Assistive Technologies and Adaptive Strategies Flashcards
What are Assistive Technologies?
Products used by people with disabilities to help accomplish tasks they could not otherwise accomplish. When used with computers, assistive technologies are also referred to as adaptive technologies or adaptive software. Assistive technologies rely on the output of other user agents, such as graphical desktop browsers, text browsers, voice browsers, multimedia players, and plug-ins.
What are Adaptive Strategies?
Solutions meant to help people with disabilities perform activities of daily living and increase their independence and ability to participate in society. Provide enhancements to, or change the methods of, interacting with the environment or technology needed to accomplish a task.
What are Some Blindness and Low Vision Challenges and Solutions?
Difficulty seeing digital or electronic interfaces:
- Screen readers can read interfaces and content out loud by converting text to speech.
- Audio description is an extra audio track that describes and gives context for essential visual information.
Screen readers don’t work on interfaces and digital content not designed with accessibility in mind:
- Interfaces and content must be remediated for accessibility. Interface designers and content authors, if they have access to the necessary files, can edit the
markup (which describes the files’ presentation or logical structure) to make them compatible with assistive technologies.
Difficulty seeing digital interfaces of public displays, such as digital signs, ATMs and airport kiosks:
- Content should also be announced audibly. On interactive systems, haptic or speech input can facilitate interaction.
Difficulty seeing low contrast text:
- Software or hardware options can enhance the contrast of digital text by using color combinations with high enough contrast to easily read.
Cannot see when walking:
- Canes help people feel their surroundings as they walk.
- Trained service animals help people navigate.
- GPS-based walking instructions with an audio interface, either automated or via a remote human navigator.
- Use raised tiles on the ground to indicate the edge of a platform, a pathway along a sidewalk, the beginning of a staircase, etc.
- Eliminate low-hanging architectural features that a blind person could bump into.
- Clear obstructions in hallways and on sidewalks.
Difficulty seeing, signs or other text on buildings or other locations.
- Map and geolocation applications on mobile devices can announce the names and descriptions of buildings and other location-related information.
- If they are easy to find, braille labels and descriptions on entrances, rooms, bathrooms, historical markers, and other points of interest allow people who know braille explore and understand their surroundings.
- Tactile models of the exterior of buildings, or of floor plans of the interior of buildings help people form a mental map of their surroundings.
- Use color combinations with high contrast.
Difficulty seeing or feeling the controls on flat device interfaces such as microwaves and dishwashers:
- Use alternative interfaces with knobs or other tactile controls.
- Provide audio interfaces.
- Facilitate remote control through mobile apps.
Difficulty reading the text on containers or packaging for medicine, personal care products, and food:
- Embossed braille (or braille stickers) on packaging and product containers help consumers identify items both in the store and after purchase.
- Mobile apps can scan labels of bar/QR codes and read the product information aloud.
Difficulty reading money to determine its value:
- Mobile apps can photograph the money and read the value aloud.
- Paper bills and coins should be manufactured in different sizes, shapes, or textures to allow people to distinguish the value based on touch or by using a small measuring device.
- Non-cash systems of payment can use voice output or work with screen readers.
Difficulty reading books, mail, or other printed materials:
- Optical character recognition software can convert scanned images of text into digital text readable by screen readers. Accuracy depends on the capabilities of the conversion software and the quality of the original document, including font choices and line spacing.
- Information can be placed online or in other digital formats to allow people to read the materials using their own assistive technologies.
Difficulty telling the color of a clothing item:
- Mobile apps can recognize colors through cameras on mobile devices and speak them aloud.
What are Some Examples of AT and AS for Blindness and Low Vision?
Screen readers with audio and / or braille output
Canes
Service animals
Navigation aids
Tactile markers
Braille signage
Refreshable braille (note that only a minority of people with blindness know how to read braille)
Keyboard with large printed letters on keys
Magnified pointers and cursors
Speech input
Voice output
Large display monitor or projector
Screen magnification
Color and contrast controls
Text spacing control (letter and word spacing, line spacing)
Vision correction
Large print
What are Some Color Blindness Challenges and Solutions?
Certain color combinations, in particular red and green, can be difficult to distinguish:
- Do not rely on color alone to convey meaning or information.
What are Some Examples of AT and AS for Color Blindness?
