High-tech gizmos vs. the blind: The problems and a group to help address them

An Associated Press story discusses the difficulties that blind people are having with high-tech gadgetry.

In separate news, the Open Source Access Technology (OSAT) Project has been started to lower the cost of accessible tech for the blind, and I'll provide email-list instructions at the end of this note. The group even plans an open source screen reader for Microsoft's Longhorn operating system.

But back to the AP story. Here's the lead:

The Blind Struggle As Gadgets Proliferate
Sat Apr 23, 8:38 PM ET

By VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Writer

As technology has evolved, it's become lighter, smaller and more portable. For most people, that makes it more convenient. For millions of blind and vision-impaired people, it's anything but.

Jay Leventhal, who is blind, still fumbles with the tiny controls on his iPod but has given up on the kiosk in his New York office building that lists all the tenants.

For Leventhal, even laundry has become a task requiring the help of a sighted person. The washers he uses now take smart cards instead of quarters, issuing instructions on a digital screen that he can't read.

"The biggest barrier for blind people is access to information, and more and more information is being made available through different machines that aren't designed for people who can't see," says Leventhal, editor in chief of AccessWorld: Technology and People with Visual Impairments.

Blind people need a way to communicate with the machines that surround them, he says, from automated tellers to ticketing machines at train stations and airports.

Meanwhile the Open Source Access Technology Project has been started and I'll reproduce information below, including an email list address at the end of this post. Sorry--I don't have a Web address handy right now.

Today marks the public launch of the Open Source Access Technology (OSAT) Project, a project that aims to advance access technology research, and ownership by those who are currently unable to financially afford the benefits access technology brings.

What is the OSAT Project?

The OSAT Project is a group of people who believe in advancing the state of the art in access technology for people with a disability, and delivering access technology to those who would not otherwise be able to afford it.

We're a group of former members of the access technology industry, members of the software industry, academic researchers working in the fields of accessibility and human computer interaction, as well as the most important group, the end users of access technology. Membership is free and is open to all.

What are the aims of the OSAT Project?

The project has two core principles: to deliver access technology to those who may not otherwise be able to afford it, and to increase the pace of access technology research and development, and it's transfer to the products used by people with disabilities. These two principles are fundamental in guiding the activities of the OSAT Project.

At the time of writing, access technologies remain relatively expensive to the income received by the majority of people with disabilities. This is true for the developed world, where people with disabilities commonly receive a low income relative to other groups of society, and the developing world, where people with disabilities often receive little or no income. This places access technologies, which could vastly improve the abilities of people with disabilities, beyond the reach of the majority of intended worldwide consumers. To try and address this issue, and in doing so increase the available range of abilities for people with disabilities, the OSAT Project aims to deliver at least it's core products for little or no cost to the consumer. It is hoped that by increasing the availability of access technologies, that more people will gain a greater ability to participate in the aspects of society from which they are currently excluded or where they face overwhelming difficulties in participation.

The abilities access technologies afford their users are largely driven by progress in research and development, spanning both industry and academia.

In view of this, the OSAT Project will seek to implement cutting edge research into it's products from research centres around the world, where it is both practical and complimentary to the product to do so. Additionally the OSAT Project will seek to undertake it's own research where opportunity arises, in order to actively advance the state of the art in access technology techniques and practices. One key aspect to the research undertaken by the OSAT Project will be sharing of it's findings with the access technology research community and commercial access technology vendors, in order to ensure the widest possible spectrum of users benefit from the results.

Is the project a profit making venture?

No. Any funds received by the project will be used to cover the costs incurred by the project, either in it's running and administration, or in procuring third party components such as text to speech (TTS) synthesisers.

Any surplus funds will be invested into the project, allowing it to further meet its goals.

Is the project in competition with the commercial vendors?

No. It is not the intention of the OSAT Project to compete with commercial access technology vendors, but to provide a supplementary and complimentary service. As a community project the OSAT Project is without the fiscal requirements found within the commercial access technology industry, and therefore can undertake activities that are not viable options for commercial vendors. However, the commercial vendors, through their network of distributors, trainers and technical support staff provide services that community based projects cannot provide. Therefore the two groups are seen as complimentary to each other. To further promote this complimentary nature, the OSAT Project is willing to licence it's output to the commercial access technology industry for a nominal fee, relative to the output the vendor wishes to licence, and all proceeds from this licensing scheme will be used to offset any costs incurred by the OSAT Project in undertaking its work.

What will the first software project be that the OSAT Project will undertake?

Presently, the first piece of software that the project plans to build is an open source screen reader for Windows 'Longhorn', which is planned to be released by Microsoft Corporation next year, according to published press releases. Windows 'Longhorn' affords the opportunities for some cutting edge research to be done into the accessibility of computer interfaces and computer based documents for the blind. At present the plan is to investigate an interface for a screen reader based on speech, Braille and non-speech audio, and for this interface to allow the user to operate a GUI based interface in much the same way as a sighted user would. Another exciting prospect is semantic based trnsformation of images into textual descriptions, something made possible through Longhorn's use of vectors to draw its images.

Can you get involved in the project?

Yes, the project is open to all, not just those with expertise in software development, human computer interaction, or another technical skill.

Input from end users on the problems they face, what problems are important to them, and what the project should be doing to try and address these is important to the OSAT Project. In view of this, anyone can participate regardless of their background or expertise in a technical area.

How do I get more information?

The project has set up an email list to discuss the direction the project should be heading in, what sort of things should be in the screen reader for Windows 'Longhorn', etc. You can sign up to this email forum by sending an email to:

ossrp-control-request@freelists.org

and including "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject field of the email.

As we start to gear up for development we'll be recruiting for the more technical areas, but everyone is welcome to join the project right now.

Update: Here's an archive page for the email list. Looks promising. The word from Will Pearson, involved with the project, is that "the original five people, myself included, who originally came up with this project are all screen reader users..."