The NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free and open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It communicates the contents of a computer screen via synthetic speech and Braille, enabling people who are blind or vision impaired to perform computer tasks such as searching the internet and writing documents.
Google Apps for Education is a suite of hosted email and collaboration applications, such as Google Mail (Gmail), Google Documents and Google Calendar, that are available to schools and universities free of charge.
Brian Clark, Executive Director of Information Technology Services at RMIT, is also expecting students to use the collaborative applications in the suite.
“There’s a range of collaborative features built into Google Apps’ technology that will allow students to collaborate on assignments,” said Clark.
Note-Taker uses a portable camera connected to a touch-screen tablet PC to take live video that can be enlarged to suit the needs of the student. At the same time, students can take typed or hand-written notes on a split-screen interface.
ACM Professional Member John Black, a member of the ACM Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing, mentored the winning team from Arizona State University.
In an article discussing the myths about low vision, Wayne Dick, Professor of Computer Science at California State University, argues that advocacy groups, governments, institutions and even the W3C WCAG Working Group focus on the accommodations necessary for people who are blind to the exclusion of the needs of people with vision impairment.