Color contrast adjusting software
Standard, consistent positioning and visual presentation of objects
Screen filters
Glasses with lens that improve color vision
Filtered glasses
Filtered overlays on printed or electronic text
Software to modify colors used on a display
What are Some Deafness and Hard of Hearing Challenges and Solutions?
Cannot hear talks, presentations, and performances:
- Provide sign language interpretation.
- Provide live captions on a monitor during the speech.
Cannot hear the audio portion of videos:
- Provide synchronized captions with videos.
- Provide sign language interpretation:
- Provide a transcript.
Cannot hear doorbells, alarms, and other alerts:
- Provide alternative visual alerts, such as lights that flash, pulse, dim, or turn on and off.
What are Some Examples of AT and AS for Deafness and Hard of Hearing?
Video conferencing for signing
Sign language interpretation
Teletype
Captions for videos
Transcripts for video or audio
Audio controls
Assistive listening devices
Haptic alerts / feedback
Visual labels / notifications / alerts
Hearing aids
Cochlear implants
Voice carryover
Frequency Modulation (FM) systems
Infrared systems
Audio Induction Loop systems
What are Some Central Auditory Processing Disorder Challenges and Solutions?
Has difficulty distinguishing sounds:
- Auditory training such as to identify the location, origin, direction, and distance of a sound.
- Compensatory strategies such as graphical organizers such as story trees, and metacognition strategies such as organization and problem-solving skills.
- Environmental modifications such acoustic dividers, and eliminating external noise sources such as fluorescent lights that hum or aquariums.
What are Some Examples of AT and AS for Central Auditory Processing Disorder?
Note-taking apps
Captions
Audio controls
Text-to-speech (TTS) software
Personal listening devices (PLD)
Sound field systems
Noise-canceling headphones
Audio recorders
What are Some Deaf-Blindness Challenges and Solutions?
Cannot see a digital test.
- A screen reader can convert text to braille on a refreshable braille device, or print it in a braille embosser.
Cannot hear audio, including the audio portion of videos.
- A screen reader can convert a transcript of the audio to braille on a refreshable braille device, or print it in a braille embosser.
Cannot perceive video, including the audio track..
- A screen reader can convert a transcript of the video along with audio descriptions to braille on a refreshable braille device, or print it in a braille embosser.
What are Some Examples of AT and AS for Deaf-Blindness?
Screen reader
Refreshable braille keyboard
Printed braille
Haptic alerts / feedback
Cane
Service animals
Tactile navigation aids
Tactile sign language interpretation
Deafblind communicator
Transcripts for video or audio converted to braille
What are Some Speech Disability Challenges and Solutions?
Has difficulty speaking to other persons:
-May use text-to-speech programs or AAC devices.
Often requires repeated exposure to content before long-term memory processing and comprehension takes place:
- Screen readers can read interfaces and content aloud by converting digital text to synthesized speech. Users can adjust rate of speech, vary voice and pitch to get
varied exposure to content when they repeat it.
- May be granted additional time to complete tasks.
Cannot use screen readers on digital content and interfaces not designed with accessibility in mind:
- Interface designers and content authors can edit the markup to make it compatible with the assistive technologies used by those with speech and language disabilities.
- May be granted additional time to complete tasks.
Has difficulty writing understandable text:
- May use programs with writing templates, organizational tools, word prediction and spell checkers.
- May use text-to-speech programs.
- May be granted additional time to complete tasks
What are Some Examples of AT and AS for Speech Disabilities?
Standard non-speech inputs
Articulation aids
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices
Voice carryover
Text-based alternatives to speech for communication
Smartphone applications
Electronic communication boards
Text-to-speech software
Keyboards with speech generating functionalities
Speech apps to allow learners to practice their sounds, sentences, and phrases
What are Some Examples of AT and AS for Mobility, Flexibility, and Body Structure Disabilities?
Switch devices
Adaptive keyboards
Voice control
Alternative pointing devices
Eye tracking
Voice recognition software
Speech-to-text software
Bubble and area cursors
Customizable keyboard
Adaptive notepads with word prediction and text-to-speech features
Mouth stick
Head wand
Single-switch access
Sip and puff switch
Oversized mouse or trackball
Adjustable position displays
Timing controls
Wheelchair
Ergonomic / universal design of consumer products
Large Button Remotes
