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Assistive Technology Links (AT-Links)

Accessible News #25 — Fall 2005

Should you be using these old newsletters, please bear in mind that the web addresses were correct when the newsletter was created but that they may not be accurate now. We do not plan to change the back issues of the newsletters.

Contents: 

World Usability Day 2005

November 3, 2005 was World Usability Day (www.worldusabilityday.org) with coordinated events occurring in 70 cities and 30 countries around the world. In Ottawa, the event was hosted by Carleton University's Human Oriented Technologies Laboratory (HOTLAB). Local organizers and participants included representatives from industry, academia and government — highlighting the universal appeal of this topic. The event was a showcase of the research, products, methods and tools that are available to help make a more usable world.

Mary Frances Laughton, ADIO, and Chuck Letourneau of Starling Access Services (www.starlingweb.com) had a table at the showcase where they demonstrated the Accessible Procurement Toolkit (www.apt.gc.ca) and talked about the relationship between accessible design and usability.

Later that day, Mary Frances and Chuck took part in a world wide webcast organized by Jim Tobias of Inclusive Technologies and Steve Jacobs of the IDEAL Group. Mary Frances' presentation was titled: "Towards E-Inclusion in Canada". More than 25 speakers presented on topics such as: Accessibility on the web; Mainstream accessibility and assistive technology; Laws, regulations, and policies accessibility in Europe; Accessibility in Japan; Accessibility in the USA; Disabled user involvement; Corporate accessibility programs; Speech technologies; Public sector accessibility programs; Accessible voice telecommunications; and Emerging Technology Services.

An important outcome of the preparations for World Usability Day was the formation of the Ottawa Usability Consortium (http://ottawausability.org/). Their vision states, "By increasing and supporting awareness and practice of usability, the Ottawa Usability Consortium aims to make government, industry, commerce, and education in the Ottawa area a usability-oriented multi-faceted community."

Other Ottawa events related to World Usability day include:

  • "Usability Bootcamp: Making Your Websites and Software Easy to Use"

On November 22, 2005 CapCHI (Ottawa's Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction — www.capchi.org/workshop.html) hosted a full-day workshop on an Introduction to Usability. This program was designed for developers, web architects, managers, executives, and anyone else who needed to learn about usability.

  • "Ottawa's eGov Usability Showcase"

The first ever e-Gov Usability Showcase will bring together government, industry and usability professionals to share their experiences of designing government applications and services to meet user needs. This event takes place in Ottawa on December 8th from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the National Library of Canada Auditorium, 395 Wellington Street. Registration is through Maskery and Associates' Web site at: (www.maskery.ca/egovshowcase) and admission is free.

Contents.

Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Announces New Scholarship for Grad Students with Disabilities

A Canadian bank is funding a new scholarship for graduate students with disabilities who wish to conduct research relating to rehabilitation. The TD Bank Financial Group Scholarship in Rehabilitation-Related Research for Graduate Students with Disabilities will provide University of Toronto graduate students with funding to conduct work leading to a master's or doctoral degree.

The scholarship has been established at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and will be for the period from September 2006 to April 2007 and will be renewable for an additional year depending on satisfactory performance. The scholarship will be for $20,000, with an individual supplement to be provided to help meet special costs of attending graduate school that are incurred as a result of the student's disability. Eligible graduate students must have a disability and the fields of study must relate to rehabilitation but are not limited to any particular discipline. For example, studies may include but are not limited to rehabilitation sciences, health administration and engineering.

The application and additional information will be available at a later date in the Research section of the Toronto Rehab website at (www.torontorehab.com). In the meantime, please forward your contact information to Research Administration and you will be informed when the application is available:

  • Research Administration
    Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
    550 University Avenue, #1202
    Toronto ON M5G 2A2 Canada
    Tel: 416-597-3422, ext. 3081
    Fax: 416-597-3031
    Send email to Lois Ward: ward.lois@torontorehab.on.ca
Contents.

