NVDA NonVisual Desktop Access
| tags: blind, programming, enabling technology, links
An open-source screen reader for windows written in Python, wxPython, and ctypes. All my favorite tools! I've got to upgrade to Python 2.5 so that I can try it out.
Posts with tag: blind
Improving the cheap Braille display
| tags: blind, enabling technology
Karen suggests that I emulate what Kevin Ivarson did and give feedback on key press to guide the user to the right keys. Right now I record on release but could announce the letters on press to allow the user to get it right before releasing.
Example Maps
| tags: blind, maps, enabling technology
Some maps Diane sent to help us think about text-based maps. She said:
I have faxed several maps to you. Eastern Alamance High School is a series of buildings connected by covered sidewalks. On my map, the buildings are shaded yellow. The section with X and circles (bushes) is the outside courtyard. There is a map of Northgate Mall (Durham). I have a poor map of GMS. The last map is a street map of the area around GMS. The numbers on this map correspond with restaurants (see last page).
The motors work great with the USB-1024HLS!
| tags: blind, deaf, enabling technology
The tiny pager motors ( VPM2 from Solarbotics) work great with the USB-1024HLS. I can drive them with the 15mA source capacity of the USB-1024HLS. Using duty-cycle modulation I can control the strength of the vibration. The 4-wire cable I used for each set of 3 is too stiff allowing vibration to couple from one to the next. I'm going to switch to long flexible pairs stripped from a flat cable. That should allow more freedom in placement and less coupling.
USB-1024HLS Digital I/O
| tags: blind, deaf, enabling technology
I bought a USB-1024HLS from Measurement Computing for an experiment with tiny pager motors as a cheap Braille display. For $149 you get a tiny brick with screw terminals. It works great. Their library is easy to use from Python using ctypes. I'm guessing USB timing limits it to 125 updates per second. I've got it blinking LEDs while I'm waiting on the pager motors to arrive.
Programming cell phones
| tags: blind, deaf, enabling technology, links
Alex says the Brew development envrionment for Qualcomm phones is free. Perhaps we could do the Morse-code text messaging for deaf-blind people with that.
Searching for a speaker that you can feel vibrating
| tags: blind, ideas, enabling technology
I've made the claim that we can drive a small speaker at a low frequency and feel it vibrating.
An almost free Braille display
| tags: blind, ideas, enabling technology
For $25 we can buy a little USB device that has 6 audio outputs. They intend them as front/back, left/right, and center/bass; this is called 5.1 audio. They provide three standard 3.5mm headphone jacks for plugging in the speakers.
Graphs for blind students
| tags: blind, ideas, enabling technology
The most frequent request I get from teachers of the visually impaired is help with graphs. Graphs are a part of the curriculum that blind kids don’t get. I contend that simply displaying the graph with touch or sound is not the answer. What is? Could we (semi)automatically extract key points from a graph and convey that information to a student?
Cheap wheel-based Braille display
| tags: blind, ideas, enabling technology
Most refreshable Braille displays are constructed with pin-grid arrays like these:
The pins stick and the refreshable cells are expensive.« Previous Page -- Next Page »