TECHNOLOGY, THE

WAY FORWARD

22nd March 2016

NATIONAL COUNCIL

FOR THE

BLIND, MALAYSIA

M A B Malaysian Association for the Blind

1951

S B M Society of the blind, Malaysia

1964

S N H ST. Nicholas’ Home

1926 S S B

Sabah Society for the Blind

1963

S K S B Sarawak Society for the Blind

1963

`

Short History

•1808 – The first typewriter is built by Pellegrino Turri to help a blind friend write legibly.

•1934 – The Readphon Talking Book was invented.

•1936 – Bell Labs invents the first electronic speech synthesizer called “Voder” (for “voice coder”).

•1975 – Ray Kurzweil created the Kurzweil Reading Machine and the first OCR technology and created one of the first CCD (charge coupled device) scanners.

•1986 – Jim Thatcher created the first screen reader at IBM, called IBM Screen Reader (for DOS). At first it wasn’t trademarked because it was primarily for low vision staff members. He later created a Screen Reader/2 for graphical interface PCs (4).

•1995 – Microsoft issued Windows 95, the first time their OS had built in accessibility features (rather than as an add-on) (5).

Tis was rather limited and now, it is still very limited.

•1997 – NCR Corp created the first audio ATM, accessible to blind or illiterate users.

•1999 – World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released Web Content Accessibility guidelines.

The Era of Synthetic Speech

We can look at the history of screen reader technology in

terms of five key timeframes These include

1. the era before the PC,

2. the period of the DOS-style PC,

3. the period of the Graphical User Interface (GUI),

4. the era when Web technology became prevalent.

5. Presently, it is the era of mobile compputer, where

the power is in the hands of a user.

Freedom of choice

While about 1% of a country’s population may be blind, they should not be robbed of their freedom to exercise their choice. The general public may have a negative perception of the blind, it will be our duty to erase such perceptions. The blind must be given the opportunity to grow and move forward. Besides parents, teachers are the next group of people that come into contact with the up and coming blind persons.

Screen readers to assist the blind

While JAWS seems to be a very popular screen reader used by the blind all over the world, there are several others that are available. Narrator is a simple screen reader that is provided together with the Windows operating system since

Display the Start menu by pressing Ctrl+Esc (or the Windows logo key). Press R and type narrator. ...

•In the Narrator dialog box, you can select different options: To turn on Announce events on a screen, press Alt+A. ...

•To turn off Narrator, press Alt+X, Y.

Note: Narrator is only a very basic simple solution

Window Eyes

Window Eyes is a screen reader produced by

GWmicro. This used to be a paid product, however,

Fort Wayne, Indiana (January 14, 2014) - GW Micro,

Inc. (www.gwmicro.com) is proud to make a

revolutionary announcement. GW Micro and Microsoft

Corp. have partnered to make Window-Eyes available

to users of Microsoft Office at no cost.

http://www.gwmicro.com/

http://www.gwmicro.com/Window-Eyes/Demo/

Thunder

Thunder is a free screen reader made by Sensory Software Ltd and destributed by Screenreader

Screenreader is a subsidiary of Communication for Blind and Disabled People.

Charity no. 1131000,

Company (limited by guarantee) no. 6885145

Communication for Blind and Disabled People Ltd,

Registered office: 7 The rookery, Orton Wistow, Peterborough: PE2 6YT

http://www.screenreader.net/

NVDA

NVDA is an open source and free screen reader.

•Support for popular applications including web browsers, email, internet chatting, and office programs including Word and Excel.

•NVDA can be installed directly on to your computer, but it has the ability to run entirely from a USB stick or other portable media.

•Built-in speech synthesiser for English and more than 43 other languages.

•Reporting of textual formatting where available, such as font name and size, style and spelling errors.

•Automatic announcement of text under the mouse and optional audible indication of the mouse position.

•Support for many refreshable braille displays.

•Easy to use talking installer.

•Support for common accessibility interfaces including Java Access Bridge.

•Support for Windows command prompt and console applications.

Enhancing the voice

As different blind persons will have different preferences, there are add ons to make such improvements. The vocaliser is one such solution

https://vocalizer-nvda.com/downloads

In this page you can find the Vocalizer for NVDA driver and all the available voices, packaged as NVDA add-ons. You need to install both the driver and at least one voice package

Accessibility & Microsoft

The first software providing access to windows was designed by a company called

Synther Voice which was released in 1992. Known as Slimware Windows Bridge for

Windows 3.1, within the next 3 years, a new version was released providing access

To Windows 95.

Ai Squared release the first screen magnification software for Windows 3.1 in 1991.

Microsoft has done more in recent years but they have left it to other companies to

Provide more comprehensive solutions.

Apple Operating System - IOS

VoiceOver is a screen reader built into Apple Inc.'s OS X, iOS and iPod

operating systems. By using VoiceOver, the user can access their

Macintosh or iOS device based on spoken descriptions and, in

the case of the Mac, the keyboard. The feature is designed to

increase accessibility for blind and low-vision users, as well

as for users with dyslexia. The first version of MAC operating System that

Included accessibility was their IOX 10.4.

