Create Affordable Systems for the Blind

But first, start with a simple exercise. Reach up and turn off your monitor. Now ask yourself, can you use your computer?

Welcome to the world of the blind. For them, the emphasis on graphical user interfaces (GUIs) is something of a bad joke—they're blind. About 1.3 million Americans are blind, and if you count all forms of restrictive visual impairment, the total rises to about 10 million people in the U.S. alone, according to the American Federation for the Blind.

While the accessibility industry offers a vast range of solutions, many are dishearteningly expensive. So in this Recipe, I'll examine some of the more inexpensive approaches that a system builder can take to serve blind and other visually impaired customers.

Windows XP's Built-in Resources

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It's a little-known fact that three applications for the disabled are built into Windows XP: Narrator, Magnifier and On-Screen Keyboard. You'll find them by selecting Start > All Programs > Accessories > Accessibility.

Windows' Narrator program announces screen events and read text in Notepad and WordPad, in the control panel and desktop, and in a few other situations.

The On-Screen Keyboard lets you click screen keys with a mouse. Or you can "dwell" on a screen key and let the software notice it, or put the application in scan mode and click when the desired key is highlighted. This allows typing via a one-click joystick. It looks like this:

The Windows Magnifier adds an extra on-screen window that zooms in on the area around the mouse pointer or text-entry point.

All three apps have one thing in common: a disclaimer noting that they have a "minimal level of functionality." Nevertheless, these apps illustrate what can be done. By testing them, you'll better appreciate what fully-functional systems can do.

Moving Beyond Windows

Blind computer users consider the era of MS-DOS and CP/M as the good old days. That's because screen activity with those older operating systems was so straightforward: just line after line of unformatted text, which a screen reader could simply speak aloud. (A screen reader is software that narrates aloud whatever text is strolling on the screen, usually over a system's speakers.)

But with the advent of Microsoft Windows and other GUIs, the screen reader is confronted with an ever-changing landscape of windows and dialog boxes. It has to announce new windows; explain the presence of frames, tables, and hyperlinks; help the user navigate through the screen elements using keyboard commands; and incidentally read aloud any text it encounters along the way. In addition, the output can also be vectored to a Braille device so the user can read it through his or her fingers.

Screen readers are the foundation for blind computer use. Today, there are three main screen readers for Windows: Market-leader JAWS (Job Access With Speech) for Windows from Freedom Scientific, which retails for about $895; Window-Eyes from GW Micro, which costs $795; and HAL Screen Reader from the U.K. vendor Dolphin Computer Access, which goes for $800.

Configuring a reading system is an area where a consultant can add value. A blind person, equipped with the right software, can lay printed material on a scanner and have it read aloud by the software. Books and magazines become accessible, although jump-to-inside-page stories in newspapers are a source of annoyance—just as they are for the sighted!

Standalone systems can cost $3,000, including a PC, scanner, keypad controller, and extras like a system for recording audible file names. A serviceable system could obviously be configured less expensively, considering how cheap PCs and scanners have become.

The most popular text-reading software packages are OpenBook from Freedom Scientific, and Kurzweil 1000 from Kurzweil Educational Systems. OpenBook costs $995, has three different OCR engines, and will "skim" by reading only the first (or first and last) sentences of paragraphs, letting the user jump in where desired and begin full reading. For reading the text aloud, it has two different synthesizer algorithms: a natural-sounding one when reading for pleasure, and a droning one for use when editing. The Kurzweil 1000 also costs $995. It sports two OCR engines, two reading voices, a scanning optimizer, and editing and study tools aimed at students. Working with Braille

Then there's Braille—the alphabet for the blind made of raised dots. Braille computer displays typically offer one line of anywhere between 20 and 80 characters. The characters are represented by cells of six or eight pushpins that represent the dots. Six dots are standard for English Braille, but the use of eight pins can let the display note the cursor position, support European Braille, or handle fancy math. Each cell may also have a sensor that, when pressed, moves the cursor to that letter (i.e., performs a right mouse click). Fancier units may have a second sensor that, when pressed, announces information about the character such as font size or color.

The important thing to know about Braille displays is that they're expensive. Prices start at about $1,500 for a 20-line display. An 80-character display with all the bells and whistles will cost as much as $10,000.

Of course, it's not a big conceptual stretch to take a portable Braille display and add some processing power, memory, the buttons needed to input Braille characters, I/O ports, and various applications including a browser, e-mail package and word processor, and you have a PDA—the size of a hefty palmtop—intended for use by a blind person. Such devices are called notetakers, and they're even more expensive than Braille displays.