IDEAS 2005

— by Chuck Letourneau, Starling Access Services

Over the past few years I have attended several events that dealt with Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act. I've noticed that attendees at such events are now less likely to ask, "Why should I do this" and increasingly ask, "How can we do this better". IDEAS 2005, the Interagency Disability Educational Awareness Showcase, which I attended in Washington, D.C. this September on behalf of the Assistive Devices Industry Office, was no exception.

In the words of the organizers, IDEAS...

"is held annually to improve the awareness of Section 504 & 508 which protects the rights of disabled persons in any program or activity receiving federal funds and requires that federal agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to all people with disabilities. As the most comprehensive educational conference and showcase, IDEAS 2005, is where [US] federal employees and contractors go understand the regulations and requirements necessary to support Section 508 compliance."

This was the third annual event and, according to organizers, approximately 2500 people were registered — substantially higher registration than in previous years. The conference consisted of three parallel tracks of educational or informational sessions and a "trade show" for agencies, vendors and manufacturers to demonstrate their best practices or products.

Educational sessions ranged in topic from primers for newcomers to generic legal advice for agencies to industry panels discussing how they are responding to agencies' demands for accessible products and services. Government panellists described best practices being applied in their organizations and agencies and vendors demonstrated tools and techniques for aiding compliance.

The trade show was well balanced, including manufacturers, developers and vendors of both assistive and mainstream electronic and information technologies addressing a wide range of systemic barriers and physical limitations.

One Canadian company — NetCentric (www.net-centric.com), of Ottawa, had a booth to demonstrate their Adobe PDF Section 508 accessibility compliance testing and repair tools.

Between sessions I was able promote Industry Canada's Accessible Procurement Toolkit. Especially useful were discussions I had with the developers of the General Services Administration's "Buy Accessible Wizard" (www.buyaccessible.gov/) .

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Talking Web Sites are now a Reality

- by Greg Gay,
University of Toronto, Adaptive Technology Resource Centre

The University of Toronto's Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC) has been involved in promoting accessibility for many years and continues to be a leader in the area of accessible Web-based technologies.

The latest addition to the ATRC collection of tools is the ATalker text-to-speech utility, which finally makes it possible to create talking Web sites. The technology to delivery Web-based speech has been around for nearly a decade, but up until now it has not been implemented in any practical manner. ATalker promises to change that.

The first release of ATalker is available as an add-on module for the ATutor Learning Content Management System, which is used to deliver online courses. Students can use ATalker to read text displayed on the Web aloud by generating speech files that can be played in most multimedia players. For example, a student might take their course notes and turn them into MP3 speech files, load them into a player, and listen to their notes as they would any MP3 music file.

Instructors on an ATutor system have the same tools available to them as students, with the added ability of saving speech files as a supplement to course content. Students taking a course in ATutor could simply select an "Audio Introduction" link, for example, and have a summary of the week's topic read to them.

Administrators can create different voices for their ATutor systems, so that when a student uses the keyboard to tab through the links on a page, or holds a mouse pointer over an ATutor feature, those features are read out loud. When users complete an action in ATutor, such as posting a forum message or submitting a registration form, the feedback message that follows can also be read aloud.

For people with disabilities, particularly the ones that affect reading ability, a tool like ATalker can make online learning much easier. Students can simply listen to course notes, or listen while they read, improving comprehension by processing information through dual perceptual modes. From a "curb cut" perspective, ATalker can be just as useful for those who do not have difficulties reading. Audio notes, multi-tasking (i.e. listening to course notes while typing a summary), or using the ATalker reader as a means of learning a new language are all examples of how an adaptive technology such as this can benefit everyone.

ATalker is based entirely upon open source software. The primary technology underlying ATalker is the Festival Text-to-Speech System, developed at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. The Festival system utilizes a number of open source audio encoders as well, including LAME, OggEnc, and BladeEnc, which take the speech output from Festival and compresses it, greatly increasing the speed at which the files are transported over the Web. ATalker itself is programmed in the open source PHP programming language.

Looking toward the future, the next step in ATalker's evolution will be to generalize the utility to work with any Web-based application or content, so Web application developers and content authors can make their Web sites speech-enabled.

