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Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
Show Notes:
Google Glass as Assistive Technology
Carolyn Phillips & Ben Jacobs – Tools for Life, http://www.gatfl.org/
“Education Directory for Children with Special Needs” http://bit.ly/1kLUeOR
Three out of every four European banks fails in the accessibility of their websites http://bit.ly/1gpiY8b
What’s New and Changed for Blind and Low Vision Users in iOS 7.1 | AppleVis http://bit.ly/1kLSzc6
Belkin Wemo Review http://bit.ly/1dru0MJ
App: Google Voice Search www.AppleVis.com
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CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Hi this is Carolyn Phillips, and I’m the director of tools for life here at Georgia Tech.
BEN JACOBS: Hi, this is Benjamin Jacobs, and I’m the accommodations specialist at Georgia Tech, tools for life, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.
WADE WINGLER: Hi, this is Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana with your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of technology, designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs. Welcome to episode number 146 of Assistive Technology Update. Today go to talk about Google a lot. Our main interview is with our friends Carolyn Phillips and Ben Jacobs at tools for life in Georgia. They’re going to talk about Google class and how that used as is so technology. We’ve got an app worth mentioning segment also about Google. We have an interesting thing about military resources for kids with disabilities and what’s happening in iOS 7.1 related to us as a technology. We hope you’ll check out our website at eastersealstech.com. Give us a buzz on Twitter @INDATA Project or call our listener line at 317-721-7124.
The Department of Defense has created a new resource directory for service members who have children with disabilities. It’s called the education directory for children with special needs, and although it’s designed for use by military families, anybody can get to it. It wasn’t that’s broken down into school age directory which would be for services for kids ages 3-21, and then the early intervention directory or the EI directory for kids who are younger. When you get there you can click on the state and you can learn about all kinds of resources in your particular state that are helpful for kids with disabilities as they approached the educational process. I’m going to pop a link in the show notes and military family or not, check it out because it’s a lot great resources there.
And an article on phys.org, it talks about the fact that 74 percent of European union banks that were surveyed don’t have accessible websites. I know the screen reader users in particular sometimes struggle with websites, but here in the US, I think accessibility continues to improve. I was a little surprised to read that of the 50 banks that were surveyed, three quarters of the cases what accessible. Javier DeAndre, who was one of the researchers who did this project, says the website of the banks should provide text alternatives for all of their visual and auditory content, use units that facilitate understanding of stylesheets, include input devices alternative to using the mouse, and clearly identify the language used on the website. This article goes into further detail about which sizes of banks and some of the motivating factors impacting whether or not the website is accessible. You need to check out the show notes and read the article and you’ll learn more about this disturbing news that almost ¾ of the banks in the European Union don’t have accessible websites.
Just within the last couple of days, Apple has released iOS 7.1 which is the first major upgrade to the iOS operating system. I was impressed that they did some pretty cool stuff related to accessibility. I’m looking at an article here from Apple Vis, and I’ll stick a link in the show notes where you can get the details, but they talk about some of these features and why they are important. There’s a new feature called button shapes, and that allows you to take the textbased buns and iOS and put a sheet around them so they’re easier to distinguish from just text. There’s some more adjustments for contrast and set of just being a turn off or turn on high contrast, you now have three options. You can change the transparency. There are some ways to increase or decrease the background colors. There’s a way to reduce the motion in the native weather app and some other apps so that you can have less of that parallax sort of effect. Some new wallpapers. Now within voice over, have a different speech rate for each image that you’re using on your language rotor. There’s also a bunch of bug fixes, especially things about bug and voice over in the right information to the users. Now one of the things that I noticed personally was that I use the bold setting on my iPhone, and I’m learning that it doesn’t work with. For example the podcast app isn’t working as well with the bold setting turn on. Right now it’s making my buttons go away, so I can’t pause or play or at least I can’t see the buttons to be able to pause and play. I’m saying that some of the apps need to catch up with some of these 7.1 upgrades, but in general I think there’s some pretty good stuff. Check our show notes. I’ll have a link to the Apple Vis article, and you can read all the details about the bug fixes and these new features.
