The volunteers at Orbis have been tirelessly working to fight blindness around the world sense 1982. They provide eyecare screenings, eye surgeries, and training for other eyecare professionals. Per the World Health Organization, 80% of worldwide blindness is either preventable or curable.
With the Flying Eye Hospital, which was donated by FedEx, Orbis can reach more people in need than ever before. FedEx also provides volunteer pilots for the plane, and they also donate maintenance and parts as well.
The Flying Eye Hospital has an operating room in the center of the plane and a classroom in the front. Teachers and students can watch the eye surgeries without having to be in the operating room.
Search Results for: the blind
Squirrel Devices Creates Tools for Blind Students in STEM Courses.
Pranay Jain and Anshul Singhal, two graduate level students at MIT have founded Squirrel Devices, a company which provides measuring and drawing tools for Blind students in STEM courses.
The Tactile Caliper allows students to measure and draw straight lines with an accuracy of 1/16 of an inch. The Caliper is 12 inches, or 30 Centimeters, and is a mechanical device with no battery or electrical source. Amazingly, when locked in place, the device displays the measurement in braille.
There is also a Tactile Protractor, which is also mechanical. When opening it, it clicks each time you reach a degree. This makes it remarkably easy to measure an angle, or draw one as well.
SAS Graphics Accelerator Allows Blind People to See Graphs.
The SAS Graphics Accelerator is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that lets blind people discover and explore graphics in a variety of ways. First, you are notified by a distinctive sound that graphs are present on the webpage. Next, you can choose to get a description of the graph that will be read by your screen reader, or you can convert the graph into an easy to read table, or you can get a sonic representation of the graph. The sonic representation travels along the X-axis; data points that are higher on the Y-axis will have a higher pitch sound than data points that are lower on the Y-axis. Watch the video below for a demonstration of these features.
SAS Graphics Accelerator is free to install. It works with most major screen readers on PC and Mac.
Blind People Can Now Read Kindle Books on Windows PC’s.
Thanks to the efforts of Amazon and the developers of the popular NVDA open source screen reader, Kindle books are now accessible to blind people using a Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7 computer. First download the Kindle app on your computer, and make sure you have the latest version of NVDA installed.
Spotlight with Grapheel: Making STEM Education Accessible for Blind Students
In this exciting Spotlight interview, James Oates sits down with the highly intelligent team at Grapheel Innovation. The team consists of:
• Daniel Hajas: Blind, theoretical physics student with PhD in Informatics, special research interest on accessible STEM.
• Tim Lingard: Programmer and physicist, PhD student at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (Portsmouth), Head of Information Systems and online services.
• David Turner: Physics student at Sussex, Head of R&D at Grapheel, researching engineering solutions for the Tactile Graphics Display.
The team discusses the enormous problem that exist in providing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education to people who are blind or visually impaired. They explained the three-pronged approach that they have devised to conquer this problem.
Step one is called “Iris,” which is a science community based image description service specifically for STEM graphical content used as teaching material. The student uploads an image, and receives a detailed description from a volunteer who is a professional in that field of study.
The second is a consultancy scheme where they will advise on solutions that are in existence for accessible science. Various assistive software, hardware, teaching resources, good practice in science accessibility and so on.
The third is the development of a Tactile Graphics Display. They wish to carry out hardware research and development and concentrate on materials science for developing cost and performance efficient actuators. They also wish to collaborate with the various initiatives developing their own tactile displays and open their operating system for third party developers. This way Grapheel could develop STEM specific applications for already existing tactile graphics display devices, since there are organizations like the American Printing House for the Blind, doing a great job in the hardware development front.
Visit Grapheel’s website to learn more or get involved in helping in this remarkable effort.
You can also follow Grapheel on Twitter.
CBT Live From CSUNATC17: Dolphin Computer Access, Don’t Let Low Vision or Blindness Hold You Back
Hugo Gallegos talks to Steve Bennett from Dolphin Computer Access about the GuideReader Pod and the upcoming release of the GuideReader Tablet. Dolphin Computer Access was founded in 1986 from one small office in Worcester UK, this UK-owned company has grown to become a global market leader, with more than 50 staff worldwide specializing in software developing solutions to suit all types of reading impairment – from low vision to blindness and dyslexia.
WearWorks Creates Haptic Wristband That Helps Blind People Navigate.
There are so many apps and devices that can help a blind person navigate, but most of them require that you listen for auditory feedback. Many people, myself included, feel that method distracts them from observing and interacting with their surroundings. It is difficult to listen for cars, bicyclists, and pedestrians while listening to your audio navigation device. It is also difficult to participate in a conversation with a companion while your phone is constantly telling you where you are, and where to go.
WearWorks has developed a haptic wristband that pairs with your phone and uses information from Google Maps to help guide you. You must first tell Google Maps where you are going, and then the wristband will buzz if you are going the wrong way, provide gentle haptic nudges if you need to go left or right, and give no feedback if you are headed in the correct direction.
The device is currently in development, and should be available in 2018.
The Dot Braille Smart Watch Arrives Next Month for Blind People.
One of the most anticipated cool devices for blind people will arrive next month for those who preordered. The Dot braille smart watch connects to your phone via Bluetooth. The device has four cells of refreshable braille, a crown for scrolling, and two more programmable buttons to carry out app specific functions.
Once your finger slides off the four cells of braille, the next four cells automatically refresh. In this way, you can have a continuous reading experience. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to use this device to read a book, but it is perfect for telling the time, reading, and responding to messages, and checking social media accounts. I’m sure that app developers will come up with even more clever ways to use this technology.
140,000 smart watches have already been preordered at the incredible price of $290. 100,000 will arrive this year, and the next 40,000 will arrive next year.
Sound Used to Assist Blind and Low Vision Navigate with HoloLens
According to the World Blind Union, there is over 285 million people around the world affected by blindness It is promising to think that we are at a stage in development where 4 out of 5 cases of blindness are preventable or curable, with the other fifth of those cases likely being curable in the near future.
eSight 3: A Day Will Come When All Legally Blind Individuals can Get eSight at no Cost
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