Software and Hardware for the blind and visually impaired

Software

Screen magnification

Screen magnification software can enlarges an area of the computer monitor display or depending on what software you use it can enlarge the whole display. This allows the users with visual problems to view the display close. Software that does this includes Dolphins SuperNova and the Windows Magnifier.

Screen reader

Other software that can help these people can be a screen reader. This software will scan the display, to identity the text and interpret what is scanned. It can then play it through the sound output. It can also read aloud information within dialog boxes and error messages. Screen Readers are also capable of reading aloud and selections, graphical icons on the desktop. Software that performs this includes Apples Voiceover for the Mac OSX and Dolphins SuperNova can also do it as well as Screen Magnification. This software allows users with visual problems to have the capacity to know what text is on screen.

Hardware

Brailed keyboards

Brailed keyboards are used by blind and/or visually impaired people. They allow them to use a keyboard without the need to see the keys. They use raised dots to represent different letters and words. The user who will need to know the Braille system can then just use touch to feel which key means what and be able to type by touch.

A braille keyboard.

Braille Printers Also known as Braille Embosser they create text as Braille. Using special translation software it will print a document by punching dots onto special Braille paper, which is thicker and more costly than normal paper. This software allows visually impaired and blind people to have hard copies of text but in a language they can understand if they are familiar with Braille.

A picture of a braille printer.

Word Processed Documents

Word Processed Documents are text based documented created with word processing software e.g. Microsoft Word. These documents can contain such things as memos, reports, letters and essays. They allow the user to enter, edit, format, save and print out text based hard copies of their document. They also give the user the option to print out hard copies of documents which is an advantage because it gives people a portable permanent document. This allows them to have the document when not at the computer. This will be useful for someone who wants to hand out the document to people, instead of sending it to them on the computer. Word processers also allow users to add images, tables, graphs to your documents.

Users are giving the option to save their work so they can close the program and then open it up later on and add more to their document or edit what they have already put. Features including in most word processing software include a spell checker that will check the document for spelling and grammar mistakes, they will show the user when they have made a mistake and give them the option to correct it. A disadvantage to this though is that the spell checker will not always pick up mistakes e.g. It will allow you to put ‘there’ instead of ‘their’ because both are in the dictionary.

Microsofts's Microsoft Word 2007

Podcast

Podcasts are a way for people to publish video or most of the time audio files. People can subscribe to these podcasts and they are able to download them automatically to their computers. Subscribers are able to pick what they want to hear and/or watch. The people who use podcasts use them for varies reasons such as re-broadcasting old radio and television content, the distribution of educational lessons, radio shows and they can also be used by businesses to alert employees of updates e.g. conference meeting time changes.

Advantages of using podcasts are that it is easy to publish your files and allow users to listen/watch them by putting them out on the internet. But some disadvantage to podcasting is some people don’t like to subscribe to things, so won’t subscribe for new podcasts which may cause podcasters to lose viewers/ listeners. Also when creating your files, if you make mistakes you will have to go back and take time editing them which could take a long time to try and make your video/audio file run smoothly.

Apple's podcast options in i-Tunes

Presentations

Presentation programs such as Microsoft’s PowerPoint, allows users to display information normally in the form of a slide show. Presentations are normally used as a way to convey key points across to people while talking more in depth about the key points. Most have a feature, which allow the presenter to add notes to the presentation which when printed off will show under each slide. They are generally used by business people, educators and students. They help people easily create a presentation that can include images, graphs, tables, bullet points even sound and video. An example of where a presentation program can be used is in educational places teachers can create a slideshow of the up coming lesson to show the students what they will be learning about. This is time saving for them and easier for students to read and take in.

Advantages of these programs can include the following: they help people save a lot of time and make their presentation look more professional who would otherwise have to use other types of visual aid such as white/black boards. The presentation can be viewed with or without the presenter being present, the slide show can set to run continuously at a pace set to the needs of the presenter and run without human input. It can also be projected onto a whiteboard with the presenter controlling the transition between slides while they are talking. Lastly slide shows can be controlled by viewers, allowing them to make the decision when they want to view the next slide.

The only downside to using presentation programs will be that you cannot view the presentation without a computer unless you print it off and some of the features can be a little complicated to use and may require some getting used to.

