Annual RESNA Assistive Technology Conference

The Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) holds an annual conference with a variety of workshops, exhibits, and sessions focused on assistive technology for people with disabilities. This year’s conference will be held on June 22-24 in Bellevue, WA.

The conference features many different events that appeal to a variety of audiences: students, entrepreneurs, people with disabilities, and the general public. The exhibit hall featuring recently developed assistive technology products will be free to the public.

People with disabilities can use the conference to get an up-close look at new products they could benefit from and even have the chance to try them out. For people interested in designing and developing assistive technology, this conference is the perfect opportunity to get expert feedback on new ideas through the Developer’s Forum.

The RESNA conference helps to spread the word about the importance of assistive technology and has the potential to be a driving force behind its continued development. The conference acts as a breeding ground for the development of new and better technologies, bringing seasoned experts and new talent together under one roof.

For more information on the conference or to register to attend, visit the RESNA 2013 Conference site.

TapTapSee – Camera App for the Blind!

TapTapSee is a camera app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, designed specifically for the blind and visually impaired – and it’s free! With TapTapSee, the user simply takes a picture of anything he or she needs to identify and the app speaks the identification (with the VoiceOver setting turned on).

This app can improve the quality and ease of everyday living for the blind and visually impaired community. TapTapSee has a use in every aspect of a visually impaired person’s life. At home, TapTapSee can help with picking out clothes that match as it identifies color. At work, TapTapSee can help with locating files that could otherwise not be read.

One of the best features of TapTapSee is its ability to recognize and identify U.S. currency. Unlike many foreign currencies, U.S. bills are all the same size making it difficult for a blind person to differentiate between them. With TapTapSee a blind user can quickly and easily identify the bill he or she needs to use.

Download it from the App Store today and TapTapSee for yourself!

Google Launches Interpreter App for Google+ Hangouts

Google recently released a wave of accessibility features for Chrome, Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Hangouts. The new features for Chrome, Drive, and Gmail focus on accessibility for low-vision and blind users to make navigating them easier with screen reading software. For Google+ Hangouts, Google released a Sign Language Interpreter App to allow deaf and hard of hearing users to more easily benefit from the use of an interpreter during a Hangout session.

Google+ Hangouts allow multiple users to video chat at the same time, regardless of where the users are located. With the Sign Language Interpreter App, a deaf or hard of hearing person can invite an interpreter to join the Hangout to interpret for him or her. With the App installed, the deaf user will always see the interpreter in the top right corner of his or her screen and, when the interpreter speaks for him or her, the interpreter becomes the focus for everyone else in the Hangout. The interpreter can then easily translate the conversation in both directions, while only being the focus when he or she needs to speak.

Video conferencing is a popular way for businesses to meet with partners and clients without having to spend too much on travel expenses. Google+ Hangouts are a convenient way to meet with international clients, as well as local contacts or employees who are unable to be physically present in the office. With the addition of the Sign Language Interpreter App, Google+ Hangouts are an effective way for both physically disabled and deaf employees to be involved in a company’s meetings.

Social Media: The Move Toward Greater Accessibility

In a technology-based society, social media is proving to be the future of marketing and business communication. Social media technology such as networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, blogs, and wikis are being used to interact with existing customers, attract new customers, make professional connections, and learn about the environment a business is operating in. Social media is not always accessible to people with disabilities, however, making it difficult for these people to get involved in the social media revolution.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) is launching an initiative to reform social media and improve its accessibility for the one billion disabled people worldwide. Social media accessibility is critical for equal opportunity within the workplace and during the job search.

If a company’s marketing efforts are based in social media, a disabled employee may not be able to work in the marketing department due to inaccessible social media platforms. If a company is posting job listings to social media platforms in formats that are inaccessible for screen readers, a visually impaired person will be unable to get the necessary information to apply for the position.

Social media is critical to the future of business communication and the initiative to make social media more widely accessible will enhance the overall value of social media communications!

For more information on the accessible social media initiative, check out the full article from The Business of Federal Technology.

Google Glass: Possible Uses for the Hearing Impaired

Google recently introduced the world to its latest technology, Google Glass, an augmented reality head-mounted display. Glass allows its wearer to perform tasks he or she would typically use a smartphone to do such as take pictures, record video, search the Internet, and view directions. Glass works through voice commands allowing the user to perform these tasks hands-free and on-the-go. The technology of Google Glass has the potential to extend beyond these recreational uses to change the future of assistive technology.

Glass does not use typical in-ear headphones to transmit sound. Sound is transmitted through bone conduction technology, which transmits sound to the brain by vibrating the bones above the ear.  There are hearing-aids out there that use this type of technology to assist people with hearing loss and, with the additional features Google Glass could provide, it could be the next big thing in assistive technology for the hearing impaired.

