Assistive Technology for The Visually Impaired

     Visual Impairment and blindness greatly affects students’ learning due to their inability to see classroom materials such as text, graphics and images on computer screens. A student with this disability will need significant modifications to the learning environment to succeed and be afforded an equal education in the least restrictive environment according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). (2004) A student who is affected by a disability must be given the opportunity to be educated with non-disabled peers to the greatest extent appropriate.  A student with disability may be hindered by the print-rich environments of today’s classrooms. Their inability to see as clearly as their peers also hinders their participation in cooperative-learning activities and reading activities.  For these reasons, visually impaired students must be provided tools and devices will allow them to receive an equal and quality education.

     Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is a very useful tool for the visually impaired student. This technology has the capability to scan, recognize and read text, as well as convert the images into recognized characters and words.  The OCR synthesizer then speaks the recognized text.  This file can be save on the computer for later access or stored on the OCR which has dedicated storage memory. The visually-impaired student can access their files as a word document format, since these files are easily converted. Just as the word processing applications we are familiar with and depend on our own computers, the OCR will also recognize sentence structure and language mechanics in order to correct common errors in spoken word or text.   The OCR like many non-AT’s has its own dictionary and spellchecker.

     One example of OCR technology is Cobra 10.2.  This screen magnifier provides speech output and large print magnification as well as support for Braille users.  It is available in twelve languages and is compatible with multiple versions of Windows Operating Systems. A special feature called Acoustic Hour Glass audibly reports the status of the system after a command has been issued by the user.  This is useful because a blind learner cannot easily determine the cause of the latency between the command and the execution of the command while it is processing.  This can be especially frustrating for the visually impaired learner.  While processing, the Acoustic Progress Indicator lets the user know how much progress has taken place in the application. This tool really is comprehensive with features that support Braille readers and audio tools to help the learner hear the text.

     The most current tech tool for the visually impaired is the refreshable Braille Display. This electro-mechanical device displays braille characters to allow the user to read text output.  A series of round-tipped pens raise through the holes of the keyboard in which the user reads with their fingers. In the future it would be advantageous for this technology to be available to users more affordably.  The current versions of this device are prohibitively expensive at $12,000 for individuals as well as schools.  Providing braille users with version of this device at an affordable price point will significantly change the way visually-impaired learners access text and content.

References:

Disabilities Education Act, U. (n.d) Building the Legacy:  IDEA 2004.  Retrieved February 16, 2016 from http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/,root, statue,I,B,612,a,5, 

American Foundation for the Blind, Optical Recognition Systems (2015) Retrieved February 16, 2016 from http://www.afb.org/info/living-with-vision-loss/using-technology/assistive-  technology/optical-character-recognition-systems/1235

Cobra 10.2 The First in The World: On-screen OCR - Text Recognition. (n.d.) Retrieved on February 16, 2016 from http://www.baum.de/cms/en/cobra_features/