disabilities

The Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which President Obama is expected to sign on Friday, would make it easier for people who are visually impaired, deaf, or have other disabilities to access smartphones, TV programming, and other technology products. This would include making sure that devices could, when possible, be used by people who may not be able to see a screen.

The act is designed to assure that closed captioning, which is required on TV broadcasts, also applies to Web TV programming, and it would require that TV and Web-video interface devices, such as remote controls, be … Read more

A new sniff-sensing controller out of Israel may enable the severely paralyzed to navigate wheelchairs, surf the Net, and communicate in writing via controlled inhalations and exhalations.

The system, being developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, employs a sensor that fits in a nostril's opening and measures changes in air pressure. A pressure transducer translates this information into electrical signals, which are transmitted to a computer, and its specialized software, via USB connection. Patients on respirators use a passive version of the device that diverts airflow to their nostrils.

Researchers tested the system on 96 healthy volunteers and 10 quadriplegics, with promising results. Some users, the team says, were able to navigate an electric wheelchair around a complex path or play a computer game with nearly the speed and accuracy of a mouse or joystick (watch the video below to see a demonstration of the wheelchair in action).

While the system can be made to work with a variety of sniffs (long or short, strong or shallow), researchers employed a simple sniff code for their tests: A "double sniff in" implied "forward;" a "double sniff out" implied backward; a successive "sniff out then in" implied left; and a successive "sniff in then out" implied right.

Using incremental signals (a "left" command turned the chair left, another "left" command turned it farther left) volunteers navigated wheelchairs indoors and outdoors, with the most complicated maneuvers, executed both by healthy and quadriplegic volunteers, being sharp turns.

The scientists were particularly encouraged by tests conducted on three patients with Locked-In-Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder in which cognitive function remains unimpaired, but all voluntary muscles are paralyzed, except for those that control eye movement. The condition was famously portrayed in the 2007 film "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," which told the true story of a journalist with Locked-In who dictated his memoir through eye blinks alone.

Sniffing is a precise motor skill controlled in part by the soft palate, the flexible divider that moves to direct air in or out through the mouth or nose. Because the soft palate is controlled by nerves that connect to it directly through the braincase, the Weizmann team built on its theory that control over soft palate movement might stay intact even in the most acute cases of paralysis.

Using the sniffing system to control a computer cursor, the Locked-In testers were--after considerable practice--able to communicate with family members, said Noam Sobel, a Weizmann Institute professor of neurobiology who developed the system with electronics engineers Anton Plotkin and Aharon Weissbrod, and research student Lee Sela. "Some wrote poignant messages to their loved ones, sharing with them, for the first time in a very long time, their thoughts and feelings," he said. … Read more

A blind person will soon be driving at Daytona.

No, I didn't begin my Independence Day celebrations a week ago. Please, bear with me a little. We'll get to Daytona shortly.

You see, the Associated Press has offered the information that the National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech University have come together to develop technology that will allow blind people to get behind the wheel of a car and go wherever they like.

2011 should see the debut of a prototype vehicle equipped with "nonvisual interfaces." This technology transmits information to blind drivers about … Read more

For those with upper-body disabilities, using a computer can be quite challenging. While voice recognition software has advanced to a stage where you can orate an essay and see it typed out, in some cases cursor control may involve a touch screen and a straw held in the mouth.

Designer Liu Yi has come up with the Toe Mouse, which, as its name suggests, is made for the feet. Gripped between the big toe and the second toe (as with a pair of flip-flops), this wireless peripheral uses an optical sensor and two buttons to give physically challenged users full … Read more

Updated: February 17, 2010 at 11:40 a.m. PT. Google has changed the disabling procedure for Google Buzz. You can read about the change here. February 11, 2010 at 12:15 p.m. PT to share a new rollout that Google implemented to better manage (and block) contacts. Also added a note about profile privacy.

My colleague Molly Wood called it a privacy nightmare, but to many, Google's new social-networking tool Buzz is at its root an unwanted, unasked for pest. The way some of us see it, we didn't opt in to some newfangled Twitter system and we don't particularly want to see updates from contacts we never asked to follow creep up in our Buzz in-box. Call us what you will, but for curmudgeonly types like us, Buzz isn't so much social networking as it is socially awkward networking. We tried it, we didn't like it, and now it has to go.… Read more

Updated 4:50 p.m. PST with response from Amazon.

Three universities will refrain from using Amazon's Kindle DX in the classroom under terms of deals announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In separate pacts, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Pace University in New York City, and Reed College in Portland, Ore., agreed that they "will not purchase, recommend, or promote use of the Kindle DX, or any other dedicated electronic book reader, unless the devices are fully accessible to students who are blind and have low vision."

The Justice Department's civil rights division has been exploring whether Kindles and other e-readers violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. Last year, two organizations representing the blind--the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore and the American Council of the Blind in Arlington, Va.--sued another school, Arizona State University, after it and other universities announced pilot projects to use the handheld device in classrooms.

The federation has said that while it appreciates the Kindle's text-to-speech feature, the "menus of the device are not accessible to the blind...making it impossible for a blind user to purchase books from Amazon's Kindle store, select a book to read, activate the text-to-speech feature, and use the advanced reading functions available on the Kindle DX."

Per the settlements, according to the Justice Department, the universities agree that if they do use dedicated electronic book readers, they will "ensure that students with vision disabilities are able to access and acquire the same materials and information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as sighted students with substantially equivalent ease of use."

"Advancing technology is systematically changing the way universities approach education, but we must be sure that emerging technologies offer individuals with disabilities the same opportunities as other students," Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said in a statement. "These agreements underscore the importance of full and equal educational opportunities for everyone."

Amazon said Wednesday that it had no comment on the Justice Department deals. It did, however, point us toward a December 7, 2009, statement highlighting positive reactions from vision-impaired readers who have benefited from the device and announcing that it's working on new features--including an audible menu system--that will make the Kindle better for the visually impaired. … Read more

There are less fortunate people in the world unable to enjoy the brilliant sights and sounds offered by the latest home A/V technologies. Fortunately, help is on the way in the form of a new "Talking TV" technology tailored for the visual and hearing impaired, dyslexic, and elderly.

Co-developed by Ocean Blue Software and the U.K.'s Royal National Institute of Blind People, the world's first talking digital TV system offers enhanced information accessibility and ease of use via two complementary approaches.

Currently implemented in a set-top box, the system delivers onscreen text-to-speech capability with … Read more

In yesterday's blog we were all enthralled by a battle of four "clunker" trade-ins filled with "liquid glass", and lemons attempted to one-up the other by outlasting their opponents in running time before the inevitable seizure of their respective engines. Today's clip is similar, but in my not-so humble opinion the duel between these two clunkers isn't the story here. What I found more amusing was the amount of smoke that this old Lincoln Towncar (I think...it's a Ford make so I'm close) was able to emit. And to me, … Read more

Most dialogue about the Car Allowance Rebate System tends to be wholly serious - especially by those who oppose the government-endorsed program. Not surprisingly, a lot of web video on the subject has been less than humorous. While any government-mandated policy deserves serious analysis and informed opinion, sometimes you gotta make light of such issues and have a little fun. With this in mind, today I present a fun little video where four traded-in "clunkers" have a literal race to the death.

This web video follows the fate of four old and purportedly useless automobiles as they are … Read more