We’re seeing apps used for almost everything these days. My friend Tom DeCola over at AbleNet has done a review on the Belkin Wemo used with a Bluetooth switch and iOS device as an environmental control system. Wemo is a mainstream kind of environmental control or home automated system and an times review, he talks about the switch plus motion and the light switch products from Belkin that are in that Wemo product lineup. He goes through the process that he used to un-box them, and saw them, and set them up with a switch so that someone with a disability can use them to accept things like light switches and turning products off and on. I don’t want to spoil time preview, but I am going to put a link in the show notes over to the AbleNet website where you can read a lot of details about what time did to learn how to get the system to function as an environmental control it. Pretty interesting stuff. I think it speaks to the trends we’re seeing in the industry. I encourage you to check our show notes to read Tom’s review.
Each week, one of our partners tells us what’s happening in the ever-changing world of apps. So here’s an app worth mentioning.
SCOTT DAVERT: From AppleVis.com, Scott Davert with this week’s app worth mentioning. This week we’re talking about Google search for iOS. Google search for iOS does have a voice search component which will allow you to complete some Siri type things on your device which is really good for those who are running other iPads, older iPods, or older iPhones. Those people won’t have access to Siri so this is an alternative. Google voice search will give you a voice output answer to a lot of different questions. And a lot of weight it’s similar to Siri in the sense that you can ask it what time is it in Adelaide; with the weather looking like for tomorrow; you can also ask for sports scores and lots of other information. In addition to this Siri like functionality, you’ll also find it convenient if you’re one of these people who likes to run multiple platforms. For example I know people who have iPhones and android tablets. If you are signed in to Google now on the iOS platform, you can set up reminders and calendar events on the iOS site of things and have them show up on your android tablet. The only key there is to make sure that your signed into the same account with both devices. When the app is launched, as long as you have it enabled, on the iPhone 4 and later, the iPod five and later, as well as the third-generation of the iPad and later, you can actually set it up so that all you have to do is say okay Google and it will open the microphone and let you conduct a search.
I’m actually going to open the app right now. I didn’t open it before we started this segment because it would have picked up on me saying okay Google, and what I thought I was attempting to conduct a search. I’m going to watch the app now and actually demonstrate for you first of all the voice output. Another unique think that a voice feature does that Siri doesn’t do directly. “Okay, Google.” [TONE] “What’s the status of JetBlue Airways flight 45?”
GOOGLE: “ JetBlue Airways 45 from Buffalo to Fort Myers is on time and departs in two hours and 43 minutes.”
SCOTT DAVERT: And while that features does exist in some way sincerely, they would just pull up Safari and give you the results in a search field. So you actually have to interact with the screen if you’re a voice over user to get the information, or for example if you’re driving, you shouldn’t be looking at the screen so you would be able to get the information as quickly. I actually used this on a recent trip I took, and it was accurate, so that was a really nice thing. I also had Google now enabled swells able to know that my flight was indeed on time and it allowed me to make sure that I knew what was going on. For more information about the Google voice search as well as a comparison of Siri and Google voice search, you can head on over to AppleVis.com. You’ll also find other app reviews and information for voice over and low vision users along with information about the newly released iOS 7.1. From AppleVis.com, I’m Scott Davert with this week’s app worth mentioning.
WADE WINGLER: It’s hard to look anywhere in the news of technology, let alone assistive technology, and not hear something about Google Glass. Everybody is talking about glass. I’m fortunate enough because, though I haven’t been able to mess around with or try or even have my hands on Google glass, but I have some friends from Georgia on the phone at the tools for life program who have. I’m joined by Carolyn Phillips and Ben Jacobs from tools for life. Guys, are you there?
BEN JACOBS: Yeah, how’s it going?
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Hey there.
WADE WINGLER: Hi Carolyn. So you guys got your hands on some Google glass, didn’t you?
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: We certainly did, and we are really excited about this. We’re especially excited because Ben was the one that actually got the invitation and was so proactive in staying on top of this. It’s very exciting because it’s been a big splash here in Georgia. I was just telling you and also telling been that we’ve had less than a month, we’ve had well over 300 people look at it, play with it, put it on, interact with them. So it’s been a huge hit here. We’re getting to the see what this wearable technology can do for folks.
WADE WINGLER: It’s really cool and exciting. Why don’t you tell me a little bit – I’m assuming most of our listeners have heard about it or know a little bit. But tell me a little bit about what it is and what it does and how you got your hands on it.
