Computers for people with disabilities. Computers and other devices for the blind. Modern digital technologies for people with disabilities
The computer heals
Imagine for a moment a person who has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital. He is feeling well now, but is still in the intensive care unit. Here he is “connected” to a computer that monitors the number of heartbeats: if it suddenly decreases to a dangerous level, the computer will immediately notify the doctor or nurse.
But here's another situation. You came to the pharmacy to order medicine for a toothache. The pharmacy you contacted has computer system, where the medical history of each client of this pharmacy is stored. Before the pharmacist gives you the medicine, he will look at your medical history. Yeah...According to the “readings” of the computer, you have already taken another drug that was prescribed by your doctor. Combining this drug with medication prescribed for toothache may cause unwanted side effects. Therefore, the pharmacist contacts the dentist, who recommends another medicine for you.
These are just two examples of how computers can be used in treatment. There are also many other ways that computers can be used for these purposes in hospitals, clinics and laboratories. Let's list some of them.
Computers play an important role in medical research. They make it possible to determine how air pollution affects the incidence of disease in the population of a given area. In addition, they can be used to study the effects of impacts on various parts of the body, in particular the consequences of an impact in a car accident on the human skull and spine.
Medical data banks allow doctors to keep abreast of the latest scientific and practical advances.
Computer networks are used to send messages about donor organs needed by patients awaiting transplant surgery.
Computing technology is used to teach practical skills to healthcare workers. This time the computer acts as a patient who needs immediate help. Based on the symptoms generated by the computer, the student must determine the course of treatment. If he made a mistake, the computer immediately shows it.
Computers are used to create maps showing how quickly epidemics spread.
Computers store patient medical histories in their memory, which frees doctors from time-consuming paperwork and allows them to spend more time with the patients themselves.
THE COMPUTER HELPES DISABLED PEOPLE
One of the most promising areas of application of computer technology is related to helping people with disabilities, i.e. people who are blind, deaf, ambulatory, or otherwise disabled can use a computer to communicate, place food orders, and even play video games. For example, people whose arms are paralyzed can use their feet to operate a computer using a foot switch that resembles an electric pedal. sewing machine. People with paralysis in their arms and legs can use devices that are inserted into the mouth or attached to the head.
A talking computer, or speech synthesizer computer, allows blind people to perform operations that would be impossible without the help of a computer. Thanks to the computer, they compensate for the lost ability to see with the ability to hear. For those who have partially lost their vision, there are devices that reproduce text on an enlarged scale on a special monitor.
There are people among us who find it difficult to do what we consider simple. This can apply to any aspect of life, including interaction with a computer. And this can directly affect your loved ones, whom you can help. This text is addressed to you, because you are the one who can read it, there are no difficulties for you in typing and controlling the mouse. Let's figure out how to make working on a PC easier for those for whom all this is not so simple.
This review opens a series of instructions on MTS/Media for people with disabilities and, perhaps even more so, for those who can help them figure it out. We start with personal computer and capabilities that are built into the world's most popular PC operating system - Windows 7. Let's immediately say that the new sister OS Windows 10 has similar functions.
Windows 7 will help those who have visual impairments and those for whom standard methods of working with a mouse and keyboard are not suitable to operate a PC.
One window principle
Microsoft has put all the features we need in one place, so they're easy to find and easy to use. Click on the “Start” button, and in the menu that opens, click “All Programs”. In the Accessories category, find the Accessibility folder, and within that folder is the Ease of Access Center. It’s better to immediately create a shortcut for your desktop in order to avoid the menu quest in the future.
The window that opens is our starting point. The screenshot below shows how to access all the options that will be discussed next.
We must immediately warn that not in all cases the functions collected in the Ease of Access Center will make managing your PC easy. Sometimes it will be a transition from very complex to less complex, sometimes from impossible to somehow possible. One way or another, those for whom we are sorting all this out will need to be trained, and then there will be a difficult period of adaptation. Only then will there be a result.
For many functions, it is necessary to equip the computer with audio speakers and a microphone: this will allow you to hear what is difficult to see, and give commands by voice when it is difficult or impossible to use the keyboard and mouse for the same.
