Marketing to the Visually Impaired

The internet has made life a lot easier for hearing impaired travelers by effectively eliminating the need to talk to travel purveyors. 

For the visually impaired, however, it has been all downhill when it comes to accessibility. That a couple of lawsuits against airlines by visually affected customers have gone in favor of the carriers seems only to have added to their woes.

Early last month, in a closely watched case against JetBlue Airways, a California court ruled that airline websites and airport kiosks were not covered by the state's anti-discrimination law. That followed a disappointingly similar outcome to a case, also in California, in April against United Airlines. (Lawsuits by the visually impaired against websites date back to the internet's infancy when the National Federation of the Blind sued AOL in 1999). While prevailing in court may have been the carriers' proximate objective they would be ill-advised in not addressing the real needs of a very real revenue accretive market.

The World Health Organization estimates that there are 284 million people who are visually impaired worldwide of whom 39 million are blind with the remaining  245 having low vision. Recognizing the need and the market, some organizations and companies have adapted their products and services to cater to the niche market. Among them are talking set-top boxes for HDTV by the Australian company Bush Australia that use text to speech technology.

Read more at: 4Hoteliers

Park for the visually impaired

Lions Park has a sensory garden path with signs in braille allowing people to learn more about the plants and landscape.


Video after Break:

Lions Park in South Everett is the first in the nation to use a state-of the-art system to help the visually impaired get around.

The 3.35 acre park, located at 7530 Cascade Dr. in Everett, features two, braille maps at main park entrances.

The park is renowned for its use of an audio wayfinding system which allows visually impaired people to download directions and narrative maps that direct them into and through the park.

Lions Park also hosts a sensory garden path with different signs in braille allowing people to learn more about the plants and landscape.

Users have appreciated the ability to download customized walking directions onto a smart phone, text reader, or mp3 player.

Via: q13fox.com

Talking ATMs for the visually challenged!

MUMBAI, SEPT. 10: 

“This is the first time that I have seen the world through the eyes of a visually challenged person and it's an experience that I will never forget,” said a participant at Antarchakshu, an event organised by the Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC).

From buying groceries, playing foot ball and even withdrawing money from an ATM, participants were blindfolded and put through a maze of daily chores by the Xavier's volunteers, to sensitise people on a day in the life of a visually-challenged person.

In fact, the highlight of the event was the talking ATM for the visually-challenged which was displayed at the college. “There are partially talking ATMs which have been deployed in many banks, but they are useless for us as they say the bare minimums like – welcome and thank you,” said Sam Taraporevala, Director of XRCVC who is also visually challenged.

The Reserve Bank of India had stated in its circulars (2008, 2009) that “Banks should make at least one third of the new ATMs installed as talking ATMs with Braille keypads and place them strategically in consultation with other banks to ensure that at least one talking ATM with Braille keypad is generally available in each locality for catering to the needs of visually impaired persons.”

“The visually challenged need an ATM that can guide them properly. We have developed a software which will ensure that the visually impaired can operate the machine themselves keeping in mind safety of the transaction,” said Nagesh M Nayak, Partner – professional services, NCR.

The company has been developing these specialised machines for different banks. Many of them have deployed these machines on a pilot basis. Each ATM has headphones attached to it so that the visually challenged can hear the instructions and fill in the required data. “The labels on the ATMs are written in Braille. There is also an option to blank out the screen as a safety mechanism to ensure that no bystander misuses the pin,” said Nayak.

Read more: theHindu

iPhone App Helps Blind and Visually Impaired to Identify US Currency

The EyeNote™ close attention (app) was developed by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing in favor of the blind or visually impaired to appliance as a tool to increase accessibility to U.S. essay currency.


Built for the Apple iOS, the EyeNote app scans a bank diplomatic communication and communicates the dollar value to the user. EyeNote™ is a hospitable mobile device app designed for Apple iPhone (3G, 3Gs, 4), the 4th Generation iPod Touch and iPad2. It is profitable through the Apple iTunes App Store.