BEN JACOBS: Google glass is a piece of wearable computer technology that you were just like any of the classes. It has a prism that sits in front of your right eye and gives a heads up display about the same size as a rearview mirror, through that display you’re able to see all sorts of information as if it were a phone sitting in front of your face. It has voice activation. You can tell it any number of commands such as take a picture, record a video, send a message, call. You can Google search with it. It also has GPS built into it. That you can use for turn by turn navigation while you’re walking. It also has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and it’s just a great way to interface with your phone as well as the Internet and finding the information that you need right there in front of you.
WADE WINGLER: It sounds like there’s a whole lot of stuff that it does. How did you get to be one of the lucky few?
BEN JACOBS: I was fortunate enough to be able to receive an invitation through a program that Google has called “Google All Access.” It’s actually a music subscription service. They offered invites to anyone that subscribes to it at a certain time. I happen to be able to make it and under that deadline.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: It was kind of a funny story, because I had also put in a request to be invited, and I kept watching for my own invitation, and then Ben walked into my office and is like, “I got it!” so we jumped on that immediately.
WADE WINGLER: It’s like Willy Wonka and the Golden ticket. So this thing comes in a box. I assume it was delivered by some delivery service. To me a little bit about your impressions when you first about Google glass.
BEN JACOBS: I was very impressed. It’s very well put together. It was a nice clean looking white box. It came with a pouch for the Google glass. It also was set in a really nicely molded piece of plastic that also pointed out all the different buttons on it and the different pieces of the glass. It pointed right to them where the glass was sitting. I’m not sure what else.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: So I was actually out of time when Google glass arrived. I was thrilled because within just a few minutes of been opening up that box, it was so intuitive that he was able to instantly record, send me an email using his voice, and at the same time his partner actually took a video and she sent it to me. So I got the email saying I am sending this to you via glass. Then I got this email with the video. It definitely has that intuitive nature to it. It’s very quick. A lot of people that put it on, and moments they were able to get up and running. Even folks who are kind of technophobic.
WADE WINGLER: So quick technical question. Does glass next to your android device or your PC, or is a standalone device, do you have to hook into something?
BEN JACOBS: It does connect to either an android device or an iOS device via Bluetooth. As far as it working standalone, I believe you would still be able to take pictures and record video, but as far as sending text messages and things like that, it doesn’t have a cellular radio in it. It’s not like you can just pare it to your AT&T or Verizon account or whatever and have it work like any other cell phone.
WADE WINGLER: But it was easy to pair up and get it going?
BEN JACOBS: It was very easy. There’s actually a specific program that Google has put out called “My Glass” that makes pairing it with your phone very easy and simple. One of the other great features about the my glass app that I just recently discovered is called screen cast. What it does is takes the display from the glass and puts it on your phone so you can see exactly what is going on from glass to your phone. It’s been really useful when we’re demoing the glass for people for me to be able to see on my phone what they are saying, and I can tell them you’re looking at the main screen here. If you swipe over and you can see such and such. That’s made it really easy to demo and just an awesome application.
WADE WINGLER: One of the focus that we try to do with here is assistive technology. We are all in that business together. What have you done with it in terms of AT or exit ability work.
BEN JACOBS: As far as accessibility goes, it’s definitely the voice activation that it comes with that has definitely made it easier for some people to send text messages or just interact with their phone. You have hands-free, everything can be done hands-free on the Google glass. That has really made things easier for some people as far as using the technology to access the Internet, or taking pictures or video, sending messages and staying connected in general.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: It’s interesting, because this is one of those technologies that you can instantly look at and interact with, and within minutes the start thing about folks who can benefit from it. Then also has some of those downsides with her needs to be improvement or flexibility. I can instantly think of the folks that have spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, people who have had strokes, folks that have neurodegenerative disease processes happening as well as folks that have other sensory related disabilities. They might be death and they need captioning. They might have a learning disability and be able to use it very easily. I have already seen that it would help a lot of my people as you know within the learning disability community. I’m excited about all the applications.
WADE WINGLER: Is there application development being done that is disability specific, I think about augmentative reality, I think about low vision applications, I think about some of the things that you talked about as well. Is anybody out in front of the curve yet?
