Features
Page 7
Talking technology
What do typewriters, telephones, transistor radios and tape recorders have in common? They were all first developed in the past two hundred years for people with disabilities. Pellegrino Turri, who invented the typewriter in 1808, wanted to help his blind lover, Countess Carolina Fantoni, write letters to him. Alexander Graham Bell developed the telephone in 1876 to support his work with the deaf, and tape recorders grew out of the research in 1948 into a low-cost, reliable talking book machine for the blind. These are only a few of the examples of technology that have migrated into widespread use because it proved just that, extremely useful for everyone.
Of all the disabilities, blindness has created the most innovative mainstream technology. The blind have led the sighted. When Thomas Edison filed his patent for the phonograph in 1877 he listed ten uses; music rated only fourth, use by blind people was second. Ray Kurzweil, who developed the Kurzweil Reading Machine a hundred years later, believes that blind people adapt early to new technology because they have a pressing need for it, even if it's not yet perfect. Stevie Wonder owned one of Ray's reading machines. He met with Ray and out of that conversation came the first music keyboard, with acoustic sound, in 1984.
We now consider all these inventions to be "old" technology but adaptive technologies are still being incorporated by big players such as Microsoft and IBM into new technology. Kurzweil's research team developed the flatbed scanner that we now use to create electronic files of photos and other images. Close-captioned TV, text-to-speech software, picture-based point-of-sale screens in shops and the world's first audio ATM banking machine have all been developed for people who find written text or the spoken word inaccessible. Technology has the potential to offer everyone equal access to information. The problem isn't that some people are disabled, it is that much of our modern technology is still disabled. Our computers and braille devices have only just begun to see, hear, speak and travel easily with us.
The term adaptive technology is applied to software and hardware for use by computers. The next issue of Outlook will investigate how blind and vision impaired people can most benefit from it and where that technology is headed. In this issue the focus is on braille devices and talking books.
The Perkins Brailler machine could be described as a big, heavy pen, with its six keys and a space bar.
Page 8
It's been around for a long time. New electronic note-takers such as BrailleLite and BrailleNote now come with refreshable braille displays and braille keyboards. They have an address and phone book, day-by-day planner, word processor and Internet connection.
At $11,000 they are light and easy to carry but heavy on the pocket. Julie Woods-Dalloway, the Foundation's braille literacy co-ordinator, says price isn't the only reason for keeping your Perkins Brailler.
"Granted they're not the sexiest piece of equipment around," says Julie, "but they still have their place in the 21st century, especially when someone is learning braille. Retaining information is much better using braille. We still have to have books in hard copy too, and the brailler can be used for writing letters and cards, as well as making shopping lists."
People who have a job or training goal may be able to apply for funding to purchase an adaptive electronic note-taker. They're not just for young people, however. One 86-year-old Foundation member, Ken Gemmell of Oamaru, uses his Keynote with voice output to "read" emails to his sighted wife! "All I needed was persistence and patience," he says. "Emailing has become an important part of my life now."
It's not clear if the price of adaptive note-takers will come down as more people get them. What seems likely though is that good tactile design is the way of the future. Everything from car stereos, telephones, walkmans and mobile phones will be made so you can operate them by touch only rather than having to see the controls.
Other electronic aids to daily living will be voice activated. These may include in-car computers that can read your email and other information aloud or devices that switch on your lights and appliances at home by remote control. This concept, that adaptive technology can benefit everyone, is being called Universal Design. It's been around unnamed for almost two hundred years, ever since Pellegrino Turri fell in love with Countess Carolina.
Page 9
Talking books came to New Zealand in 1937, after 78rpm records were released in the UK and the US in 1933, and the American Foundation for the Blind published its first issue of the Talking Book Bulletin. Books on tape were also being developed by a member of the New York Public Library's Women's Auxiliary for World War II veterans who were blind or vision impaired.
The Foundation has over 7,500 talking books in its collection, played on four-track talking book machines. One limitation of this reading method has been the necessity to listen through a book from beginning to end.
Digital technology means you will be able to jump to a chapter or section in a book without having to listen right through the work to locate where you want to go. The digital talking book machines of the future will be lighter and smaller. They'll be a better way to read - easy to use, with simple controls and some more advanced features for those who want them. They can play music CDs, talking books, standard cassettes and MP3 music files. Digital technology however, also allows the Foundation to produce braille, text and audio narration of the same book from one computer file. This saves hours of production time.
Early on in the development of digital books, talking book libraries formed a group to standardize the new digital medium, and DAISY was born in 1996. It stands for Digital Accessible Information System. There are now many kinds of DAISY books, from audio-only to text-only to full text and audio. Some can even produce braille. You can listen to a DAISY book on a computer while reading the text with a braille display. As they develop, other possibilities will emerge, Internet radio, for example, and it might be possible for DAISY to partner with a satellite broadcaster.
The Foundation has just acquired six DAISY machines for the next phase of its in-house testing of the 80 DAISY books it has already made. This phase will determine the timeline for introducing digital talking books alongside the current library service.