EyeNote™ uses representation of an object recognition technology to determine a memorandum’s denomination. The mobile sign’s camera requires 51 percent of a report’s scanned image, front or back, to suit. In a matter of seconds, EyeNote™ can provide an audible or vibrating answer, and can denominate all Federal Reserve notes issued from that time 1996.


Free updates will be to be availed of whenever new US currency designs are introduced. Research indicates that in addition than 100,000 blind and visually impaired individuals could currently own an Apple iPhone.


More intelligence is available at www.eyenote.gov
Via:GlucomaClinical.com

Visually-impaired man gets PhD in music

Mysore: He is visually impaired but that hasn't prevented him from scaling new heights. It is a victory of willpower for K T Udaya Kiran, 30, who has completed a PhD in music at the University of Mysore. Kiran, a vocalist, is working as a guest lecturer at the University of Fine Arts College. Kiran, who was born blind, began research in 2007 under the guidance of M Manjunath. His academic record has been excellent- bagged a gold medal in MA in music (vocal) from the University of Mysore, was awarded fellowship after the UGC National Eligibility Test, scored distinction in SSLC, II PUC, UG and PG too. "I started learning classical music as a child. My parents, who are good in music, encouraged me and now it has become my part of life." Uday also plays the violin and keyboard. Apart from participating in the All India Radio programmes, he has presented papers at the national-level music seminars on Swarakalpana in Carnatic music at Annamalai University and on 'Africa meets Asia' at the International Music Conference.


Via: ToI

Smartphone cameras bring independence to the visually impaired

According to the BBC, a smart phones become more accessible, some with built in speech and Braille output, it is possible for people with sight loss to get slivers of visual assistance when there's no one else around to ask.


 Want to know what colour your shirt is? Use a colour detector app. Want to know if it is still daylight outside? Use a light detector app. Want to read a notice on your work's noticeboard? Use a text recognition app, of course.


The most recent visual assistance product to hit the app store is VizWiz. As well as giving you automated image recognition from intelligent software, it throws your questions open to a small band of volunteers standing-by on the internet - a human cloud, willing to donate ten seconds of their time here and there to describe photos which come in.


Read More: Textually

Bringing hockey to the visually impaired

ALBANY - Mark DeMontis sits in an RV parked alongside the Trans Canada Highway at the Albany 'Y'
He's dressed in a jersey, carries a hockey stick and is wearing in-line skates.
What is he doing here?
"Just trying to Rollerblade across the country," DeMontis says as he emerges from the recreational vehicle.
When he was 17, DeMontis was an up-and-coming hockey player, skating toward a scholarship at an American college.
But just before graduating high school, DeMontis was diagnosed with Leber's Optic Neuropathy, leaving him legally blind.
"I can only see around the eye, peripherally," he explains. "Things like large shapes, shadows, minor depth perception and colour."
Instead of giving up on his hockey dream, however, he has become a champion of blind hockey programs.
With the help of Courage Canada, an organization he founded, the 24-year-old man is in-line skating from Halifax to his home in Toronto. 
It's his second journey to encourage more support for blind hockey programs across Canada. In 2009, DeMontis skated from Toronto to Vancouver.
In the coming year, he hopes more blind hockey programs for youth and adults spring up around the country.
"Blind hockey is very similar to sighted hockey, aside from one major modification being a noise-making puck...so players can hear it," he said. "There are a number of Canadians who are blind or visually impaired from coast to coast, in every province or territory. I think it's important that we work together...so they can get the chance to learn how to skate and play hockey."
The skate from Albany to Borden-Carleton was the culmination of Day 9 of a 64-day trek.
DeMontis was eager to cross the Confederation Bridge, even if he'd have to ride in the RV instead of skate across it.
"It would've been great to in-line skate the Confederation Bridge," he said. "None the less, we're looking forward to seeing it, and using my peripheral sight to see the water on each side."
sbrun@journalpioneer.com


Via: journalpioneer

Tacit: Wrist-mounted sonar for the visually impaired

We've seen a number of devices - such as the UltraCane and EYE 21 system - that combine sonar and haptic or audio feedback to let the visually impaired "see" their surroundings through the senses of touch or hearing. Tacit is a similar device that also uses sonar to measure the distance to objects and provide users with a 'view" of their surroundings through haptic feedback. But unlike previous devices we've looked at, Tacit is mounted on the wrist so it doesn't impair a user's hearing or interfere with the use of other assistance devices such as canes.


