Final Class: Online Research Task - Visually Impaired and Assistive Technology

For our final class we were asked to work collaboratively with a partner to research an assigned disability. My partner and I researched visual impairment and identified a variety of assistive technology supporting individuals with visual impairments. This post will provide examples, images, strengths, and limitations of 6 different assistive technology tools related to visual impairment. In addition, a couple of videos are embedded related to visual impairment and assisitve technology. 

Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired: 

1) 

Cost: $5.99

Description:

Like a Guide Dog, this high tech assistive technology app supports individuals who are visually impaired by enhancing their ability to be mobile. If you have VoiceOver activated on your device, you will be able to know the street names and numbers that are around you by touching them. You can also explore a different region than the one around you by telling the app the street and the city. If you add your favorite points to the app database, you can be alerted when you get closer than a certain distance to one of them.

Targeted Population:

This app is completely accessible using VoiceOver and gives you access to information that are normally unavailable to people using the speech synthesizer and can be therefore especially useful to blind and partially sighted people. 

Strengths:

- Aids in eliminating an enduring travel barrier experienced by individuals who are blind and visually impaired.

- Provides a vast amount of location information sighted people have access to when traveling by virtue of simply being able to look around.

- With this tool, a blind person can conduct geographic research for a place to live, to go to school or to work, completely on their own.

Limitations:
- Technology is not always accurate and sometimes might be unreliable.
- Requires learned skills and/or support to learn how to use the app.
- Delay with relaying information on location.

2) SayText App

Cost: Free

Description: 

SayText is a high tech assistive technology device that scans text within any image, such as a medical form or restaurant menu, and reads it aloud. Center the document under the iPhone camera and double-tap the "Take Picture" button. Then raise it slowly: a beep indicates that the entire document is in the phone's frame. It will scan the image and then read it out loud.

Targeted Population:

Any individual with a visual impairment disability would benefit from using this app.

Strengths:

- Provides compact scanner at the tip of your fingers.

- Allows individuals with visual impairments the ability to access text.

Limitations:
- Difficulty lining up the image to the phone in order to scan the image accurately.

3) MANO Portable CCTV

Cost: $595.00

Description: 

Mano is a high tech assistive technology tool users can easily carry in their pocket. Its 3.5" TFT screen will still allow you to view font easily and clearly.  With this portable CCTV you get all the additional features and quality for the low price.  An angled stand gives you optimal, ergonomic reading as well as comfortable space for writing or signing checks.



Targeted Population:

 All individuals with visual impairments would benefit from the features this assistive technology offers.

Strengths:

- Size and accessibility.

- Requires limited technology skills to use.

Limitations:
- COST$$$


My partner identified 3 other assistive technology tools for visually impaired individuals:

1)  Magnifiers

Visually impaired individuals will often use magnifiers to assist with reading and viewing. This device allows for independent viewing of material that would otherwise be too small to see. Magnifiers are ideal for a wide range of individuals, from young students to the elderly. One challenge of using this device in a classroom is that it is bulky and students may not bring it to class as needed. It may also cause a problem outside of the home, such as at the grocery store, for the same reason. 

2)  Optelec ClearReader+ OCR Reading and Scanning Device

 

This user friendly device offers high quality, multilingual voice output and fast optical character recognition (OCR) and text-to-speech recognition technology for the visually impaired. The intuitive portable reading assistant captures any printed material such as letters, newspapers and books, and reads text aloud using a naturally sounding voice. This device costs 2245.00$! And this is in US funds.

3) JAWS for Windows

This popular screen reader works with your PC to provide access to today’s software applications and the Internet for those who are blind or have low vision. Its multilingual synthesizer, Eloquence, speaks through the computer’s sound card, reading out information from the screen. This program is quite expensive, at 700.00$! 

Take a look at this TEDtalk related to visual impairment and assistive technology: