when he shops in the grocery store, to ensure he 
gets the correct change at checkout.

Victor and Ted also demonstrated how the camera can identify the type of 
soup in a can of Campbell's - it was tomato - and the color of a pair of 
socks
- pink!

These demonstrations clearly show how a smartphone with accessibility 
software can open many avenues to help the blind and visually impaired be 
more included
in everyday life.

As we had discussed at the Social Innovation Summit last May at the United 
Nations, assistive technology offers a powerful catalyst for innovation, 
because
of the harder technical challenges that need to be overcome.
After talking with Victor Tsaran and Ted Drake, I am convinced that 
innovation without pre-conceived limitations for any user can lead to the 
most creative
technologies of all.



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