Learning to see
For people with low vision, the Windows interface with many small details is a real pain. By turning on the screen magnifier, you can increase the size of any part of the screen several times, and you can still move around it using the mouse. The screen magnifier control window is extremely simple, there are no pitfalls: the main thing is to select the desired magnification level using the “Plus” and “Minus” buttons.
The second function for people with poor vision is changing the appearance Windows interface to more contrasting. Try enabling this mode - by default, this is done with a keyboard shortcut Left Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen . Repeated use of the same keys disables the mode. Other minor changes to the display of elements Windows management available from the Ease of Access Center through the “Adjust screen image” item.
The third function is the most radical, since it allows you to do some operations on the computer without a screen at all or when almost nothing can be seen on it despite the use of the features already described. To do this, you can enable Narrator in Windows, which will read all the text displayed in the windows. Your PC will most likely not have a special software. To fix this, you will need to download three free modules from the Microsoft website.
From the link above you need to select the option for Windows versions 7 - 32 or 64 bit. To support the Russian language, you only need to download files from the link below MSSpeech_SR_ru-RU_TELE.msi and MSSpeech_TTS_ru-RU_Elena.msi.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224
If everything is already installed, you need to select Russian in the Narrator settings.
Improving the keyboard and mouse
For those who find it difficult to find mutual language with the mouse, you can help with that too. First of all, go to the standard mouse settings and adjust the speed of the pointer, its size, and the speed of double-clicking. In the Ease of Access Center, you can also enable mouse control from the keyboard.
Surprisingly, you can do the opposite. Once you enable the virtual keyboard, you can click its keys using your mouse pointer.
A regular keyboard can be “pumped up” by enabling sequential key presses for their combinations instead of simultaneous ones. The “Sticky Keys” parameter is responsible for this. After enabling the option, for example, you will need to press Ctrl and C to copy not together, but in turn with not too much of a pause.
Do as I say
Windows 7 supports voice control- a very useful feature for those who have poor vision or have difficulty using the mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately, Microsoft never adapted this feature to the Russian language. If the person who will use the PC is ready to operate it in English, he will first have to Windows settings 7, also switch the operating system interface to this language, and only then can you enable the “Speech Recognition” option in the Ease of Access Center.
If we return to control in Russian, then there are several third party programs, for example, “Gorynych” or Vople, but they do not work very well, and there is no support from the developers. You can't even find the official website. We recommend that you beware of other sites offering to download these programs. The situation is approximately the same with dictation of text in Russian.
What to do? Perhaps the only thing left to do for now is to switch to Windows 10 and wait for the built-in voice assistant learn Russian. According to rumors, this could happen as early as 2016. Follow the news.
Impaired vision, hearing, speech, or the inability to move limit many people's ability to communicate, learn, work, and interact with their environment.
Personal computers, augmented special devices;and having appropriate programs can reduce the impact of these defects.
For disabled people, computers provide a good replacement for lost abilities; allow for more effective specialized training; provide access to information that is otherwise inaccessible to them; provide new opportunities for education, work, communication with people and leisure activities.
Blind people can use computers with programs and devices that can produce speech. Using a speech synthesizer, the computer pronounces any words that appear on the screen. This allows the blind to use most of the capabilities of computers.
In addition, pattern recognition devices and programs, combined with special output devices, allow computers to convert printed text into tactile form, Braille, or speech. Thanks to such systems, blind people can read any book, magazine or newspaper themselves without resorting to outside help.
People with speech impediments can also use computer-synthesized speech. By typing into a computer the messages to be spoken, a mute person can communicate by telephone with a person who cannot read.
In addition, computerized message transmission systems are a means fast communication over long distances, especially valuable for people with speech or hearing impairments who cannot use regular telephones.
Computers also greatly help people with limited mobility.
Information systems provide people who cannot go to the library with access to large banks of information.
Computer-controlled manipulators (i.e., the robot's “arms”) can be programmed to perform specific movements and sense when they come into contact with objects. This allows people with motor impairments to manipulate objects to perform activities such as eating, turning pages in books, and changing disks in a computer drive.
