Apple Leads the Way for EVERYONE

Last Friday I joined Mark Ackermann, Lighthouse CEO, in a phone conversation with Mark Kellner of The Washington Times to talk about the phe-nom that is accessible technology. I'm delighted to report that this journalist really got the point.

KELLNER: Apple leads in 'assistive technology' for the blind
By Mark A. Kellner
-
The Washington Times
4:44 p.m., Tuesday, January 18, 2011


If there's anything that can scare most of us - and with good reason
it's the prospect of losing one's sight, or having it severely damaged.
It's not just total blindness; diseases such as macular degeneration, in
which damage to the retina causes a loss of vision in the macula, the
center of vision, often strikes older people, but it can also affect
young adults and others.

(That anxiety is, apparently, widely shared: According to an October
2010 poll by Harris Interactive, 82 percent of Americans fear losing
their vision, the highest proportion among the five senses, and more
than 10 times the next-highest fear, loss of hearing at 8 percent.)

The introduction of the Braille alphabet, which lets people "read" by
touch, has been an advancement, but as then-Gov. David A. Paterson told
the New York Times on Dec. 26 of last year, "You can't Braille the daily
newspaper."

How can those with limited vision, or even no vision at all, be
mainstreamed in today's tech-intensive world? Mark Ackermann and Dorrie
Rush have some answers. Mr. Ackermann is president and CEO, and Ms. Rush
is director of marketing for "assistive technology" at Lighthouse
International, www.lighthouse.org, a New York-based agency helping those
with vision-loss issues.

The 105-year-old Lighthouse is widely known in New York City, having
provided education, job training and living assistance for those who
need it. The group has a massive facility on East 59th Street in
Manhattan that has served thousands.

Today's distributed world needs distributed solutions, however: People
can live and work just about anywhere, and, as Ms. Rush's example would
suggest, even thrive, despite her having Stargardt's disease, which, she
writes, "results in progressive loss of central vision."

But Ms. Rush uses an iPhone and an iPad, both from Apple Inc. She works
on a Windows-based personal computer at her office, and an Apple iMac at
home. She's a blogger (http://dorriessight.blogspot.com/) and an
enthusiast.

"I'm 52 years old and I want to be like the other kids," Ms. Rush said
in a Jan. 14 telephone interview. Having assistive technology which
either greatly enlarges the screen display or reads aloud text on a
computer screen is vital, she said: "It means I can continue a
relatively normal life; I can work. It is something that everyone
dealing with vision loss fears losing, which is his or her ability to
work."

More important, Ms. Rush's iPad and iPhone look just like yours and mine
would. Instead of carrying something which shouts "I'm using a special
product," users can fit in with the crowd, and that's a plus.


Read more...

The Speed of Sigth

The Speed of Sight

Recently I received an email with questions pertaining to the “speed of sight”. There was a time, I believed, as many do, that just making print big enough for me to see would allow me to read much in the same manner I read small print. It doesn’t really work that way.

The Question:
Dorrie, as I understand it, you can see gigantic letters on screen and you use a speaking screen reader. What is the time difference for doing the same task? And, how much longer than for a sighted person? The same questions for Braille? I have never seen this discussed, but it must be significant.

My Answer:
I do magnify print to about 10X and I like a lot of speech with my giant words. At work, on a PC, I use assistive software called ZoomText. It is technically not a screen reader, but a text-to-speech engine. At home, I am now on the iMac, which does have a “screen reader” that I mix with big, big print.

It does take me longer to complete tasks that require reading, simply because, it’s complicated. The way I “see” is not fast or easy. My experience tells me that most reading-related activity takes me two or three times longer than it did pre-retinal degeneration, and reading a page in Newsweek, without a computer, could take me as long as 30 minutes.

I was never a speed-reader to begin with, so it would be unfair for me to completely blame bad eyes. It is certainly a major factor, and another major factor is how well I use the technology.

Reading giant words, without the speech option, would slow me down even more, tire me faster, and make comprehension very difficult.

I cannot speak to the experience of a person who is blind and uses a computer with screen reader and no visual access, or to that of a Braille reader.

Like most things, the speed of sight is very much dependent on the individual.

The Seven Year Itch

For seven years I’ve been in a dysfunctional relationship --- with my personal computer. Yesterday, in Apple Fifth Avenue, I ended it. No one was surprised. My dissatisfaction was obvious, really from the beginning.

I must admit I’ve had my eye on Mac, for a while. To further explore my feelings, I schedule a date with a personal shopper, who would totally focus on my needs. We looked at the iMac desktop with a 27 inch screen. It’s not just a nice computer; this is a work of art. Apple’s Personal Shopper demonstrated its “Universal Access” essential to my computer use. Zoom enlarged everything on the screen to a size I can see. Voice Over is available to read out loud, upon request. Voice Control will allow me to ask the computer to go to my favorite websites. All of these features, built into the operating system, at no extra charge. (My ex, PC, required a third party assistive software license, at a cost of $700­­).

My personal shopping appointment was not pressured; I had as much time as I needed. There was no heavy sales pitch, no empty promises, just amazing product and incredible customer service. How could I help, but fall in love?

I should have known my relationship, with my last PC, was not going to work. In order to get it at all, I had to hire an IT Guy, at $85 an hour, to order the computer, from Del, and to set it up. This was my first mistake. We did not communicate well, I did not understand him. He did not understand me!

It was a replacement, and upgrade, so it should have been an improvement. It was a better computer with a bigger monitor. But it just didn’t work for me…the chemistry was gone. The reason it lasted so long is because I used it, almost exclusively, for iTunes, until it could hold no more.

Apple made it so easy to make the move. They told me the simplest way to do it --- if you don’t mind schlepping --- is to bring your PC to the Apple Store and they will transfer your files into the iMac, at no additional charge.

That’s what I did. Yes, it could not have been easier. This morning, less than 24 hours later, they called to say my iMac is ready.

There are no guarantees for success in a relationship, but this one already has a lot going in its favor, including a year of One-to-One therapy – I mean Training.