Types of Disabilities Flashcards
What are the common causes of blindness?
Diabetes, Macular Degeneration, Glaucoma, Accidents or traumatic injuries to the eye, Stroke, Retinitis Pigmentosa
What is the legal definition of blindness?
According to the U.S. definition of blindness, a person who has a visual acuity of 20/200 with corrective lenses or who has a field of vision (what can be seen in front of the person) that is 20 degrees in the eye that has the best vision is considered to be legally blind.
What is a screen reader?
Screen readers convert the text on the web page into spoken words.
What are solutions for individuals who cannot see digital or electronic interfaces (such as computers, automated teller machines (ATMs), mobile devices, airport kiosks, etc)?
Screen readers can read interfaces and content out loud to users by converting digital text to synthesized speech, but only if they have been designed to be accessible. Screen readers do not announce text styles such as font, color, size, bold, and italic.
Self-voicing interfaces and applications can communicate to users without the need for a screen reader, but these are appropriate mostly for broadcasting information, because they usually do not interact with the interface or content as screen readers do.
Refreshable Braille output devices use screen readers to convert digital text to Braille. These devices are typically expensive, and only a minority of blind people know how to read Braille.
What are solutions for individuals who 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 blind people.
What are solutions for individuals who cannot see when walking?
Canes help blind people feel their surroundings as they walk.
Service animals (e.g. “Seeing Eye” dogs), trained to assist blind people, help them navigate their surroundings.
GPS-based walking instructions with an audio interface, either automated or via a remote human navigator.
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 pathways without obstructions in hallways, sidewalks.
What are solutions for individuals who cannot see signs or other text on buildings or other areas in the built environment?
Map and geolocation applications on mobile devices can announce the names and descriptions of buildings and other location-related information.
Braille labels and descriptions on entrances, rooms, bathrooms, historical markers, and other points of interest can allow blind people to explore and understand their surroundings, as long as the person knows Braille, and as long as the Braille labels are easy to find.
Tactile models of the exterior of buildings, or of floorplans of the interior of buildings help blind people form a mental map of their surroundings.
What are solutions for individuals who cannot see or feel the controls on flat interfaces on consumer devices such as microwaves, ovens, dishwashers, etc.
Alternative interfaces with knobs or other tactile controls.
Audio interfaces.
Remote control through applications on mobile devices.
What are solutions for individuals who cannot read the text on the containers or packaging for consumer items such as medicine, toothpaste, shampoo, sunscreen, hand cream, personal care products, foods, drinks, candy?
Embossed Braille (or Braille stickers) on packaging and product containers help consumers identify items both in the store and after purchase.
What are solutions for individuals who cannot read money to determine its value?
Applications on mobile devices can photograph the money and read the value to blind people.
Paper bills and coins could be manufactured in different sizes, shapes, or textures to allow blind people to distinguish the value based on touch.
Non-cash systems of payment can allow blind people to make financial transactions via computers, mobile devices, or on-site payment hardware with screen readers or self-voicing output.
What are solutions for individuals who cannot read books, magazines, posters, postal mail, or other printed materials?
Optical character recognition software can convert scanned images of text into digital text readable by screen readers. The accuracy of the conversion depends on the quality of the original document, as well as font choices, line spacing, and the quality of the conversion software itself.
Information can be placed online or in other digital formats to allow blind people to read the materials using their own assistive technologies.
What is low vision?
People with low vision can see, but their vision is still quite far from perfect even with powerful corrective lenses. Those who have low vision may be unable to see well enough to drive or read most printed text unless they enlarge it.
What are common characteristics of blur or blur with low contrast in low vision individuals?
Blur: For people who have low vision, faces and objects appear blurry. It is difficult for them to distinguish specific features.
Blur with Low Contrast: People who have low vision or blurred vision can also experience seeing things in low contrast, meaning that there aren’t very many bright or dark areas.
What are common characteristics of cataracts in low vision individuals?
Cataracts: There are some people who experience blind spots in their eyes, which can cause them to miss visual information if it’s in one of their blind spots.
What are common characteristics of diabetic retinopathy in low vision individuals?
Diabetic Retinopathy: Diabetic Retinopathy is another eye condition that causes people to see floating dark spots, similar to what the image depicts here.
What are common characteristics of glaucoma in low vision individuals?
Glaucoma: Some people can see only a small area, and have no peripheral vision. The edges are heavily darkened or vignetted.
What are common characteristics of hemianopia in low vision individuals?
Hemianopia: Hemianopia, or Hemianopsia, is another eye condition that limits vision to a smaller area. In the case of Hemianopia, vision loss occurs on either the right or left side of both eyes.
What are common characteristics of macular degeneration in low vision individuals?
