How New Is the Revolution in Adaptive Technology
How Do People Who Are Blind Use Computers?
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- Question: How New Is the Revolution in Adaptive Technology? I just heard that blind people can
use computers that talk and use them to access the
printed world on their own. Did this become available
just recently? How did this come about?
- Answer: On January 13, 1976 Walter Cronkite
announced that a revolution had begun in how blind and
visually impaired people access information. Ray
Kurzweil and the National Federation of the Blind had
demonstrated the first working prototype of a reading
machine that converted printed text into synthetic
speech. When Cronkite, the CBS news anchorman, signed
off his broadcast, blind attorney Jim Gashel was at
the controls of the reading machine, which said in
synthetic speech, "And that's the way it was, January,
13, 1976."
It's important to remember how it was 30 years ago.
A blind person could not read print independently.
Blind people relied heavily on people who read to
them, either in their homes or on audio cassettes.
Braille was not any better because it was produced by
a limited number of sighted transcribers, who
underwent weeks of training.
Ray Kurzweil's idea, which had been turned down by
dozens of charities, funders and other disability
organizations, would eventually transform the lives of
people who are blind, but, back then, it was a bit of
a long shot. In 1974, Intel had just perfected a
microprocessor that could run a whole computer. By
January, 1975, the world's first personal computer,
the Altair 8800, went on sale. The Altair, created by
a retired Air Force General, was not even a computer.
It was a computer kit. You had to build it yourself
and then it usually didn't work. When it did, it had
no keyboard or monitor and lacked the input jacks for
them. You entered everything by using switches.
Since then, essential technologies have been
developed to make Kurzweil's reading machine viable:
the personal computer, speech synthesis, flat-bed
scanning and optical character recognition. These
are the building blocks of access for people who are
blind in our information society.
Now, nearly every written item is independently
accessible through technology for as little as a few
hundred dollars. The ideas and thinking behind the
Kurzwil reading machine are still being used today.
Many of the features and keyboard designs of software-
based PC reading systems are very similar to the
original Kurtzwil design.
For the first time in the history, the revolution in
access technology allows an easy and convenient
means for people who are blind or visually impaired
to communicate with each other on a global basis.
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- Question: How do people who are blind use computers?
- Answer: Most blind persons use speech synthesis
or screen magnification to access a computer. A speech
synthesizer translates the digital text on the screen
into a synthesized voice. Screen magnification
enlarges what appears on a standard monitor.
People who are blind don't usually use voice
recognition or speech input.
In most cases, blind people use standard, unmodified
computer keyboards to touch type.
Some people use refreshable Braille displays, which
are electro-mechanical strips of Braille dots that
provide one-half line to one full line of the computer
screen in Braille at the bottom of the keyboard. The
Braille display sits under a normal keyboard. When the
user marks text on the screen, the Braille display
shows, in Braille (tactile signs, pointscript), what's
on the screen. When the person types something on the
keyboard, the Braille display also shows what is being
written.
All of these devices hook into off-the-shelf desktop
and laptop computers. However, some video cards and
modems will not work with adaptive equipment, so it is
best to work with an adapted technology specialist or
an experienced blind computer user.
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