In future models of Google Glass, it is possible that it could include a speech-to-text function. This function would take in dialogue from a person speaking to the wearer and translate that audio dialogue into text. That text could then be displayed in front of the wearer’s eyes via Glass as it already displays search results and messages. Google does have a patent for such technology, according to an article from Ars Technica.

Take a glimpse into the future through the eyes of Google Glass!

Eyes Free Typing On-The-Go with Fleksy!

For the visually impaired, screen readers are one of the most important assistive technologies out there. A screen reader is used to type, as it reads each letter and word out loud as you type on a keyboard. Screen readers are useful and convenient when working on a desktop computer or laptop where it’s easy to use headphones. On the other hand, when you need to type on-the-go on a phone or tablet, using headphones and listening to each letter is time consuming and inconvenient.

Fleksy is a keyboard app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that enables you to type quickly without having to see the keys, or even typing the correct letters. Fleksy has the ability to predict what you are trying to type based on what area of the keyboard you touch, even if you don’t type one letter correctly. It’s that accurate! For someone who doesn’t look at the keyboard anyway, it even has a full-screen option where the keyboard is invisible.

The Fleksy app was recently made available for free through the App Store with the hope of making smartphones more accessible to everyone. Fleksy released a statement this past week that mentions its hope to integrate the Fleksy keyboard directly into the iPhone software. The addition of the Fleksy keyboard to the iPhone software would take smartphone accessibility to a whole new level!

Check out the Fleksy blog here for more information on the product and the video below for a demo of the Fleksy keyboard in action!

Equal Opportunity from Start to Finish

In order to achieve equal opportunity for people with disabilities in the workplace, there first needs to be equal opportunity for these people to find work. With technology becoming increasingly important, the job search and application process is moving from print to online. For a visually impaired person, using the Internet is not always an easy task because many job search sites and company employment sites are not accessible with screen reading software. If a visually impaired person is unable to navigate and read the website because of this incompatibility with screen readers, visually impaired people are at a serious disadvantage in the job search process.

A Massachusetts press release on January 30, 2013, focused on Monster.com, a job search engine, becoming the first in its industry to be fully accessible to the visually impaired. Within the next two years Monster.com will have a fully accessible website and mobile site for its users who need screen reading software to navigate. Eliminating the disadvantage of not being able to search for jobs online is a big step toward equal opportunity for the visually impaired in the employment process.

Monster.com is setting an example for other companies and job search websites to become fully accessible in the future, opening more doors for the visually impaired community to find jobs.

Check out the full article here to see everything Monster.com is doing to support the cause!

Assistive Technology Blogs We're Following

In order to stay up to date on the most recent news and developments in the world of assistive technology, I will be following a variety of other assistive technology blogs from across the country.

These are a few of the blogs that I will be following:

“Assistive Technology Blog” - http://bdmtech.blogspot.com/

• This blog was started in 2011 and is authored by a student who has a physical disability and has benefited from the use of assistive technology for reading and writing. This blog provides a perspective I cannot experience: a look through the eyes of someone who uses this technology themselves.

“Assistive Technology” - http://assistivetek.blogspot.com/

• This blog was started in 2004 by psychologist Dr. Friedlander, Ph. D., an expert in the field of assistive technology, who uses various assistive technologies in his work as a professor at a college in New Jersey. This blog will offer the perspective of someone with expertise in the field of assistive technology.

“Assistive Technology Blog – Maryland Department of Disabilities” - http://blog.mdtap.org/

• This blog was started in 2011 by the Maryland Department of Disabilities as a source for information, reviews, and other resources relating to assistive technologies. This blog offers a similar perspective to my blog in that it is written by an organization dedicated to people with disabilities.

By following these blogs and other news sources, I will be pulling the best topics and ideas out and putting my own analytical spin on them. Be sure to check them out as well for additional topics not covered here!

Welcome!

Welcome to AssisTech: An AssistiveTechnology Blog!

This brand new blog will focus on assistive technology for people with physical disabilities. Assistive technology can improve the quality of life both in and out of the workplace. My name is Ashley, and I work for a non-profit equal opportunity group here in Boston, MA. My organization is dedicated to helping ensure equal opportunity in the workplace for people with a wide variety of physical disabilities. With new technology developing every day, there are many new technologies and programs available to help people with physical disabilities enhance their quality of life.

This blog is designed with physically disabled people themselves in mind, but the information provided here will also be useful for employers looking to improve the accessibility options they provide employees and for friends and family of people with physical disabilities. I have seen first-hand the impact that the assistive technology available today can have on the life of someone with a physical disability, and it is my hope that the information discussed here will allow you to do the same!

Check back soon for weekly posts!