The CBT Team are back with their Cool Picks of 2016. Featuring James, Jessica, Joel, Leo, Alex and Nelson with a introduction to our newest team member, Jessica Silva from Cisco Academy for the Vision Impaired.
New! Trusted Contacts App Makes Sure Your Loved Ones Always Know Where You Are
Just launched yesterday and once installed, you can assign “trusted” status to one or as many of your contacts as you like. Once you do, that person can add you back to share their location with you as well, or to request your location at any time. Then, if they request your location, you have the option to share it or decline, but if you do nothing, your location is automatically shared with them after five minutes. The goal here is to give your loved ones or emergency contacts the ability to find out where you are even if you’re incapacitated or unable to get to or use your phone.
World’s First Arcade for the Blind
The arcade opened last Saturday, marking International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Krishna Teja, the co-founder of a company that works with children between Class V and Class IX to encourage design innovations worked with children from schools across India on various design workshops. For this project he got school children from the city to help create these games for the blind.
It resulted in 14 specially-designed games, which were put up at a multipurpose hall of a school, transforming it into the world’s first arcade for the blind. And as the children from Devnar School for the blind arrived, the hall filled with smiles, excitement and laughter. The arcade was also open for parents and other students, but on one condition; they had to enter the arcade blindfolded.
Coming Soon! Microsoft’s AI Will Analyze Images and Suggest Text for Blind Users
An upcoming feature for the Microsoft Office Word and PowerPoint apps will automatically suggest image and slide deck captions, called alt-text, using AI algorithms. When those files are presented to blind users, computer tools designed to translate the information onscreen into audio will have text descriptions to work with.
PluginPhantom trojan exploits Android
Researchers at Palo Alto Network’s Unit 42 threat intelligence team spotted a new Google Android trojan named “PluginPhantom” which leverages the Android DroidPlugin technology to steal user information.
A Teenager is Hoping to Change the Lives of Visually Impaired Around the World
Anmol Tukrel, 17, from Toronto, Canada has created an app that helps visually impaired people identify objects and text. A Grade 12 student at Holy Trinity, Anmol designed a new app for the blind that describes things you take photos of with your iPhone or iPad.
A Smart Cane That Could Transform Navigation for the Blind and Visually Impaired
A student from the University of Manchester has developed a prototype tool that could assist in transforming the lives of the blind and visually impaired.
PEEK Vision: An App that Helps Cure Blindness
Of the estimated 285 million people who are visually impaired around the world, 90 percent live in low-income settings, while 80 percent of cases could be cured or prevented, according to the World Health Organization.
Developer Makes Website Inaccessible To Sighted For Awareness
Comics Empower is an audio comic store for the blind and or the visually impaired. The idea behind the Comics Empower store is to provide audio versions of comic books, much like Graphic Audio. The main difference is that Graphic Audio adapts and dramatizes comic books whereas Comics Empower provides a panel by panel description so the listener knows what’s in every comic. Comics Empower puts the blind first, and this has been illustrated, yet again, in a recent site update that puts the sighted in a dependent situation, requiring the aid of a blind person using a screen reader.
VIP: Listening To the Big Picture
This week we join VIP featuring, for the first time, a feedback segment. Join Jessica, Leo and Nelson as they take a look at accessible images for everyone.
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