Many people, although they have not lost mobility in their hands or arms, cannot work on a standard computer keyboard. Special keyboards with large touch keys put all the capabilities of a computer at the disposal of these people.
And people who are unable to work with any keyboard at all can control the computer with their voice using a speech recognition device. For people with serious voice and motor impairments, special input devices have been developed that allow them to use a computer for communication and other purposes.
Other systems, both established and under development and testing, include handheld terminals that allow deaf people to send and receive messages from any telephone.
Portable and flexible devices for communication between people who cannot speak; systems that control the environment, using which physically disabled people can control television, lighting and other devices using a computer; computer-controlled robots and input systems that determine what object the human eye is focused on, allowing selection of certain fields on the screen to be made simply by focusing on them for a few seconds.
Instances of all these computerized systems already exist, but in many cases they are very expensive and not widely available. I hope that within a few years there will be more powerful, reliable, portable and available options these systems, and new powerful tools will be created to help people with physical disabilities.
Advances in technology greatly influence our understanding of what is considered a physical disability. For example, many people who have difficulty seeing or hearing can function normally only thanks to glasses or hearing aids that compensate for the deficiencies of their senses.
As computerized systems for handicap people improve and become widely available, other physical handicaps, which are quite serious now, may be considered minor inconveniences rather than serious handicaps. Computers as a teaching tool.
The wide capabilities of computers for processing information make them, in principle, suitable for a variety of uses in the field of education.
They can facilitate teaching and learning at all levels, from preschoolers mastering the alphabet to doctors learning new diagnostic techniques. Computers are suitable for use in areas such as language arts and mathematics, history and science, vocational training, music and the visual arts, and reading and writing. Computers open up new ways to develop thinking and problem-solving skills and provide new opportunities for active learning.
With the help of computers, it is possible to make the conduct of lessons, exercises, tests, and the recording of academic performance more efficient.
This relieves teachers and allows them to devote more time to individual lessons. Computers can make many lessons more interesting and compelling, and a wealth of information easily accessible. Computers can be programmed to create images, play music, perform calculations, serve as typewriters, read the class magazine, convert a written test into speech, measure student reaction time, operate tape recorders and video disc players, and generally provide an environment for creativity and fun. training.
The possibilities for using computers for learning are endless. Their general availability could lead to fundamental changes in the school curriculum, to a more complete solution to educational problems, to new means of teaching disabled people, to expanded opportunities for self-education and home schooling. In addition to their potential as educational tools, computers themselves should become an important object of study. Understanding their capabilities and limitations is necessary for every educated person.
A computer is a tool, but it differs from all other tools in that it processes information and can be programmed to perform a variety of jobs. But just like other tools, it can serve good and bad purposes. The computer can be used to create original stories, music, paintings, to study complex relationships in the natural sciences, or for mostly mindless games. The extent to which computers influence students depends on how students use them.
Introduction
Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to watch quite a large number of stories and television programs on TV dedicated to people with disabilities due to health conditions.
I'm impressed! Blind or visually impaired children show their skills in group dances! They dance so well that many of their peers, with good health and 100% vision, can only envy them. It turns out that the lives of people with disabilities can be filled with a variety of interesting and useful activities. You can engage in art, sports, creativity, and fill your life with things that will make this very life more meaningful and meaningful.
Is it possible for everyone to improve their lives?
Do all disabled people have access to opportunities for real communication with people like themselves, with the rest of the world?
As bitter as it may sound - no! Our beautiful, but also cruel world has not yet learned to create equal conditions for people, not only with disabilities, but for all of humanity as a whole.
Let's admit it to ourselves: can any of them afford to have a personal teacher or coach? Can any wheelchair user independently get to the place of classes, training, performances, without outside help? And does every city have rehabilitation centers for people with disabilities? It’s not worth talking about rural areas and small towns here. There, such people have the most difficult time in terms of realizing their abilities and talent, and they need help, perhaps even more than residents of megacities.
What can such people do? Sitting at home and looking out the window, looking at the same landscape? Staring at the zombie box all day?
Will the Internet help?
