Group AT Research for Blind Students

Laptops, Braille Displays, Screen Readers & Screen Enlargement - Assistive Technology for the Blind

1)  The youtube clip below shows a variety of assistive technology used for the blind at the School for Deaf and Blind in Florida.  Each student in grades 9-12 has a laptop and a page enlarger if needed.  Students can access wireless internet and a printer anywhere on campus.  Below are two of the devices widely used at the school.

The Daisy book players (Digital Accessible Information System) is used for textbooks and leisure books.  It is a talking book which allows an individual to navigate through text, skipping to the next sentence (or page) and back again.  Daisy books can be heard on standalone DAISY players, computers with DAISY software, mobile phones, MP3 players, CD and DVD.  The cost is between $200-500 dollars, depending on the product purchased, but well worth the money!

The USB CCTVs are for both near and far sighted (low vision) individuals.  You can resize an image on the computer to adjust magnification of text or graphics.  You can purchase a small, portable one shaped like a computer mouse, which plays off windows.  It is about $300, but gives individuals with vision problems the independence they need to be literate and read anything on the internet or computer.

Becky's Find:

2) The Braille Notetaker has allowed for complete integration. The advanced notetaker acts like a PDA. These units have QWERTY keyboards and refreshable displays and a variety of communication ports. It utilizes a pocket PC program which and has a Daisy book player built-in. Electronic braille notetakers are small, portable devices with braille keyboards for entering information. These units allow for complete integration and use a speech synthesizer or braille display for output. These advanced notetakers act like a PDA with QWERTY keyboards and refreshable displays. They have a variety of communication ports to link to various other technologies and devices. Many devices come with 128 MB flash memory; two USB host ports and a USB client port; stereo sound when listening through headphones; support for listening to Internet radio; an audio recorder with either an external microphone or a built-in microphone with fully adjustable recording levels; built-in Bluetooth for connections with cell phones, keyboards and other computers; and a fast Intel X-scale processor.


The user then enters the information on the braille keyboard and can then transfer it to a larger computer (more memory), reviewing it using the built in speech synthesizer or braille display, or printing it on a braille or inkprint printer. The cost of a basic electronic braille notetaker is between $1000 and $3,000 with the option of products containing more sophisticated features that can cost up to $15,000.

Jeff's Find:

3)  The Eyenote app for Ipad and Iphone is what Jeff found to help those with visual impairments. The app takes a picture of a bill and determines what denomination it is. The app is free. For comparison purposes, I chose a video which compared the Eyenote reader to an app, Money Reader, which is two dollars. The video is informative because the demonstration of the two apps is performed by two visually impaired individuals giving the viewer an accurate idea of the practical application of both apps. The major difference between the two is that the user must take a picture of the bill with the Eyenote reader, whereas with the Money reader it scans and automatically indicates what denomination the bill is. It is readily apparent that the Moneyreader app is much more user friendly even though it cost two dollars.