Figure 17.17. Postal service EZ access self-service kiosk in USA (photograph reproduced by kind permission of University of Wisconsin-Madison Engineering External Relations, USA)

Quad Media has developed a voting kiosk with EZ Access. It runs on Windows and enables users to view or receive information using different modalities, including sight and hearing. The user can operate, control and interact with the program in different ways. The system is intended to be easy to learn with cue operations that help the user and does not require fine motor control or the use of vision. The kiosk has text-to-speech capability and is able to read aloud written questions.

17.8 Chapter Summary

This chapter has used the activities module of the comprehensive assistive technology model to classify the accessibility devices and solutions available to overcome the barriers encountered by visually impaired and blind people in carrying out daily living activities. As well as providing a useful structure for the chapter, this approach has provided an illustration of the value of the CAT model in discussing and describing assistive technology provision. Therefore, the main sections of the chapter are the five daily living activities in the CAT model: personal care, timekeeping, alarms and alerting, food preparation and consumption, environmental control and the use of appliances and, finally, money, finance, and shopping.

In personal care, the two areas identified as posing accessibility barriers for visually impaired and blind people were those of identifying personal items such as clothing, and being able to monitor their health status and use healthcare

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products independently. Currently available solutions comprise advanced and low technology labelling systems and a range of accessible healthcare devices and systems. Six types of accessible healthcare devices were described in the chapter.

Time keeping, alarms and alerting is the second category of daily living activities in the CAT model. This section described a range of clocks and watches with tactile or audio interfaces for telling the time. Some of these devices are multifunctional and incorporate calendars or other features. Alarms and alerting devices are an important feature of the modern home environment and three alarm systems and one locator device were described in this section.

The food preparation and consumption section of the chapter focussed on assistive technology to make food preparation accessible. The section comprised descriptions of a range of high and low-tech devices, including talking kitchen scales, liquid level indicators and a Braille salt and pepper set.

The fifth section of the chapter discussed environmental control and the use of household appliances. A number of sophisticated high technology solutions in the form of light and colour probes are available for determining the environmental parameters of light and colour. Applications of colour probes range from identifying the colour of personal clothing to determining whether a chemical reaction has occurred through a change of colour. In the former case, there are also a number of low technology solutions. Accessible appliances for use in household laundry and cleaning were described in the latter part of this section.

The highand low-tech solutions to making money, finance, and shopping accessible to blind and visually impaired people were considered in Section 17.6. These include talking ATMs and mechanical and electronic money identifiers, as well as proposals for making different denominations of banknotes easier to distinguish from each other.

As discussed in the learning objectives, technologies for making communication and information using technologies other than computers and the Internet, telecommunications and print media accessible to blind and visually impaired people are considered in this chapter, since their applications are mainly in daily living activities. Thus Section 17.7 considered the requirements for making information kiosks and other self-service systems, as well as smart cards, accessible to blind and visually impaired people. EZ access is presented as an example of a solution to kiosk accessibility.

Although a number of high technology solutions are available in some areas, the use of simple, sometimes homemade tools and devices is more common. This gives rise to questions about how best existing gaps can filled and in particular, the balance between the following:

•Assistive technology and design for all.

•The use of technology and human assistance.

•High and low technology solutions.

Other important questions relate to ensuring that solutions for blind and visually impaired people are no more expensive than the devices and products available for sighted people, are easy to obtain information about, easy and intuitive to

use and come with good documentation in local languages. The language issue is very important, since solutions that are available in non-European languages are relatively rare and some devices are available only in English.

Questions

Q.1 Describe how the comprehensive assistive technology model can be used to provide a framework for categorising daily living activities.

Q.2 List the main uses of a labelling system. Describe two different technologies that are used in such systems.

Q.3 List and briefly describe the main interface technologies that are used in time-keeping devices for:

(a)Visually impaired people

(b)Blind people.

Q.4 Describe a set of accessible food preparation devices that could be used by a blind person. Identify the accessibility interface(s) for each device.

Q.5 List and briefly discuss the main areas where assistive technology is required to remove accessibility barriers to accessing and using money.

Projects

P.1 Consider the design of a kitchen which is accessible, easily usable and safe for blind people. Draw up guidelines for accessibility, usability and safety which cover the following areas:

(a)Layout

(b)Decor

(c)Equipment

(d)Cleaning

(e)Utility services

P.2 How does a visually impaired person or a blind person control the environment in their own home? Consider all the different appliances that they might want to control. Discuss the current state of accessible technology in this area. Evaluate the usability of this technology. Identify any aspects of environmental control where a blind or visually impaired person would encounter barriers with the current state of technology. Draw up detailed proposals, including performance and end-user specifications, for technologies to overcome these barriers.

P.3 Discuss the role of high-tech assistive technology, low-tech assistive technology, design for all and human assistance in making different categories of daily living activities accessible to blind and visually impaired people. Use the activity component of the CAT model to chart how the different approaches could be used for different activities.