Here, in part, a computer and the Internet can come to the rescue. With their help, you can not only look at the world in a new way, find new friends, but also gain useful knowledge on various issues, including tips on improving your own health.
Fig.1.
But will all people, based on their capabilities, be able to use a PC and the Internet? How to use them if your vision does not allow you, you do not obey, or you have no hands?
Impaired vision, hearing, speech, or the inability to move limit many people's ability to communicate, learn, work, and interact with their environment.
Personal computers supplemented with special devices; and having appropriate programs can reduce the impact of these defects.
Technologies for people with visual impairments
For disabled people, computers provide a good replacement for lost abilities; allow for more effective specialized training; provide access to information that is otherwise inaccessible to them; provide new opportunities for education, work, communication with people and leisure activities.
Blind people can use computers with programs and devices that can produce speech. Using a speech synthesizer, the computer pronounces any words that appear on the screen. This allows the blind to use most of the capabilities of computers.
In addition, pattern recognition devices and programs, combined with special output devices, allow computers to convert printed text into tactile form, Braille, or speech.
Externally, a computer for a blind person is no different from an ordinary one. The only special device is a Braille display. Tiny plastic pins stick out from the box, with the help of which you can translate ordinary words into the “language of the blind” (according to the rules of the Braille alphabet). By touching or pressing them, a person can read what is written and give a command. This is where the difference in hardware ends. The rest of the tricks are hidden in the software on the computer's hard drive.
By the way, well-trained blind people can work faster than a sighted person. Those who know how to type texts “touch” know that typing with ten fingers is much more convenient than with two. In addition, you don’t need to be distracted by working with the mouse - the same commands can be typed from the keyboard.
Modern technologies seem to open our full-color world to people deprived of vision. For example, the screen reader program JAWS speaks all keyboard actions. Click on the letter “A” - the computer pronounces this sound. I pressed PAUSE and the response was “Pause.” So blind people can do any work without outside help: for example, write letters, create databases and even program. Another program is designed for visually impaired people - ZoomText. With its help, you can use the mouse to zoom in on any “incomprehensible” object on the screen and work with the selected fragment.
Alas, there are no more devices in Russia that allow blind people to master computers. The All-Russian Society of the Blind does not have the money to translate foreign programs into Russian. And various “pieces of iron” that make life easier for people with disabilities are often detained by customs officers at the border. Such products are not listed in their catalogs, and they do not know how to classify them.
A computer has been created in the USA that allows the blind to see. The camera in the form of glasses is connected to a mini-computer that can be worn on a belt or in a bag. The computer processes the video signal from the camera and, using 68 implanted platinum electrodes, transmits it directly to the brain.
In Israel, the production of computer mice has been established, allowing blind people to use a computer. On the back of such a mouse there are three panels with protruding movable rods that translate text from the monitor screen into raised Braille. In addition, the mouse can use a synthesized voice to report where the cursor is located on the screen and what object it is pointing at. The system allows the blind to read from the screen, study computer graphics, play.
But specialists from the Japanese Space Agency have developed a monitor with 3072 retractable pins, which allows you to perceive images by touch by touching the screen with your hands. True, the clarity of the images is reduced by a hundred times compared to a conventional monitor.
For most of us, people who are completely healthy and independent, the problems of people with disabilities often seem too distant and alien, and not relevant enough. This happens because those opportunities and benefits that are given to a person with specific needs with great difficulty are sometimes inaccessible; in life, a full-fledged person takes for granted and does not attach much importance to them. We are used to seeing, hearing, walking, doing what we love, not realizing at all that there are thousands of people with physical and sensory disabilities nearby who want to live a real life, and yet they are simply deprived of many things.
Today, about 10% of the world's population (650 million people) are disabled. Three million of them live in Ukraine, in Russia - from 10 million to 15 million. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), developing countries account for 80 percent of people with disabilities. However, today you can rarely meet a person in a wheelchair or with a cane on the subway, on the street. The reason is the inability of the environment to meet the specific requirements of such people. This obliges people with disabilities to search for and find solutions to emerging problems on their own, using all kinds of means, one of which is a computer. Recently, there has been a worldwide awareness of the role information technologies in social development, therefore the problem of formation information culture The identity of a person with disabilities has acquired special significance. However, how ready is a disabled person to accept the digital world, what opportunities in matters of development and self-realization does technical and technological progress provide him with?
