Technology for Everyone - a NEWSWIRE Article in the Chip Magazine Issue December 2011
Page 30 and 31 NEWSWIRE FEATURE - How the gadgets we take for granted can be adapted for the disabled and tech novices In a world where everyone wants to be treated as equals, adaptable changes in technology can help bridge the digital divide. *BY KAMAKSHISHRIVASTAVA* India is a very culturally diverse country that is growing at a rapid pace. While most of us embrace technological advancements without a second thought, the number of people who want to but cannot is quite overwhelming. While the availability of resources does play a major role, more often than not, it's our cultural mindset that creates such a rift. When we talk about lack of technological access, we limit our understanding to people who have physical or mental disabilities. While adaptability is making its way into a few products making them usable by the disabled, those products form a very small minority. Most of the gadgets we use today cannot be used by differently abled people. Awareness Campaigns The Xavier's Resource Center for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) located at St Xavier's College, Mumbai is a "state of the art" support centre that helps visually challenged persons. The organization is actively advocating the need to make consumer gadgets adaptable to those who are visually challenged. Dr Sam Taraporevala, the Director at XRCVC, who is also a Reader and Head of the Department of Sociology? believes, "Products should be designed in such a way that any person irrespective of mobility would be able to use them." As a part of making general consumers aware of the troubles faced by those who can't see, the center organized a familiarization drive called Antarchakshu. The idea behind the event was to reveal how minor tweaks can help the consumer experiences of the disabled. Dr Taraporevala elaborates, "What we showcased at the event, apart from the sensitization element, was basically the focus on the consumer. We looked a products from the perspective of a disabled consumer and how manufacturers can make adaptive changes, in not only the overall design but in the consumer experience. People were taken through the supermarket experience, and then we went on to entertainment. We also made participants experience banking services, using an accessible ATM and a whole lot of other technologies that are available." *Image - Demonstration of an accessible ATM at the Antarchakshu 2011 awareness event conducted by XRCVC.* Successful initiatives It isn't that adaptable technology hasn't made its way to the general public. One visit to the resource center and you can see it for yourself. The facility boasts of a number of easy to use accessible technologies including a massive Index 4X4 PRO Braille Embosser to print books in Braille; Mountbatten MB Pro that lets you print diagrams, maps and graphs in Braille; screen readers; magnification tools; Indian language Braille translators (Shree-Lipi Braille); OCR tools that come with Braille conversion options; and other talking devices. Apart from these, there are several devices that can be used on-the-go, like Ruby, a portable video magnifier for low vision persons; DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) players that help people with reading disabilities; Angel, a multipurpose portable digital device with features of DAISY player, voice recorder, music and FM player, e-book reader and handheld magnifier. Off all the tech manufacturers, Apple products rate very high on Dr Taraporevala's list. Apart from the MacBook Pro, which has an in-built screen reader called Voice Over, other apple devices like the i-Pad, i-Phone, and iPod Touch offer adaptability apps that can make using devices quite easy for the disabled. Adaptive banking services are one major area of change that is being pushed for strongly by the center. Sam adds, "We have worked very closely with the ATM industry and with the RBI as well to get these rules passed, but the banks process has gone too slow. They have passed off partially speaking machines as accessible. Now an accessible machine, something that speaks out every screen and not just 'hello and welcome' and 'thank you', actually gives feedback, and has built in safety features like capacity to blank your screen so that nobody can "shoulder" stuff." The center has also pushed for changes in the fields of entertainment and health care. Sam adds, "Not that the blind don't go to the movies; they enjoy watching movies too, but the consumption of movies can be further enhanced if you have audio description. Peepli Live is a movie, whose commercial DVD available in the market has a built-in adaptability track. So when you start the DVD, it gives you the option to start audio narration simultaneously. So we gave our audience a two-minute clip of Peepli Live minus the audio description, and two minutes with audio description. This is something we are pushing the industry towards, and the producers of Peepli Live actually adapted to that." As far as the healthcare industry goes, the center has provided research and development to two leading manufacturers of electro physiotherapy equipment in Maharashtra and Gujarat to launch fully accessible talking electrotherapy physiotherapy equipments. The way ahead While there are a number of tools that let partially and completely blind people use computers with ease, such tools are not limited to just computing. Visually challenged or not, everybody needs automated consumer gadgets, and technologies to make their life easier. Dr Taraporevala explains, "We have done a survey among blind users that have thrown up specific needs that the blind have. One is about having accessible set top boxes. As a sighted person, you can scroll through your set top boxes and see what is running where. Hypothetically, you can have a speech-enabled system on that." He goes on to add, "Audio description has come of age in the West. In fact, digital TVs have the provision for that." What the center wants is consumer durables that conform to adaptability standards. Sam ends by saying, "As a campaign, we get mainstream consumer durables manufacturers to look at accessibility. Today, everything is based on a motherboard, or circuitry, or a chipset. Hypothetically, it's very easy to even retrofit a chipset with speech. Try running a microwave with your eyes closed, you may not be able to, but if the same unit gives you knob control, and button control through speaking out everything that you key in or touch, your work is done. That can also be a fully automatic washing machine, or a dish washer, and it's not expensive today. We have done that with a mainstream physiotherapy machine for the blind. We got two manufacturers, in fact, to retrofit machines and they have done a brilliant job. Every single screen is spoken. India is an aging population, so it is far better to give double stimuli than a single stimulus, where a voice prompt is complimented with a visual prompt. It would also provide help to a semiliterate person. So it has endless possibilities, not just for the blind. One of our motives is talking to mainstream manufactures to get it done. Research and development will cost them just a few hundred thousand rupees and the chipsets in comparison cost next to nothing. In fact, they would get a brilliant USP. feedb...@chip.in �� www.chip.in�� Network 18 12/2011, intelligent Computing Chip Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
