September 28, 2023

North Carolina State University: State COVID-19 Websites Fail to Meet Accessibility Standards

North Carolina State University: State COVID-19 Websites Fail to Meet Accessibility Standards. “Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. states and territories all created websites designed to share information with the public about the disease, vaccinations and related public health recommendations. However, a new study finds these sites do not meet accessibility standards – meaning that some members of the public, such as individuals who are blind or visually impaired, are not able to access all of the relevant information on the sites.”

COVID-19 0
August 12, 2023

MakeUseOf: How Specialized QR Codes Make Packaging More Accessible to People With Vision Impairments

MakeUseOf: How Specialized QR Codes Make Packaging More Accessible to People With Vision Impairments. “Blind and partially sighted people often carry a computer companion—a smartphone running at least one of a battery of applications that help them navigate the world. Now a group of companies is supercharging the capabilities of those apps through a very slightly modified QR code. And the first packages with the ‘accessible QR codes’ are already on UK shelves.”

Other Things I Think Are Cool 0
July 28, 2023

Mercer University: Professor creates accessible weather device for visually impaired students

Mercer University: Professor creates accessible weather device for visually impaired students. “Physics professor Dr. Matt Marone created the accessible technology — which converts data measurements to speech — for Georgia Academy for the Blind in the spring, and students used it in May to take their first temperature and humidity measurements for NASA’s Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program.”

Other Things I Think Are Cool 0
July 8, 2023

IEEE Spectrum: Students Develop Low-Cost Wearable Device for the Visually Impaired

IEEE Spectrum: Students Develop Low-Cost Wearable Device for the Visually Impaired . “Employing computer vision techniques, students from the Ramaiah Institute of Technology’s IEEE Computational Intelligence Society chapter in Bangalore, India, developed a device to assist people who are visually impaired. OurVision is a low-cost wearable that reads text out loud to users and helps them navigate their surroundings.”

Research & Opinion 0
June 25, 2023

Android Police: Google upgrades Chrome accessibility with image to text conversion for PDFs

Android Police: Google upgrades Chrome accessibility with image to text conversion for PDFs. “The image-to-text functionality allows users to get a description of images in PDFs without alt text. AI can analyze the contents of picture and identify what’s in it, and then for text that’s saved as an image, there’s OCR technology to turn it back into text. Either way we go, the system generates machine-accessible text that can then be output by a screen reader.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
June 13, 2023

University of Michigan: New apps for visually impaired users provide virtual labels for controls and a way to explore images

University of Michigan: New apps for visually impaired users provide virtual labels for controls and a way to explore images. “Visually impaired iPhone users have two new free tools at their disposal, developed by a team now based at the University of Michigan. One can read the labels on control panels while the other identifies features in an image so that users can explore it through touch and audio feedback.”

New Resources 0
June 2, 2023

Purdue University: Independence Science and ViewPlus Technologies partner to create science access tools for students who experience blindness or low vision

Purdue University: Independence Science and ViewPlus Technologies partner to create science access tools for students who experience blindness or low vision. “Leaders at Independence Science and ViewPlus Technologies have announced a collaboration to develop new science access tools for people who experience blindness or low vision.”

Other Things I Think Are Cool 0
January 19, 2023

University of Waterloo: OneButtonPIN increases security for blind and low-vision tech users

University of Waterloo: OneButtonPIN increases security for blind and low-vision tech users. “Working closely with blind and low-vision (BLV) users, researchers at the University of Waterloo and the Rochester Institute of Technology have developed a new authentication method that could help BLV technology users more securely access their devices. The new method, OneButtonPIN, allows users to input PIN codes using a single large button and a series of haptic vibrations.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
January 9, 2023

Scientific American: Audio Astronomy Unlocks a Universe of Sound

Scientific American: Audio Astronomy Unlocks a Universe of Sound. “To realize their dreams, [Sarah] Kane and other budding blind or visually impaired (BVI) researchers are betting big on efforts to turn scientific data into sound, also called sonification. At a conference at the Lorentz Center in the Netherlands last December, a motley crew of scientists, sound engineers and educators representing the leaders of the nascent field of astronomical sonification gathered to discuss current projects and chart a course forward.”

Research & Opinion 0
November 21, 2022

Mozilla Accessibility Blog: Significant Improvements for Screen Readers Now in Nightly Firefox

Mozilla Accessibility Blog: Significant Improvements for Screen Readers Now in Nightly Firefox. “A couple of months ago, we shared an update on our Cache the World project, covering the ongoing re-write of the Firefox accessibility engine. The project aims to improve Firefox’s overall performance for users of assistive technologies (ATs) like screen readers and to reduce crashes and hangs. It will also make the accessibility engine easier to maintain and simplify adding new features going forward.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
November 5, 2022

Penn State: New coding tool could aid computer programmers who are blind or have low vision

Penn State: New coding tool could aid computer programmers who are blind or have low vision . “Prior work has focused on making different parts of the coding process more accessible for blind and low-vision users, such as reading or navigating code. Grid Editor is the first to place emphasis on code editing — an important step in making continuous updates to software, in which programmers edit and update existing code that was previously written by other programmers.”

Research & Opinion 0
September 28, 2022

PR Newswire: American Foundation for the Blind Announces Free Digital Inclusion Toolkits for School Administrators, Teachers, Families, and Students (PRESS RELEASE)

PR Newswire: American Foundation for the Blind Announces Free Digital Inclusion Toolkits for School Administrators, Teachers, Families, and Students (PRESS RELEASE). “The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) today announced its Digital Inclusion Toolkits, a set of free resources to create, encourage, and advocate for more digitally inclusive classrooms. Designed for school administrators, teachers, families, and students who are blind or have low vision, the toolkits include planning tools for educators and administrators; information and resources for families and students with visual impairments that are designed to help them connect with others; advocacy tips; and lists of support organizations, hotlines, and other helpful resources.”

New Resources 0
September 13, 2022

NTA Blog: Improving Services to Taxpayers With Visual Disabilities (National Taxpayer Advocate Blog)

National Taxpayer Advocate Blog: NTA Blog: Improving Services to Taxpayers With Visual Disabilities. “Millions of U.S. taxpayers are visually impaired and unable to read print material in a standard font size. As a result of a settlement agreement between the IRS and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) on July 10, 2020, the IRS agreed to develop a process for taxpayers to request post-filing tax notices in a variety of acceptable formats, including Braille and large print.”

Tweaks & Updates 0

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