The role of IT in the education and employment of people with disabilities
One of the most important components of comprehensive rehabilitation of a disabled person, which provides a person with disabilities with a certain kind of independence and independence, is training. According to UNESCO, today more than 90% of children with special needs in developing countries do not attend school. Half of all disabled people living in Russia are of working age. It's no secret that the vast majority of people with disabilities live below the poverty line. The reasons are the insufficient level of support from the state, the lack of opportunity to get an interesting and well-paid job. The problem of finding jobs is due to several factors: people’s lack of necessary knowledge and skills, and employers’ reluctance to deal with people with disabilities. From the point of view of an economist, it is much more profitable for state and social structures to provide people with disabilities the opportunity to obtain relevant professional knowledge and find decent work, rather than pursue a policy of maintaining a special morale and timely prevention of depression and suicide. As they say, it is more profitable and easier to teach a person to get food than to feed him all his life. Today, out of 100 disabled people, only two applicants succeed in obtaining a higher education. Most domestic universities justify their reluctance to cooperate with students in wheelchairs or with hearing impairments by the banal inadequacy of the programs and the inconsistency of the learning conditions with the specific requirements of the disabled. However, as the experience of universities in other countries shows, the most effective way the solution to these issues is to use them in the educational process computer systems. It’s hard to believe, but today more than 70% of people with disabilities living in Norway, Holland, and Finland receive vocational education with the help of information technology. Among the most common methods of training people with disabilities using IT are:- additional training - organization by associations of people with disabilities or organizations working in this area of training sessions, seminars and courses;
- separate training - training of specialists in specialized institutions;
- integrated education - people with disabilities are trained on an equal basis with ordinary students or listeners;
- distance learning - implemented through modern technologies communication and the Internet is a type of education that involves remote interaction between teacher and student.
- Open International University of Human Development "Ukraine", Kyiv (www.vmurol.com.ua)
- Russian Humanitarian Internet University (RGUI) (www.i-u.ru)
- Moscow State Social and Humanitarian Institute (MSGI) (formerly Moscow State Humanitarian Institute-Boarding School), 107150, Moscow, st. Losinoostrovskaya, 49
- Moscow State Technical University named after N. E. Bauman (MSTU) (www.bmstu.ru)
- State Specialized Institute of Arts (GSII), (121151, Moscow, Reserve Proezd, 10/12)
- Institute of Vocational Rehabilitation and Personnel Training of the All-Russian Society of the Blind "REAKOMP" (www.rehacomp.ru)
- Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPGU) (www.mpgu.ru)
- Russian state social university(RGSU) (www.rgsu.net)
- Moscow City Psychological and Pedagogical University (MGPPU) (www.mgppu.ru)
- Moscow Social Pedagogical College (MSPC) (www.mgppu.ru/education/dovuz/college/)
- Moscow State University of Printing Arts (MSUP) (www.mgup.ru)
- Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages (www.gaudeamus.ru)
- Moscow State Linguistic University (www.linguanet.ru)
- Russian State Open Technical University of Transport (www.rgotups.ru)
- Novosibirsk Institute of Social Rehabilitation (www.nstu.ru/isr/russian/)
- Russian Academy entrepreneurship (www.rusacad.ru)
- Chelyabinsk State University of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation (www.csu.ru)
- PC operator;
- translator;
- Web developer;
- artist computer graphics;
- network administrator;
- designer.