The prototype Tacit device developed by Steve Hoefer at Grathio Labs consists of four ultrasonic range finding sensors connected to a microcontroller that calculates the distance to objects by reading how long it takes for the ultrasonic pulses to return to the device. The distances are then translated into force feedback on the back of the user's wrist through servo motors, with the force of the pressure indicating how near or far the detected objects are. By waving their arm around an area, the wearer is able to get the lay of the land and navigate complex environments.


Read more at: Gizmag

Marvel launches DAREDEVIL audiobook with visually impaired fans in mind

I have a hero-loving blind nephew who has a vocarious appetite for CDs and other audio product. I now know what to get him for his birthday.


Marvel has just announced that its superhero Daredevil — aka the blind attorney Matt Murdock — is coming to fans in audio form.


The Man Without Fear is now also The Man With an Audiobook.


Daredevil #1 Audio Edition was the braindchild of Marvel senior editor Steve Wacker, who says he and writer Mark Waid wanted to issue the new format so visually impaired fans could appreciate Daredevil’s new adventures in 2011.


Says Marvel: “Up to this point, those deprived of sight themselves have had to rely on friends reading them copies of Daredevil in order to experience Matt Murdock's adventures.”


On the audio, Waid describes the panels and Marvel editor Tom Brennan voices Daredevil.


Daredevil made his debut in 1964, with his creation credited to Bill Everett and Stan Lee (Jack Kirby, whose estate continues to fight over copyrights and compensation, is said to have aided and abetted the character design). Wally Wood, Frank Miller and John Romita Sr. are several of the legends who helped guide Daredevil over the decades.


And to many non-comics fans, of course, the Hells Kitchen superhero is best known as Ben Affleck’s character in 2003’s “Daredevil” film.


You can hear the audio edition by clicking right here.


Via: Washingtonpost

Braille iPad Cover Allows Visually-Impaired People To Use The iPad

Entered in the 2011 IDEA Award, the Omnifer is an innovative cover for the iPad that aims to make tablet usage available to those who are visually-impaired. The technology behind it consists of three panels that contains a braille overlay raised by gas pockets when light from the iPad expands the chemical. When the light source is extinguished, the braille dots lower to its thin, flat surface. With a programmed app for the iPad, illuminated dots would appear in designated areas, letting the visually-impaired population to “read” their iPads.

via : PSFK

Visually impaired girls in Pune make 'rakhis' for Indian army soldiers

The visually impaired girls in Maharashtra's Pune city on Tuesday made sacred thread commonly known as 'rakhis' for soldiers in the Indian Army ahead of the Hindu festival of 'Raksha Bandhan', which celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters.

The festival will be celebrated all across the country on August 13 this year.


The students expressed their joy at being able to make the festival memorable for the soldiers.

"We are happy that the rakhis made by us will be worn by our brothers in the army, who protect our country," said Bharti Tapkir, a student at the Home for Blind Girls.

The girls used various coloured threads, beads and ribbons for the rakhis, relying on their sense of touch to execute their work to perfection.

They appealed to their 'brothers' in the army for protection.

"Just as brothers protect their sisters, I would ask our soldiers to protect us and our country," said Purnima Shelke, another student.

The teachers helped them to choose the colours for their sacred threads and other material.

They encouraged the girls to have faith in their potential.

"Our School's Secretary, Dr Rajni Indulkar, says these girls must never look at their disability as a hindrance. They should be confident enough to take care of themselves," said Archana Sarnobat, a teacher.

Raksha Bandhan occupies a special place in the Hindu religious calendar.

The central ceremony involves the tying of a rakhi (sacred thread) by a sister on her brother's wrist. This symbolizes the sister's love and prayers for her brother's well being, and the brother's lifelong vow to protect her. (ANI)

Via: NewsTrackIndia