The Ubuntu Operating System

ORCA is the screen reader which can be loaded when running Ubuntu.

Alternatively, is is also possible to enable Orca at install time, to help a blind

person independantly install Ubuntu onto a system. When booting the live CD,

one should hear a bongo drum sound. At this point, a user can go ahead and enable

Orca. Once again, the keyboard shortcut Alt + Super + S is used to enable orca.

Orca should start speaking, and from this point one can select the language of

choice, and either boot into a live Ubuntu desktop by selecting the "Try Ubuntu"

push button, or one can choose to install Ubuntu by selecting the "Install Ubuntu“

push button

Solutions for the Low Vision

Screen Magnification softwares have been

specially designed for the Low Vision. While the

Microsoft Operating System has been built with

some flexibility, it cannot cope with the vide

demand of people with limited vision.

Magic - http://freedomscientific.com/Products/LowVision/MAGic

Zoomtext - http://aisquared.com/

Microsoft’s solution

1.Click Start, point to All Programs, point to

Accessories, and then click Accessibility.

2.Select one of the following features:•Magnifier

With this feature, you can enlarge the screen

display.

In windows 7, while in the search field, just type

(magnifier)

More on the Windows Magnifier

To use Magnifier to enlarge the screen display

Magnifier is a display utility that makes the screen more readable for users who have low vision. Magnifier creates a separate window on which a magnified portion of the screen is displayed. You can also change the color scheme of the magnification window for easier visibility. You can move or resize the Magnifier window, or use a drag-and-drop operation to move it to the edge of the screen and lock it in place. Magnifier is intended to provide a minimum level of functionality for users with slight visual problems. When Magnifier is open, you can arrange the Magnifier window, and use the Magnifier Settings dialog box to set Magnifier options.

Magic

Processor speed Minimum 1.5 GHz processor for Windows 7 or Windows Vista

RAM

Minimum 2 GB for Windows 7 (64-bit); 4 GB recommended

Minimum 1 GB required for Windows 7 (32-bit) or Windows Vista; 2 GB recommended

Required hard disk space MAGic requires less than 200 MB of hard disk space for program and settings files. Video

DirectX 9.1 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 driver or later; DirectX 10 or later recommended

Multi-monitor support Computer and video card that supports dual monitors; 32-bit color recommended; two computer monitors

Sound Windows compatible sound card required for speech

Zoomtext

System requirement:

1 GHz Pentium® 4 processor or equivalent

1.5 GHz for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Should work from Windows XP to Windows 8.1.

Minimum 1 GB RAM for Windows Vista and

Windows 7

To toggle ZoomText Express on and off

On the ZoomText Express User

Interface, click the ZoomText

Express On/Off button.

Press the Toggle ZoomText Express

On/Off hotkey: Alt + Delete.

Smartphones and Tablets

The three main operating systems are:

1. Microsoft for mobile phones – V8.1.

2. IOS for Apple products – V9.2.1

3. Android V6.0

All the 3 operating systems above have some form

of solution to assist the blind and vision

impaired.

Microsoft Mobile

Microsoft Mobile is a multinational mobile

phone and mobile computing device

manufacturing company headquartered in

Espoo, Finland, and a wholly owned subsidiary

of Microsoft. Its principal activity is the design,

development, manufacture and distribution of

mobile phones, smartphones and tablet

computers and related accessories.

Apple

STATEMENT FROM APPLE:

We’ve done everything possible to make anything

possible.

Apple products are simple, intuitive and easy to use.

And to help you do more in more ways, a variety of

award-winning assistive technologies come as standard.

So every device not only has accessible features — but

accessible principles — built right in.

iOS from Apple

iOS Accessibility

iOS is an incredibly advanced — and accessible

— mobile operating system. Innovative features

like VoiceOver, Switch Control and Guided

Access help those with special needs enjoy more

of what iPhone, iPad and iPod touch have to

offer.

Some very useful apps

Skype

Zello

Ibooks

Text Grabber – Abby Reader

KNFB Reader

90% of the software are accessible

The Android System

Android started without having the blind in

mind. However, as of version 1.6 (cupcake) had some

form of accessibility. We believe that initiatives on

accessibility started in 2008. In version 4.0 (Ice cream

Sandwich) font size was included to assist those with

partial vision. Presently, Talkback is voice support and

Brailleback is the facility to work with Braille displays.

Even at version 5.00, there are still issues with

accessibility.

Some useful apps in Android

Skype,

Zekko

Gmail

K9mail

Facebook but not Messanger

Many radio programmes are accessible

Firefox.

The need to work together

Since July 2013, The Resolution of the Conference on the “Incheon Strategy, all the delegates, together agreed to support the government in achieving the goals of the “Incheon Strategy”

In today’s focus is Target 3. Unless we make a collective effort, come 2022 we will still be talking about what is accessibility.

Moving Forward in Malaysia

1. Regulate the creation of websites in Malaysia in line with W3CAG.

2. Development of a Text-To-Speech Engine for Bahasa Malaysia.

3. Ensure development of Apps in Malaysia is accessible through the Android and IOS Platforms.

4. Explore possibility of making digital television accessible for the blind.