Reasserting Survival Through Technology

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic', says

Arthur C. Clarke. Perhaps this line summarizes the magic visually challenged

people experience when they come through software that bring a sea change to

their lives. IT has come a long way in changing the lives of visually

handicapped people with several software that help them lead a better life.

IT that engages a direct involvement with the blind people has been given the

name assistive or accessible technology. These technologies that involve

software and hardware products has worked wonders for the visually challenged

while offering them the opportunity to perform their tasks independently. Some

of the assistive technologies include screen readers, screen magnifiers, voice

browsers and text to speech browsers.

India is now home to the world's largest number of blind people. Of the 37

million people across the globe who are blind, over 15 million live in India.

With such a major chunk of visually challenged population, the need for

inclusive growth has been a challenge. However, several efforts are being taken

by different vendors and governments departments including CDAC, Freedom

Scientific, Karishma Enterprises in this regard are worthy of appreciation.

The road ahead



With new text to speech software hitting the market ,the scenario has
dramatically changed. Computer literacy has become an avenue for new job

opportunities and it has taken ahead people with visual impairment as well.

Let's have a look at some of the common software that are being used these days.

JAWS (Job Access With Speech) is the most popular one amongst the

software that are widely used these days. It has acquired high degree of

reliability in premier institutes across the country including National

Association for Blind (NAB), All India Confederation for the Blind, Society for

Child Development, Blind Relief Association(BRA). JAWS is being used across the

country and other parts of the world. The software with an American accent

converts text to speech. It can be adjusted for varied reading speed depending

on the comfort level of the user. This software is one of the most useful and

convenient one available in the market. JAWS when combined with the scanner

(like Kurzweil),OCR (Optical Character Recognition) reads out the text. JAWS for

Windows XP Professional costs $1095 and JAWS for home is $895 as against Window

Eyes for home which costs $795. In the Indian context, these prices are

exorbitant. Only a few institutions for the blind in India can afford these

speech output software packages. For individual users, these prices are mostly

beyond reach.

Screen readers can be adjusted in terms of reading speed to suit indiviual preferences.

Talk 6.3, the software that changes the mobile handsets into talking phones,

has also found a place among the differently abled people. It reads out messages

as well as the phone numbers of the people calling thereby making the

communication easy. Available for $395, the software works on certain high-end

Nokia phones.

Software like PARROT is a voice organizer. It is basically an electronic

diary, in which you can record phone numbers, addresses, memo and appointments.

It is a full voice product. You input your data by speaking , you get the answer

by voice and you search your data by voice recognition.

Kurzweil speaks text aloud in a variety of natural-sounding voices that can

be modified to suit individual preferences. It reads scanned or copied text and

provides users with document creation and editing as well as study skills

capabilities for note taking, summarizing and outlining text to gain mastery.

Kurzweil also delivers quick access to a wealth of information including online

books, magazines and encyclopedias. Besides, it retrieves information online

with features that simplify locating electronic books and magazines. In

addition, it takes reading on the road by sharing electronic information with

MP3 players, portable note taking devices, Braille printers and conventional

e-mail applications

Undoubtedly, the role that software like JAWS and SAFA are playing in the

lives of blind people will go a long way in strengthening the present as well as

the future prospects of the visually impaired people. The built in tutorial of

JAWS, Kurzweil not only have accelerated the learning process but have tried to

give an edge to the deprived lot.

The challenges ahead



As Dr. Madhumita puri, Executive Director, Society for Child Development, puts,
'Unfortunately the softwares available are very expensive. Some permit multiple

users and so the cost is brought down by several persons sharing the expenses.'

The mobile phone software has the added disadvantage of requiring a high end

handset, which is not affordable by most. In these instances the human interface

is relied upon. So,dependability is still there due to the cost issues.

Another dark side of the story is that software available today are in

English and other European languages only. However, recently JAWS has tried to

make an attempt by launching the TTS in Hindi. The scanners that are available

also are at times not able to scan the bar graphs, charts or maps.

Going by the huge number of blind people in the country, the market for

assistive technologies is big. Unanimous effort can only keep the visually

impaired people on the bright side of the digital divide.

Archana Singh