BEN JACOBS: I’m not sure. I imagine there must be someone. I know that eventually when – Michael moving forward is to get to the point where I’m developing an app for it. One particular app that’s out there right now is translate. How it works is you look at a piece of text and it will recognize that using optical character recognition. Then it will translate it from one window to another, say from Spanish to English or vice versa. You see it and the display. It actually changes the text to the language that you want to beat it in. The application idea that I have for this is for people with low vision or people who are blind or even for people with learning disabilities, the ability to look at a piece of English text and have it read to you so that all you have to do is look at something and it will read it to you.
WADE WINGLER: That’s pretty impressive technology. Either other kinds of things that you’re saying for future applications for folks with disabilities? Now that you’ve had a chance to play with this and dream a little bit about it, give me an idea of a product that doesn’t exist on glass yet but should.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: I think a lot of folks could really benefit from this, for example when shopping. It would really be cool to go through your kitchen and be able to scan just by looking at the items that you need as you’re putting them into the recycling bin and then go to the store and instantly have to list show up. Or have the ability to have the life captioning and interpreting as you’re talking to somebody. I think there are some real applications when it comes to that. I think as I’m looking at this, I’m thinking more about how so much of our life has become contextual so there’s an app called vocabulary. What it does is as you move about it actually changes your vocabulary. If you’re an augmentative, alternative communication user – and I could see where Google glass could actually really put that on steroids – so if you’re going into a place, you can instantly see the vocabulary that you need and it would be super cool for that to flow seamlessly from her glasses. Those are some of the application that I’m giving about. Ben, what about you?
BEN JACOBS: Yeah, I think the augmented reality can be beneficial for a lot of people to be able to look at a building and have it tell you exactly what the place is and show your route to get to certain areas. Or even I was thinking having an application that uses the GPS as well as recognizing buildings and shows you where the nearest accessible entrance is or where the elevators are.
WADE WINGLER: I think that like most technology, it’s still in its infancy. The possibilities really are, cliché as it may be, and less. You guys have had a unique opportunity to be able to spend some time with this technology to show it to some folks. Some of the questions that I have are do you think, based on what folks are saying to you, that the hype is justified? Have you found any disappointments with the technology?
BEN JACOBS: I would say yes, the hype is justified. Being on the cutting edge, of course there are going to be some drawbacks to it. It’s not commercially available, and it’s definitely a work in progress. But already there are so many different great things about it. We’ve already explained a few of those, but there are unfortunately some drawbacks to it. Definitely there’s low battery life. I took it out on a trip to the grocery store, and I recorded the whole thing. It was about 45 minutes. When I started, it was full battery, and when I finished, it was dead. I imagine that something they are going to address before it becomes commercially available. As of right now it’s definitely a shortcoming. Another shortcoming related to the disability community, it’s only wearable over your right eye currently. Hopefully they’ll be coming up with some sort of configuration that you can switch from one eye to the other. People with low vision or sign this was the right eye unfortunately wouldn’t be able to use this as it is right now. I can hopefully they are looking at updating the configuration on that. Not only that, it doesn’t fit very well with perception fences. They are coming out with some prescription from the models of Google glass. They actually just released I think three or four of them right after I got this portion of glass. So I just missed that one by a little bit.
WADE WINGLER: It sounds like there’s all kinds of exciting stuff and promise with the technology. Unfortunately we’ve run out of the time for today, but before we go, would you guys give some contact information for the tools for life program so that they know how to reach out to you.
BEN JACOBS:
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: We love when folks reach out to us and we always welcome questions and comments and ideas. You can get to our website easily by going to www.gatfl.gatech.edu. You can also email us at info@gatfl.org. We respond to those in us all the time. We encourage you to reach out to us. Thanks again for this opportunity, Wade.
WADE WINGLER: No problem. I’ll stick links in the show notes so that folks know how to reach out to you guys. I may call you guys back once you’ve had some time to really spend with the device and gets to do it really well. Please keep us posted. Let us know what you guys are finding out as far as accessibility and Google glass.
BEN JACOBS: Absolutely.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: We certainly will. Thank you.
WADE WINGLER: Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? Call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Looking for show notes from today’s show? Head on over to EasterSealstech.com. Shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAProject, or check us out on Facebook. That was your Assistance Technology Update. I’m Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana.
