A Month Into the Braille Readers are Leaders Program

I mentioned in a previous post that I'm working on improving my braille reading skills. To motivate me, I am participating in the Braille Readers are Leaders program put on by the NFB. This is the first year they're allowing adults to participate.

In that post I mentioned that I was reading Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. I am proud to tell you that I finished the book. It was almost 1000 pages in braille. As of today I have read almost 700 pages for the contest which started on Nov. 1st. I am currently reading an issue of National Geographic, but I'm hoping to order another book. If you have any recommendations please feel free to leave a comment. If you're a braille reader and haven't entered into the contest there's still time. I'm doing this for me. If I end up winning anything, I'll be happy, but mostly I'm happy because I'm improving my braille skills.

Bringing Tactile Feedback to Touch Screens

Even though Apple has developed a way for touch screen devices to be accessible to the blind, some non-sighted and sighted people still miss having tactile feedback. I've recently come across two solutions for this problem. One is something you put on your IPhone, and the other is an emerging technology that could be used with any touch screen interface.

For Iphone users that either don't like typing without a physical keyboard, or for those that have figured how, but still don't like it, there is now a solution. 4iThumbs is a new product that gives you tactile feedback when you're typing. The device is also a screen protector, and when you need to have full access to your screen you simply pop the 4iThumbs off and put it on the back of your phone. The ridges on the outside guide your thumbs while you're typing. 4iThumbs comes in portrait or landscape models. The best part is the price, only $15-$20. If anyone has tried this product please let me know what you think of it.

For those of us who don't have an Iphone, or are still waiting for touch screen to give real tactile feedback, then I'm happy to say there's hope on the horizon. Two professors at Carnegie Mellon have created a system that uses pneumatics to turn touch screen buttons into physical buttons. According to this article, "The technology consists of a flexible surface area with a hard backing that acts as a mask for the button shapes.  An air chamber behind the backing can be pressurized or depressurized using pneumatic technology, in this case fan-based pumps.
When positive pressure is applied, the buttons pop out.  When the pressure is neutral, the screen is flat.  When negative pressure is applied, the buttons pop inwards. Images are displayed on the surface using a projector behind the device, turning the surface into a display screen.  Button presses are detected using an infra-red camera pointed at the front of the screen that detects reflections of light from a fingernail.  When your fingernail gets close to the screen, a button press is recorded.  This technology cannot easily distinguish between a finger touching the screen and one merely close to the screen, so a press is not recorded until the finger presses down on the surface and causes a detectable change in pressure in the air chamber."

At this point the technology has some pretty big limitations, but it seems like this could be something we find in our cell phones and other touch screen devices someday.

How much more likely would you be to purchase a touch screen device if you knew it could provide you with tactile feedback?

Captchas: The Bain of Everyone's Existence

As spammers and spam bots continue to get smarter, we will only have to work harder to prove that we are in fact human when we're filling out forms on the web. At this point, we prove our humanity by answering what are called "captchas", or what I like to call, " images that you have to have a super power to read and understand." For the sighted, these captchas are just an annoyance, but to the non-sighted, or reading disabled, inaccessible captchas are potentially a hinderance to us participating on the web. I bring this topic up not only because I continue to encounter inaccessible captchas, but also because I'm happy to say that there is a lot of effort to make sure that captchas are solvable by everyone. So where is the hope, and what can we do to continue to outsmart the spammers, without keeping out people with disabilities?

First I'll tell you about two different options for solving inaccessible captchas. The first is a plugin for the Firefox browser called Webvisum. This plugin will actually solve the captchas for you. I question the intelligence of such a program since it's possible that spammers may get a hole of it, but at least for now it is a way to solve captchas if you can't see or understand them. The second is a service called Solona. This is a website run by a web developer who volunteers his time to solve captchas for people who can't see them. In order to use the service, you take a screen shot of the form with the captcha, send it to Solona, and then a human volunteer will answer the captcha and send the form back to you. These services are good options, but they aren't a complete solution to the problem.

So the question is how do you make a captcha accessible, without making it solvable by spam bots? There are actually many options. The current audio captchas include, typing in a set of numbers that you hear, and typing words that you hear. The draw back to both of these is that they can be difficult to hear, or too challenging. I often have to listen at least 2 to 3 times and then I still worry that I'll get it wrong, but at least this option gives me the potential of being able to submit the form. Another option, and one of my favorites is to make the captcha a question that you have to solve, such as, "what is 2 plus four?" This is a simple math problem that most people should be able to solve, but it isn't something a computer can solve. Finally, there soon will be a new option thanks to the work of the NFB and Townson University. They're new system will use pictures of familiar objects and sounds that correspond to the pictures. If you are listening, the answer to the captcha is whatever the sound corresponds to. So for example the image may be of a lion, and the sound would be a lion roaring. The answer to the captcha is lion.

So as frustrating as captchas can be, it seems like there is efforts to make them more user friendly without being spam friendly, and with hope maybe someday people with disabilities won't need services such as Webvisum or Solona.

I Can't Read Braille With My Eyes Closed

I made an interesting observation last night that I felt like I had to share. I was trying to relax myself while reading my braille book, so I thought I would just close my eyes. Much to my dismay and shock, my reading slowed down and my eyes started twitching. I couldn't believe it, it appears that I can't read braille if I have my eyes closed.

