Home » All posts

iOS 5 to Include Hearing Aid Mode

Posted by Unknown Sunday, August 7, 2011 0 comments

Yesterday, Apple released iOS 5 beta 5 to developers. One of the new features is hearing aid mode. Hearing aid mode will allow the iPhone to work better with hearing aids. In order to activate the setting in iOS 5 go to setting then general and then accessibility. iOS 5 is expected to be released in the fall to the general public. To learn more about the many iOS 5 accessibility options click here.

iTunes U Helps Students

Posted by Unknown Saturday, August 6, 2011 0 comments

iTunes U is a free service that helps anyone who wants to learn. iTunes U allows any user to download lectures and PowerPoints from some K-12 schools and many collages and universities. To download a class lecture from iTunes U, search for the topic or school you are looking for in iTunes. iTunes U is great for collage students who want to watch lectures again. iTunes U allows you to watch your lectures on a Mac, PC, iPod, iPhone or iPad. iTunes U can also help people learn about a new topic without going to a physical classroom. iTunes U is simple for both the institution and the student. Apple descrbies iTunes you as,
"iTunes U brings the power of the iTunes Store to education, making it simple to distribute information to your students and faculty — or to lifelong learners all over the world. With an iTunes U site, your institution has a single home for all the digital content created or curated by educators, which can then be easily downloaded and viewed on any Mac, PC, iPod, or iPhone."
 iTunes U can help any student excel with its wide ranging topic areas and content uploaded by schools. Apple  explains iTunes U's universal access,
"iTunes U can be a powerful and accessible learning tool for students with disabilities. For the vision-impaired, iTunes U works with VoiceOver, the built-in screen reader on the Mac, as well as with compatible screen readers on PCs. iTunes U also allows for learning with iPod and iPhone, which offer features to help vision-impaired students find the information they need (using VoiceOver on iPhone and iPod touch, and spoken feedback on iPod nano and iPod shuffle). And for students with physical or motor-skills needs, iTunes U brings the classroom to them, so they can learn at their own pace and in a more comfortable environment."
To try iTunes U go to the iTunes store on any computer or iOS device. To read Apple's iTunes U web page click here To see more pictures of iTunes U click read more.
          


Speech Recognition Extensions For Chrome

Posted by Unknown Friday, August 5, 2011 0 comments

 The Chrome browser by Google is well liked by many users. To download Chrome click here. Now there are many extensions that allow you to speech your text into any webpage. This feature is enabled for Google search by default in Chrome. To read more about Google voice search click here. With an extension such as Voice Search you can add voice search to any text box on any page. To download the Voice Search extension click here. Voice input is very helpful for people who have trouble spelling or for people who have trouble using the keyboard. To watch a video about Google voice search click read more below.

   


Brainstorming With Quartet Kapture

Posted by Unknown Thursday, August 4, 2011 0 comments
I have been kicking the tires as I explore the capabilities of Quartet Kapture over the last couple of days. Quartet Kapture works as promised and captures your hand written notes and ideas from a flip chart with ease. Here is a session that I captured and exported the notes as a Jpeg file. For more information about Quartet Kapture click here.

ChromeShades Helps Web Developers Make Accessible Websites

Posted by Unknown 0 comments
ChromeShades is an extension on the Chrome Web Store. ChromeShades helps website developers make accessible websites by taking out all visual elements and displaying the webpage as a screen reader or Braille display would recognize the page. ChromeShades helps web developers recognize accessibility problems with their site. Chrome frame is free on the Chrome Web Store.

If you have found any accessibility problems with this site please leave a comment including where the problem occurred and what browsers you were using.   




Ultra-Thin Braille Displays Coming Soon

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, August 3, 2011 0 comments


Braille is a system of raised dots that makes up the alphabet. Braille is the way that people with low vision and who are blind read text. Braille books are very thick and heavy compared to their print counterparts. Currently Braille users are using refreshable Braille displays to read Braille. A refreshable Braille display uses small dots that pop up in the appropriate place to make a Braille letter. Currently refreshable Braille displays are large and bulky. Now Someya Labs in Japan has found a way to shrink the refreshable Braille down to credit card size. The new displays have a 24 character display that can fit into your wallet or pocket. The new display dubbed "sheet Braille display" is not on the market as of this post. With this new smaller Braille display Braille users will be able to easily take it with them wherever they go. Click read more below  or to watch/listen to  a video about the new display.

     





Skype for iPad Now Available

Posted by Unknown Tuesday, August 2, 2011 0 comments


Skype, the most popular video chat service just released a Skype for iPad. The app supports video calls on the iPad 2 over Wi-Fi and 3G data. To download the app click here. With Skype you can chat with other users using many other devices. Skype supports iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Windows and Mac OS X. The Skype calls are free but data rates do apply while using 3G. Video chat services such as Skype are useful for people who are are deaf. Deaf users of Skype can sign within the video chat in order to communicate. With more video chat options communication between users is becoming easier for all users.

Besides Skype there are many other options for video chat. Facebook recently announced video calling from within the Facebook site. Apple also has FaceTime for users of its iPad 2, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th generation and Mac computers. FaceTime will be able to work over 3G in iOS 5 which is coming out this fall. Click here to learn more about iOS 5.

With new options for video chatting, remote communication is becoming easier for deaf users. Click read more below to see a video of Facebook video chat and FaceTime.
Facebook Video Chat



FaceTime




Android Voice Search

Posted by Unknown Monday, August 1, 2011 0 comments


Android phones are becoming more and more popular. Android phones do not have built-in accessibility features like the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. iOS devices have many built-in accessibility features but Android phones do not. One feature that Android phones do include is voice input. With voice input you can touch the microphone next to the space bar and speak your text. A similar feature is a available with Google Chrome (click here). Voice input is a helpful feature for people who struggle to spell or have physical disabilities that makes typing difficult. You can access voice input wherever there is a keyboard on Android by pressing the microphone button next to the space bar. iOS does not have system wide voice input but it is rumored to be coming in the upcoming iOS 5 this fall. If you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch you can use the Dragon Go! app to get similar features.   

Are You Using Flip Charts in Your Meetings?

Posted by Unknown 0 comments
I just started to market a new product called Quartet Kapture and was interested in finding out how many of you use flip charts in your meetings when brainstorming or facilitation conversations.





Copyright © 2012 ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY BLOG | INVENTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. All rights reserved.

Super SEO created by Blogger Tuts| Distributed by Rocking Templates