The Chinese government has released regulations stating that the national university entrance exam must be made available in Braille and electronic formats. Prior to this, these students were unable to attend mainstream universities, which drastically reduced their chances of employment and equal participation in society.
A screen reader is a piece of software on a computer, smartphone or tablet which converts text to audio. It is the primary tool used by most people who are blind. The 2014 WebAIM survey, the fifth of its kind, received over 1400 responses.
Like all Mozilla products, the operating system Firefox OS is open source, meaning that members of the development community can contribute to its improvement. As we reported in July, this will allow for Firefox OS’s accessibility features to be introduced and enhanced more quickly than in closed source systems such as Apple iOS.
Presented by Mary Kelly, Equity Director, Queensland University of Technology, Equity Section, Administration Services, Sunday 9.30 am
Google’s Project Tango, which is detailed in a YouTube video, combines robotics and a number of cameras to capture the dimensions of a room and the objects placed in it. Audio cues would then be able to communicate this information to a blind or vision impaired user. This would provide a level of detail previously unseen in indoor mapping services.
As we first reported in January, Stop Announcer (Perth) for Android phones was developed by Perth local Voon-Li Chung after he heard about Graeme Innes’s case against RailCorp in NSW. His aim was to create an app which allows people who are blind or vision impaired to get around on public transport without assistance from others.
“Stop Announcer costs just a few dollars but for the visually impaired, the freedom it affords is priceless,” said presenter Andrew O’Connor.
The theme of this year’s conference is ‘putting the person at the centre’. The program states that “Person-centred approaches empower people with a print disability by positioning them at the centre of policy, decision-making and service planning and delivery.” The four-day event covers topics such as Braille, web access, entertainment and education.