There are three popular notetakers on the market. Braille Sense from GW Micro retails for about $5,000 with 32 Braille cells and a small LCD display for the sighted. The PAC Mate line of notetakers from Freedom Scientific, which run on PocketPC and have detachable keyboards, are priced in various configurations starting from about $2,500. And the BrailleNote mPower series from HumanWare (based in New Zealand), comes in an 18-cell version that starts at about $4,400. The 32-cell Braille Sense looks like this:

Braille printers—called embossers, for obvious reasons—are also expensive, starting at about $2,000. An output of 60 characters per second is considered fast. Some of the embossers can produce graphics, generally for maps and charts as opposed to anything ornamental. (Yes, you can get Playboy in Braille—but without the pinups!)

Keep in mind that you cannot assume that a blind person reads Braille. Many of the blind lost their sight later in life, did not learn Braille in school, and consequently depend on audio systems. Most notetakers include digital audio recording and playback features. Some are pure audio units with no Braille facilities at all.

A person whose mobility is impaired may be able to see the screen but have a hard time interacting with it. For those who can't use a mouse, there are head trackers: The user has a small dot glued to his or her forehead, and a camera mounted on the computer tracks it and converts head movements into mouse moves and clicks. One such system is the Tracker 2000 from Madentec, which retails for about $1,800.

There are also sip-puff switches (for mouth control), foot switches, sensitive plate switches, and a whole range of other adaptive devices. If you're interested in offering these products, the EnableMart on-line catalog is a good place to start.

Many users of mobility products want a full-function, on-screen keyboard, rather than settling for what XP offers. An example would be the $300 SofType from Origin Instruments, which even has click-drag facilities so the user can play Solitaire. Like most such applications, it has a word predictor, so the user doesn't usually have to spell the full word.

For dictating text without any use of the keyboard, the latest generation of speech-recognition software is embodied in Dragon Naturally Speaking 8.0 from Nuance Communications, and it works surprisingly well. For more on this, see my earlier Recipe Listen Up! Speech Recognition Comes of Age. But when the dictationist is blind and depends on a screen reader such as JAWS, the environment can get unmanageably chatty. To solve the problem there's J-Say middleware from T and T Consultancy of the U.K. Pricing starts at about $600. Ingredients

The quickest way to get started is to download the demo version of JAWS for Windows and learn how to use it. Even if you're not disabled, you'll find yourself using it to read text aloud, since it adds a new dimension to proofreading. The demo version will run for 40 minutes between system restarts, which is enough time to get your feet wet on the app. It's a 52-MB download, so it's best to have a broadband connection. Other than that, all you'll need is an adequate PC with a speaker. Here's a complete list:

Installing JAWS

Download the JAWS file using Internet Explorer, set to run on completion. All other programs should be closed. After JAWS downloads and starts running, it will speak up and tell you to reboot by pressing Return. Do it. After the system reboots, JAWS will spend several minutes unpacking and installing the files, eventually narrating the state of the fuel gauges.

The installer will leave a JAWS icon on the desktop. Simply invoke it and leave it running in the background, and the computer will commence announcing screen activity. The voice is much clearer than the one offered by the Windows XP Narrator, and there are numerous adjustments you can make.

There are various keyboard commands you need to learn to move the focus across screen elements and to start and stop the narration, etc. There are separate Help files for using JAWS with various common applications, such as Internet Explorer and Excel.

Using JAWS for Internet activities, you'll come to appreciate the ALT tag in HTML, which lets a Web programmer attach a descriptor to a graphic to serve as its caption when the graphic itself is not displayed. On a Web page that relies on graphics, a blind person can figure out what’s going on only by reading the ALT tags. Horrifyingly few Web designers use the tags, however, and consequently many pages are useless to a blind person since so much information is embodied in the non-tagged and inaccessible graphics. Google's minimalist opening page is a favorite counter-example.

With that, you're in a position to serve blind or visually-impaired clients. Finding such clients varies from place to place. Most states, for example, have a Commission for the Blind whose local office you might want to approach. Local universities typically have an office devoted to services for disabled students. You should also learn the culture of the disabled: for instance, always talk directly to blind people on the assumption they’re aware of your presence (because they are), and realize there is no taboo against using the word "blind." Also, there's no expectation that you'll work pro bono—people do make a living in this field.

Assisting the blind is a daunting topic, but it can also be satisfying both personally and professionally. It can also lead you to appreciate the gift of vision. You can see the screen, and you can reach the keyboard. You've got it made!

LAMONT WOOD is based in San Antonio, Texas, and has spent more than two decades freelancing in the high-tech field for publications ranging from Scientific American to trade magazines in Hong Kong. He has also written eight books, including Your 24/7 Online Job Search Guide, E-Trepreneur (with Sherry Szydlik), The Net After Dark, Get On-Line!, and Bulletin Board Systems for Business (all published by Wiley).