If you are, I'm researching the kind of computer software and keyboards blind people for writing .

I'd appreciate it if you could give me some help with this because it's a little more complicated than I imagined.



Andy

Hi Firethorne

There are so many different types of blindness that it's difficult to know where to start - especially as a lot of the material on what is available is in voice format!

My father uses a screen magnifier (although his sight issues stem from a stroke).

These links may be helpful:

http://www.bcab.org.uk/

http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsightloss/computersphones/usingyourpc/Pages/Keyboard_skills.aspx

As you can see from the BCAB link, you can actually have equippment to modify a PC to enable someone to use it independently.

If your user has low vision - see here:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/using-a-computer/using-computer-low-vision

If your user has no vision - see here:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/using-a-computer/using-computer-no-vision


Other FAQs:

Q. What is an access technology?
A. An access technology is a device or application that helps a person with a disability carry out a task independently.

Q. Are there access technologies that can help blind and partially sighted people use computers?
A. Yes, the most common are screen magnifiers, screen readers and braille displays.

Q. What is a screen magnifier?
A. A screen magnifier is a piece of software that magnifies what's on screen to make it easier to read.

Q. What is a screen reader?
A. A screen reader is a piece of software that translates on screen information into synthetic speech or electronic braille.

Q. What is a braille display?
A. A braille display is a piece of hardware that works with a screen reader and shows on screen information using a series of refreshable braille cells.

Q. Which one should I choose?
A. People with some usable sight tend to use screen magnifiers, and people with little or no usable sight tend to use screen readers. There aren't any rules though, so decide what works best for you.

Q. Will I need a special computer to use a screen magnifier, screen reader or braille display?
A. No, you can use a standard computer bought from PC World or your local high street computer store.

Q. Do I have to use a Windows computer?
A. No, there are screen magnifiers, screen readers and braille displays that work on Mac, Linux or Windows computers.

Q. How much will a screen magnifier, screen reader or braille display cost?
A. Depending on your computer and requirements, the cost can range from free to several hundred pounds.

Q. Where can I find out more?
A. There is more information available from BCAB:

Hi,
I did my MA in Writing with a blind writer - she had partial sight in the bottom left hand corner of one eye but for the rest was completely blind. She used a guide dog, which came to the workshops.
She used voice recognition software, and touch-typing and she said it was always a nightmare of faffing around to get it to work properly. When she used it in the class it did seem to take ages for her to do anything, and it often read out the wrong poem, for example. She found it quite frustrating, we had conversations about better ways of doing it and I think she would have really preferred a secretary to dictate to rather than a computer (but obviously cost prohibited that).
Her writing was, interestingly, very visual indeed - strong images, lots of colour.
Hope some of that helps
Leila

Thank you

This is a really interesting field.

You know, you see the old Star Trek and Spock goes "Computer analyze the levels of Dilithium on Pointiear 111." And Computer gets on with it.

I don't know why, but I anticipated the real life application of this idea to be a bit of a faff. ( I got stuck in a sliding door once as well)

You would need an acoustic , sound-map of every file and window on screen and a studio recording quality ( human) memory to make the model 100%. ( Blind version of photographic memory?)

I guess the kind of stuff Sharley is describing in the Braille Pads probably is another way around it and it's the option my character has gone for although she does integrate the pad with Voiceover which is the built in system on Macs.

The really fascinating thing for me is, I have conducted a number of 'experiments' using FF guys as test pilots.

I wrote a short story from the perspective of a blind character. Everyone commenting said it had highly visual qualities even though none were directly decribed.


This is odd and I'm sure someone out there has studied all this
and there is a name for it.

Thank you both for your advice .

Advice

It is worth downloading a screenreader and trying it out (Window-Eyes and Jaws both have trial versions - just as well as Jaws licence is more than $1000). Mind-boggling that anybody can really achieve anything on a computer with one. Made me think a bit about the way software has gone.
G