This is really interesting. I forwarded this to my brother who works for Symantec. I'm pretty sure he is in Mountain View or pretty close to there. I told him he should know about this. Nancy Van Sandt Medical Transcriptionist Certified MT Trainer ----- Original Message ----- From: "Terrie Arnold" <tanderson3@xxxxxxxxx> To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <BlindPeopleExperiences@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <blind-people2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 6:11 AM Subject: [real-eyes] Fw: [CCB-L] FW: [vipnews] For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can't > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Richard Rueda" <richardrueda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > To: "Leadership" <leadership@xxxxxxx>; "CCB-L" <CCB-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 1:10 AM > Subject: [CCB-L] FW: [vipnews] For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide > Dog Can't > > >> >> FYI: ACB is mentioned in this article. >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: vipnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:vipnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On >> Behalf Of editor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx >> Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 6:58 PM >> To: vipnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >> Subject: [vipnews] For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can't >> >> >> >> 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." >> >> SOURCE (Printable) >> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/business/04blind.html?_r=1&pagewanted=prin >> t >> >> >> >> >> >> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ >> 74 years of serving the blind of California, we are the California >> Council of the Blind. >> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "California Council of the Blind" group. >> To post to this group, send email to CCB-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> CCB-L-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/CCB-L?hl=en >> -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- >> >> > > > To subscribe or to leave the list, or to set other subscription options, > go to www.freelists.org/list/real-eyes > > To subscribe or to leave the list, or to set other subscription options, go to www.freelists.org/list/real-eyes