I have a hypothesis about why this happened. It is known that reading braille activates the same parts of the brain that reading print does, so my thought is that my brain was telling my eyes that I wouldn't be able to read if my eyes were closed because my visual cortex was being activated.

Am I crazy? Do any of you read braille with your eyes closed? If so, have you ever experienced your eyes twitching while doing so?

Disney/Pixar's "UP" Includes Descriptive Video, But Only If You Buy It

I really have a love/hate relationship with Disney. Just two weeks ago I was telling you about the new descriptive audio offerings at Disneyland. Well now I have to tell you how Disney is one big contradiction. In the recent DVD release of Pixar's "Up" one of the features is descriptive video. As awesome as this is, it's only a feature on the DVD if you purchase it. That's right, Disney decided to make a special rental version that has all of the features including close captioning, descriptive video, and even the shorts removed from the DVD. So apparently if you're disabled and want to enjoy this film, you better want to have it as a part of your dvd library.

I'm sure you're asking yourself why Disney made this decision. According to consumerist.com, a disney representative simply said that it was a marketing decision to remove all "special features". It is unknown if there are any DVD rental companies that will be offering the DVD with the special features included, but Netflix, Blockbuster, and Red box for sure have the modified version.

There is no excuse for this, especially for those who waited for the DVD release because they have a disability. People with disabilities shouldn't have to pay extra to enjoy a movie, especially when the features were built in to make sure that the blind and deaf could better enjoy the film. I'd really like to know how this decision came to occur. It seems clear to me that Disney must not employ anyone with a disability in their marketing department, because if they did they would realize that this is likely to cause people to not buy the DVD, rather then increase sales.

I hope that this blog post and others that have been written sends a message to Disney that this kind of behavior isn't acceptable. If they really want to promote accessibility and inclusion, then do so. Don't offer accessibility and then take it away because it might effect your profit margin.

Should Disabled Characters Only Be Played By Disabled Actors?

In an article that I read recently, an advocacy group is up in arms because when Helen Keller's story "The Miracle Worker" returns to Broadway this winter, the lead role will not be played by an actress who is either deaf or blind. Instead the role of Helen will be played by Abigail Breslin who is best known for her role in Little Miss Sunshine. The question is, should the disabled community be offended, or should we praise non-disabled actors learning what it means to be disabled?

I honestly think this is a difficult call. On the one hand the whole point of acting is to take on a personality of someone that isn't you, hence the point of having straight actors play characters who are gay and vice versa. But there seems to be a catch 22 when it comes to actors who have disabilities. Blind actors are only allowed to play blind characters, which begs the question are they really acting? Obviously they're not playing themselves, the character likely has personality differences, but why should they be restricted to roles where the audience knows they're blind? This restriction says to me that directors can't conceive a blind character playing someone who is sighted and so they don't allow it, but really they are only restricting the number of roles that blind actors can audition for. So in that case maybe we should be upset that Helen Keller isn't being played by a young actress who is deaf and/or blind.

The other side of this argument of course is by casting non-disabled actors to play disabled characters, directors are opening actors' eyes to what it means to have a disability. In this particular case, I think the advocacy group's time would be better spent making sure that Abigail gets real life experience of what it it is like to be deaf and blind before she goes on stage, instead of protesting her playing the role. They could introduce her to deaf and blind actors, invite her to visit a school for the deaf and blind, and encourage her to spend time outside of rehearsal experiencing life without her vision or hearing. I think too often roles of disabled characters aren't done well enough because the able bodied actors who play them don't get enough real experience or contact with people who experience those disabilities.

In conclusion, I think the advocacy group's energy isn't being used in a way that will best benefit the disabled community. Although I think that disabled actors should be given more opportunities, I also value able bodied actors playing roles of disabled characters as long as those actors are given the chance to understand what it means to have a disability.

What do you think? Should Helen Keller only be played by an actress that is deaf or blind, or should we spend our time making sure that when disabled characters are portrayed, that the actors are given the best education possible?

Denmark Strips Away the Right to Privacy from Blind Voters

On Wednesday I read that one of my blind friend's in Utah just experience voting by himself for the first time thanks to his voting machine having built in text to speech. On that same day, I also read that the blind in Denmark not only don't get to vote by themselves, they have to have a council member present when they're voting. This rule was supposedly implemented to make sure that the sighted helper wasn't pressuring the blind voter to vote in a particular way, but what it really does is just strip that voter of their right to privacy.

It is important to note that this rule is both a violation of the Denmark Constitution and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. No one, disabled or not should ever have to reveal who their voting for. I am sure that this will only prevent more people from voting rather then encourage them to.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Solving the voting issue for those with visual impairments is not difficult. I've voted three times now using a simple solution called an electronic ballot. The html based ballot is emailed to me. I then fill it out on my computer on my own time, print it out, and send it through the mail. The solution probably costs very little and it serves anyone with an email address and a computer. In fact, the person wouldn't even have to use their own computer since there are now free screen readers. So in my opinion there is no excuse for not having an accessible ballot, and there is really no excuse for forcing blind and partially sighted voters to have to vote with sighted assistance. I just hope that Denmark sees the error of their ways, and grants the right to privacy back to their blind citizens.

Have you ever voted with an accessible ballot? Are you more likely to vote if you're able to do it on your own?