Microsoft's Power Point 2007

Instant Messaging

Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time commutation between one or more people using typed text. IM programs such as Microsoft's Windows Live allows users to have a contact list of other peoples email addresses, they can then chat to these people when they are online, the user will also have notifications of when other users come online and be able to see who is online and who is not. IM programs let people to commutation easily over the internet using text. Benefits from this can be that most of the time it is free, fast and user friendly. These programs allow people to commuicate with others all over the world easily and In addition with some IM programs they allow users to read their emails and get a notification when they get a new one, a program that does this is Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger.

A feature of most IM programs is that you have small picture icons called emoticons which you can send with the text to show your expression, such as a smile face or a mad face. You can also have other small pictures such as a sheep or a love heart. Other features of IM can include the following: allows users to transfer files such as pictures, audio, video and documents easily to one another, users can have a video chat using webcams and voip.

Disadvantages of using IM can be that you cannot use it without being connected to the internet. Also you can be cut of from a conversation if you or the other person looses your connection. It can also run slowly or have errors e.g. messages take a long time to send, or don’t send at all. This will prevent you from having a good conversation.

Screenshot of Windows Live Messenger.

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a way of calling someone using the internet as the communication channel. You use a headset or a normal phone that is connected to the computer. You could also just use a plug in microphone and have the computer speakers to hear the other person. You use programs such as Skype to do this. It is very easy to set up as all you will need is a program and equipment to allow you to speak and hear.

Advantages of this will be that it can be cheaper than using a mobile or landline to call other mobiles and landlines. In some cases it can be free of charge, such as with Skype if you call someone else and you are both using Skype on your computers. This can be very useful for people wanting to call people in other counties e.g. America or Australia. But some disadvantages will be because you are using the internet, you could be subject to a bad connection or be disconnected from the internet altogether, thus loosing connection from your call or the call being poor quality.

Skype

Video conference

A video conference is a conference between people using webcam and microphones over the internet. Companies use this to have their conferences with each other because they can stay in their city or country without the need to travel. So they will be having a 'face to face' conference just not 'face to face' in person. It is expensive for companies to organise conferences when they are based in different cities or countries. It is a lot cheaper for them to do this than to pay out for the travel and accommodation expenses.

But on the other hand using the internet and relying on technology to run the conference will come with some bad advantages. They will need a technical expert to setup the conference link and other problems such as they could get disconnected from each other e.g. internet may go down for one of the companies. The software running the conference could also fail due to errors or bugs. Any other technological errors such as: the sound not working correctly or the webcam being blurry and not working correctly. This would have a big effect on the conferences, it could force the companies to post pone them until they have the errors fixed.

A company having a video conference meeting.

Email

An email is an electronic message sent over the internet, it can be a text document or html document sent from one person to others. They are sent using the internet to email accounts, they can be sent from websites e.g. people complaining about a website will fill out a form on the site and it will be emailed to the website owner. They can also and most of the time sent from other email accounts.

Some benefits from using email are that it is free and very fast to use. Anyone can use email for free providing they have an internet connection. When sending an email you can include attachments, which will be sent along with the message, these can include attachments such as word documents, photos or power point presentations.

Disadvantages can be that if you do not have an internet connection or an email account you cannot send or receive any emails. Also having an email account you will be subject to junk/spam email, which can include viruses or phishing emails which will pose a security risk to you and your computer.

View of an inbox using Microsoft's Hotmail service

Video Blog

A video blog or vlogging is when a person records themselves on a video and then posts it onto an internet website e.g. Youtube. It is an online journal/ message. The intention is to get peoples responses from them. Most bloggers post weekly or monthly videos about their life or just on a particular subject it can be about what they are thinking, what they have done or just some views they have. A benefit of doing this is that viewers can see the expressions on the bloggers face in the video. Advantages of this can be that viewers can see the bloggers facial expressions and emotions in the video. This will make it easier for people to understand what is being said e.g. if they are mad or happy. Another advantage of using a video blog is that it can be easy and quick to do, if you plan what you are going to say out, otherwise it can be a disadvantage with you having to edit your video of all mistakes.

A video blog from a games website about a Sonic game.

Blog

Blog stands for weblog, it is the same as a vblog, just not a video, it is a typed up message/journal. It can include hyperlinks and pictures. It is then posted onto a website e.g. blogger.com for people to view and add comments about it. Some of the advantages of this will be that it is a quick and easy way to post your views and thoughts onto the internet, for people to read. If you make a mistake while typing it is very simple to go back and edit it, unlike if you record a video blog, were as you will have to use another piece of software to edit out mistakes, which could be time consuming. Disadvantages of using a blog can be that some websites limits you to its own software e.g. the way they design the pages. People can easily have access to it, which can be a spam hazard.

Creating a blog with Blogger.