Macular Degeneration: Macular degeneration is an eye disease where there is a loss of vision in the center of the eye, the field of vision. While people with macular degeneration have peripheral vision, the deterioration of the macula can cause either blurred vision or a blind spot to occur in the central vision.
What are common characteristics of retinal detachment in low vision individuals?
Retinal Detachment: For those who experience retinal detachment, vision can be affected in multiple ways. Some may experience flashes of light in their vision field, while some see what is called “floaters” in their vision, which can appear as dark debris floating in front of them.
What is screen magnification?
Reading small text is an extremely difficult task for a user with low vision. Users with low vision may need to use screen magnification like ZoomText or MAGic, which shows a small portion of the screen at a time. When the screen is magnified, it zooms in on a section of the screen and displays it at high resolution.
What are some of the challenges of screen magnifiers?
Though large magnification can help overcome the main challenges of low vision, there are still some issues a user can encounter. For instance, if an image is particularly large, a user may need to scroll around the screen to see the whole thing. If a JavaScript alert pops up to the side of the current visual focus, the alert may actually appear out of the visible area for the user with low vision, so the user may not see the alert at all. It is best to place popups, alerts, error messages, and other similar messages near the visual focus, to make sure users don’t miss them.
What are the benefits of color customization for individuals with low vision?
For people with low contrast vision, or low color vision, colors may not be easily visible, and may be hard to distinguish from each other. Text that is too close in color or luminance (brightness) to the background can be hard to read. Some people may also experience pain when looking at bright lights or bright areas on paper or computer screens. All-white backgrounds can be particularly difficult. To attempt to remedy the effects of low contrast and bright areas, users may modify the colors either in the operating system or in the web browser.
What are solutions for individuals who find small text hard to read?
Screen magnifiers can enlarge the items on the screen to make them easier to read.
Utilities to enhance contrast, change colors, or alter other aspects of visual appearance can improve legibility.
Screen readers can supplement screen magnifiers by reading interfaces and content out loud to users through synthesized speech, but only if the digital information has been designed to be accessible.
Self-voicing interfaces (on ATMs, kiosks, transportation systems, etc.) and applications can communicate to users without the need for a screen reader, but these are appropriate mostly for broadcasting information, because they usually do not interact with the interface or content as screen readers do.
Alternative large print versions of small print text can make printed materials easier to read.
Alternative digital versions (web, mobile applications, etc.) of printed materials can give users the ability to read the materials using their own assistive technologies.
What are solutions for individuals who find low contrast text can be hard to read.
Software or hardware options can enhance the contrast of digital text.
Interface designers and content creators can choose color combinations with high enough contrast to easily read.
What is colorblindness?
Color-blindness does not literally mean that a person can’t see any color at all (except in very rare cases). Color-blindness refers to the inability to distinguish between certain kinds of colors, especially colors that are of equal brightness or luminosity, even if the colors themselves appear quite different to people without color-blindness.
What is the most common form of colorblindness?
The most prevalent form of color-blindness, though, is red-green color-blindness. Deuteranopia and Protanopia are two common sub-types of red-green color-blindness.
What are assistive technologies for colorblindness?
There aren’t many assistive technologies for people with color-blindness. For the most part, it is a condition that people just have to live with. A company called EnChroma claims to have developed glasses that can help compensate for some kinds of color-blindness. http://enchroma.com/ opens in a new window Their products may be worth checking out if you experience color-blindness.
What are solutions for individuals who find certain color combinations—red and green in particular—difficult to distinguish?
Materials can be designed in a way that does not depend on color as a way to convey information.
What is an assistive technology for deafblindness?
If a person is both deaf and blind, the only option is to use a refreshable Braille display in combination with a screen reader.
What is a refreshable braille display?
Refreshable Braille displays have a line of holes in the physical interface that allow small pins to come up and down to form Braille characters. The screen reader sends a line of text to the refreshable Braille display. Users read the text on that line, then press a button to go to the next line. The pins drop down, then come up in a new configuration to reflect the new line of text.
What are solutions for individuals who cannot see digital text?
A screen reader can convert text to Braille on a refreshable Braille device, or “printed” in a Braille embosser.
What are solutions for individuals who cannot hear audio (including the audio portion of videos)?
A text transcript of the audio can be converted to refreshable Braille by a screen reader, or “printed” in a Braille embosser.
What are auditory disabilities?
Auditory disabilities involve hearing impairment, hearing loss, and deafness. People who have hearing impairment or hearing loss have diminished hearing and may have difficulty understanding speech and distinguishing foreground noise from background noise.
What are causes of auditory disabilities?
There are several causes of hearing loss and deafness. These causes may include genetics, premature birth, infections/illnesses, ear trauma, exposure to loud noises, and aging, to name a few.