Technologies for disabled people: making life more interesting and easier
Man is a social being, created by society and dependent on it. This definition in most cases can be applied to all people, in particular disabled people. This dependence on society is especially evident in an individual when he has to spend day after day, living in a wheelchair and within four walls. As a part of society, a person with disabilities has every right both for self-realization and for self-realization in society. One of the ways, a means of achieving this is communication. The main communication tools for billions of people today are mobile connection and PC. Despite the variety of models mobile devices, presented on the market today, some people with disabilities, unfortunately, find it difficult to choose a suitable device that meets their personal requirements. This is evidenced by the results of a recent sociological study conducted by the Shepherd Center and the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States. However, mobile communications are very popular among people with disabilities today. For example, between 2001 and 2007, the number of disabled phone owners increased from 72% to 85%. Three quarters of respondents find their devices simple and easy to use, but many of them would like to have access to some specific functions and services. Among them: the ability to call for help in case of an emergency, advanced voice communication functions, and text messaging. People with disabilities also express interest in the development of mobile devices compatible with modern hearing aids. A very interesting solution for low-vision and blind mobile users was recently presented by engineers from the knfb Reading Technology organization. We are talking about the Reader Mobile software package. Software compatible with Nokia smartphone N82 provides a person with the ability to instantly recognize printed text and read it out in real time.The owner only needs to point the phone's camera at an object (a letter, a menu in a restaurant, a page of a book or newspaper, a document, an inscription on the street, a mark) and click on the shutter button. Next, the complex operates on the principle of text recognition with a conventional scanner and immediately voices it.
It is interesting to note that Reader Mobile also allows a blind person to identify currency and save thousands of pages of text or pictures. The disadvantages of Reader Mobile include compatibility only with Nokia phone N82 and high cost(about $2000). Obviously for stable operation The system requires a powerful hardware base of a mobile device and a 5-megapixel camera with a xenon flash. We can only hope that such complexes will soon become available to our users and will receive support for more models of smartphones and phones. While a wheelchair user can use a regular desktop PC or laptop for work, study, and entertainment, blind people are deprived of this opportunity. In order to meet the needs of visually impaired people, design engineers have to create specific devices. By appearance Such computers differ in many ways from systems familiar to the average user - there is neither a monitor nor a mouse. Most recently, designer Jonathan Lucas presented to the public a prototype of a full-fledged Siafu PC for the blind. The model is made in the form factor of a tablet with several buttons and a surface made of a special material called “magneclay”.
Magneclay is a magnetized substance that, under the influence of an electromagnetic field, is capable of changing its shape, generating three-dimensional images, and converting text on the display into Braille. Note that Magneclay does not have a stable molecular structure, so this material can be deformed countless times without any risk.
At the same time, when the substance is exposed to an electromagnetic field, Magneclay retains sufficient rigidity for touching, so you can feel it without hesitation as much as necessary.
Siafu is also equipped with a microphone for communicating or entering information. Let's hope that the new product will still go on sale at an affordable price.
Following Siafu, Sony Corporation gave hope to people with visual disabilities by presenting a prototype SandBox PC TV-computer. Just like Jonathan Lucas's design, the SandBox PC is a tablet with a special surface.
A special feature of the device is operating system Zen, which allows you to display information in Braille and three-dimensional images on the active surface of the computer. It must be said that SandBox PC is still at the concept stage, and it is not yet known whether it is destined to hit the market or not. Today, not only computers and telephones come to the aid of people with disabilities, but also wireless technologies. For example, technology wireless communication Bluetooth, with which we transfer music and pictures from phone to phone every day, recently allowed Iraq war veteran Joshua Bleill to get back on his feet. The American took part in an experiment in which prostheses equipped with motors and sensors were tested.
Bluetooth makes it possible to coordinate the state of the motors, making walking movements more coordinated and smooth. Usage technical means, implemented in such prostheses, reduces the load on the muscles and allows the disabled person to feel more comfortable while walking.
A real surprise for American disabled travelers was the announcement by BarZ of the original GPS navigator GPS Ranger, which differs from most models on the market by supporting the sign language translation function. The new product will be designed to replace electronic guides for walks in US national parks and reserves.
In addition to determining the route and providing information about the user's location, electronic guides allow access to interesting audio information about the area. With GPS Ranger, people who are hard of hearing or deaf will now have the opportunity to learn about a particular place using sign language or through subtitles. A feature of the new product is also support large quantity languages.
According to representatives of the manufacturer, the databases are updated daily. Well, it would be a good idea for developers to take note of such a solution. automotive devices navigation and software. Let's hope that soon GPS devices with sign language translation functions will appear on the domestic market.