Hardware takes a long time to build, test and take to market, especially a specialized market like the one for people witout vision. Hear from DOT’s founders about the lessons they learned along the way as well as the challenges that stil lie ahead.
APH and HumanWare continue to drive forward in developing the Dynamic Tactile Device (DTD), bringing innovative technology from DOT Inc., and creative ideas from leaders in the braille community together, building a solution referred to as the “Holy Braille.” In this breakout session, Greg Stilson will share developments on the DTD’s ecosystem and how educational content will be delivered to students as never before. See how DTD applications can enable students to study, shop, play games, and more. Share insights to assist in maximizing the usefulness of this innovative tool.
While we now have the technology for converting a novel like War and Peace into accessible formats, converting STEM education materials remains a challenge. Making these books accessible today requires a lot of human effort. The average math textbook contains over 5,000 equations, and it can take three to four months for a specialist to transform a print math book into accessible formats. But with AI-driven approaches, we can reduce the conversion time from months to minutes. Benetech has built and trained an AI engine that uses machine learning and computer vision to identify, classify and convert math equations and images into MathML. It converts a PDF document into an accessible EPUB in a matter of seconds. With this solution, we are marching towards achieving our vision of creating equity and inclusion in STEM education by bridging the gap in availability of accessible STEM educational materials.
The Internet of things, or IoT, loosely refers to todays landscape of connected devices in both how they network with each other and the cloud. IoT plays a major roll in all our daily lives. From having your smart speaker adjust the thermostat to tapping your watch on a rapid transit reader, or ordering food through a kiosk, we are living in a world with over 7 billion connected devices. While much of the IOT is accessible to someone who is blind, at times awareness of how to interact with these “things,” can be challenging. Assistive technology can serve as either a conduit to more efficiently access the connected world, or as an augmentation to vastly improve the user experience. This presentation will explain how HumanWare is using machine and deep learning technologies to provide more complete access to the connected world. We will look at currently available devices, as well as where we are heading in the future.
Join the American Council of the Blind for a conversation to learn how the built environment is becoming more accessible and independently navigable for people who are blind. In this session, ACB will host a conversation with representatives from Verizon Communications, Way Map, and Way Finder Family Services to share how technology developers, service providers, and the blindness community are collaborating to solve long-standing issues through the adoption of new technologies. We will discuss the latest innovations in way finding and navigation technology, learn how they are helping to meet the needs of people who are blind, and postulate how these services might be enhanced in the future. Here are helpful videos from Way Map and Verizon / Way Map describing their work.
For nearly 35 years, HumanWare has been at the forefront of developing unique solutions that allow for braille readers to interact with the world around them. Join us at the HumanWare breakout session where Peter Tucic and Louis-Philippe Massé will help participants better understand the benefits of a refreshable braille device for screen reader users, and showcase how we have continuously furthered expectations of what these devices can do to increase productivity amongst all users through innovation. The main takeaway for attendees will be to best grasp what a refreshable braille device is, why someone would use one, and how the introduction of HumanWare’s new intelligent braille displays strives to push the envelope moving forward in this space.
In this session, Sam Proulx, Accessibility Evangelist at Fable and 30-year screen reader user, will challenge attendees to think about what the future of screen readers might be like in a rapidly changing technology landscape. In conversation with Lynette Frison, Fable’s Community Manager, many of our core ideas about what screen readers are, what they do, how they work, and how we interact with them will be explored and challenged. What is a screen reader without a screen to read, a text to speech voice for output, or a keyboard or touch screen to control it? How can a screen reader work with 3D and other non-linear information? What is the place of AI in screen readers? Surely, it’s about more than just recognizing images and OCRing text! Over the past 30 years, we have lived through the change from text-based DOS interfaces to graphical ones, from keyboard only interfaces, to control schemes that use touch screens, controllers, and mice, and from hardware text to speech to having everything done in software. However, most of these changes have been incremental improvements. If accessibility is to thrive in a world of augmented reality, wearable technology, and haptic interfaces, the entire framework of the screen reader may need to be rethought from the ground up. But it can’t happen without people with disabilities and assistive technology users. In this interactive and conversational zoom panel, your thoughts, questions, and ideas will be welcome as we explore the future together.
A brief look at the features built into WordPress.com that can help site builders with accessibility, as well as how the platform itself is built accessibly. Includes a short demo of editing a site using screen reader software and a Q&A.
Join Mark Miller as he hosts David O’Neill and Matt Ater to discuss how Vispero brands Freedom Scientific and TPGi collaborated to empower JAWS Screen Reader users to have voice in surfacing the issues they face navigating websites. Learn how organizations can now easily integrate JAWS Screen Reader user testing directly into their accessibility programs to improve user experiences.
Who knew that screen readers, unlike Web browsers, are not interoperable. Web site developers don’t worry about whether their code will work on Safari, Chrome or any other browser, but if they take accessibility seriously they have to test for JAWS, VoiceOver, NVDA and the rest. That’s about to change, thanks to the W3C ARIA-AT project. This session is a breakout follow-up to the main stage session on the same topic held yesterday.