7 Tech Tools that Help People With Disabilities Access the Online Work
The above picture is of a man sitting at a desk working on his laptop computer.
The
usage of technology in educational processes has become a common thing for the
majority of students. Though, it is worth noticing that not everyone has the
ability to use it properly due to their physical conditions. Holding a mouse,
typing the text on the keyboard, or even see or hear the task becomes a serious
issue when a student has a disability. The Internet becomes an extremely
inconvenient platform for them. Basically, this is why web accessibility for people with physical disabilities has become a matter of considerable
concern among people.
It
is not that easy for healthy people to understand what disabled people are
going through even in general, not mentioning the understanding of their usage
of technology. Therefore, it is necessary for the website to be developed in
the way it would conveniently serve them and to make the access they get equal
to what others have. There is a vast range of various disabilities people may
possess and learning and understanding them is inevitable to improve the
website's accessibility. Though, it was mentioned in a number of
scientific research and different pro-papers that in the last few decades the
assistive technology for people with certain health conditions has been
improved significantly, especially in the field of community services, which
makes it clear that now it is the website's turn to make adjustments in order to
serve to everyone properly.
As
it has been mentioned before, there is a number of disabilities people
experience and adapting the webpage to them is the only way to make people with
special health conditions comfortable. Due to that a variety of different tools
have been developed, both for some separate disabilities, or a complex of
them.
VISUAL
DISORDERS
The
main focus of the assistive technology that target visually impaired people is
the fact that they are not able to read and write in the way we are accustomed
to doing. Hence, there have been formed two groups of technological tools
correspondingly.
1.
Screen Reader
The
simplest tool is a screen reader, which is now a part of the basic settings of
every device. Basically, it is what it sounds like — the tool that reads aloud
the selected text fragment or the whole page, along with uttering the
functional buttons. Sometimes, the specialized speakers obtain a function of
translating the information into Braille. For those who do not know, Braille is
a tactical writing system in a form of relief points. The only tricky aspect of
this tool is that it has to give a disabled user the ability to read only
certain text, specifically the text the user needs, and avoiding advertisements and other unnecessary stuff. For example, a person can make it
read-only some certain line of the text or the text of specific color etc.
2.
Braille Keyboard
One
more problem to be solved is to allow visually disabled people to write.
Fortunately, it may be achieved by means of special keyboards, called Braille
keyboards. Of course, some may notice that there is no actual need for special
keyboards, as the regular ones with the Braille script already exist. However,
they are not that convenient as they appear too broad for people who can not
see properly or can not see at all. The Braille keyboard is smaller and fits
the size of the hands, making it easier to compose sentences in Braille.
3.
Braille Display
An The improved version of this keyboard is Braille display, the particularity of which
is the option of the output. It allows the user to select the fragments of text
they want to translate, and this makes working with a computer much easier. In
addition to it, it is a perfect device for deaf-blind people who are not able
to use a screen reader.
4.
Screen Magnifiers
For
people with slight or serious visual impairments, which are not blindness,
screen magnifiers are a useful tool. This is quite a common device, which helps
people see the content on the display. It can have a form of either an internal
computer setting or an external device. Not only it increases the size of the
text or objects but also sets the setting the way they make it more clear,
like adjusting contrast and sharpening.
PHYSICAL
IMPAIRMENTS
People,
whose sensory system are healthy, but their locomotor apparatus has some
special conditions should never be overlooked in the question of website
assistive technology. Even though they have no difficulties in the perception
of content, they may be really struggling with its creation, which should be
the main target of the web asses tool developers.
5.
Voice Control
The
least complicated option, which just like the screen reader is now available on
the majority of modern devices, is voice control. Basically, it is the utility,
that performs the actions according to what a user says. Moreover, it also
includes the creation of texts due to the speech-to-text converting programs.
You can tell the program where to put your cursor and what windows to select —
in fact, you can tell your computer anything you want it to do through this
tool, and it will do it!
6.
Hands-Free Cursor Control
For
people who have no physical ability to perform the movements with their arms or
hands using a mouse, a keyboard or any other type of cursor controller is not possible. These people need a
special device that would let them control their movement in any other possible
way. The developers have created a truly amazing thing — a FaceMouse. It is the
tool that catches the movements of the user’s face and head and turns them into
commands like clicks or cursor moving. There is also an option of setting some
stable commands for certain movements, for example, for opening the mouth.
Another similar and even more fascinating tool is the eyes movement tracker called
EyeGaze Edge system. There are two video cameras, that are located below the
level of the user’s
eyes and catch the movement of the eyes. It determines the place where to put
the cursor by seeing where the person is looking on the screen.
7.
Puff-and-Sip System
One
more mind-blowing website assistive tool that is serving people with physical
disabilities is the one, that lets them control the computer by blowing air
into a straw. It is a fascinating tool for those paralyzed people, who need website access. Its mechanism is very similar to the one of the joystick,
except for the fact that it is controlled by breath. It detects inhales and
exhales and converts them into commands like clicks or keyboard letters.
Authors
Bio
Matthew Ellington has years of experience working with different types of writing. Currently, he is working at Pro-Papers company, where he writing blog articles about everything. In his free time, he likes roaming the streets of New York with his Olympus taking photos of the best spots in the city.