Further work is planned to extend ATalker's support of the SABLE and SSML markup languages. These formatting languages are similar to HTML, and allow authors to customize voice output with a full range of speech attributes. SABLE and SSML are both easier to learn than HTML, with only a small number of tags and speech attributes to understand. With these markup languages, one can generate an endless variety of speech patterns including a child's voice, a French speaker reading English, female and male speakers engaged in a conversation, a reader speaking in Spanish, and so on.

The future of the Web as primarily a text and graphics medium is changing. In the coming months and years, speech-based Web sites will become a reality. Imagine using your telephone to surf and listen to the Web. Imagine downloading content from a Web site onto your MP3 player, and listening to it on the ride home from work, or school. Imagine listening to lecture notes or the monthly financial reports during your daily workout. Imagination is all that limits the possibilities for the talking Web.

Audio, unlike visual information, does not require immediate physical proximity with the information being conveyed; a person can hear things over a greater distance than they can see them. This opens up a whole new way of using the Internet. Web surfers will no longer have to stare into a screen to use the Internet. Coupled with speech-to-text, often referred to as voice recognition software, the Web can eventually become a hands- and eyes-free learning environment.

For details about ATalker, the technologies that have gone into its creation, or to try it for yourself, browse through the following resource sites or contact ATalker at: (www.atutor.ca/contact.php).

ATalker
www.atutor.ca/atalker/

Festival Text-to-Speech System
www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/

SABLE Markup Language
www.bell-labs.com/project/tts/sable.html

Synthesize Speech Markup Language (SSML)
www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis/

Contents.

Technovision

— by Mary Frances Laughton, ADIO

I was privileged to attend the 2005 version of Technovision held in Quebec City Friday September 23. This was a unique opportunity to discover the latest in software and hardware products such as screen readers, large print software, Braille display devices and embossers, CCTVs and reading devices, notetakers, electronic agendas, accessible phones and pocket PCs, digital book readers, GPS orientation devices, telescopes, lenses, independent living aids and more! There were several hundred visitors from all areas of Quebec and other parts of Canada and the northern US to visit the booths and attend various presentations given by leading developers and promoters of assistive solutions for persons living with vision loss. Gilles Pepin, Acting President of HumanWare was the keynote speaker.

The Technovision 2005 programme of speakers can be found at:
www.inca.qc.ca/fr/technovision/TV2005/horaire.eng.htm

Contents.

A picnic table everyone can enjoy: Making Ontario's parks and public spaces more accessible

- by Sachin Bhutani, Ontario March of Dimes

In a move to make Ontario's community spaces more accessible for everyone, Ontario March of Dimes' (OMOD) talented DesignAbility® volunteers have created a universally accessible picnic table that provides easy access for two wheelchair users and four ambulatory users.

The AccessAbility® Table, constructed entirely of recycled materials, is easy to use because its legs are positioned in the centre of the table and therefore do not impede people using wheelchairs or other mobility devices. Other features include a built-in chessboard, a rust-proof stainless steel frame, and a permanent mount that protects against theft and damage.

"Our goal is to get the tables installed across the country, not only in recreational settings, but in business and residential areas, too," says Elaine Darling, DesignAbility Coordinator. The AccessAbility Table is just one of more than 100 products created by DesignAbility volunteers skilled in woodworking, metalworking, electronics, and engineering. These volunteers create new devices, or adapt existing ones, to meet the needs of children and adults with physical disabilities.

In May 2003, the AccessAbility Table was officially unveiled as a way for government and corporate sponsors to help increase community participation for all Ontarians. Ontario March of Dimes has now made the table available for purchase by individuals wishing to make a dedication to a special person or event.

The table features a prominent area for personal dedication, messages, or logo etchings. Sponsors receive a tax receipt for 100 per cent of the cost, and the professionals at OMOD make all the arrangements with municipalities or property owners for the table's installation.

"Sponsorship of an AccessAbility Table provides many benefits,' says Neil Gallaiford, Interim Director of Fundraising. "Not only is it a unique and meaningful way to honour a loved one, but purchase of the AccessAbility Table will help more people with physical disabilities to enjoy Ontario's beautiful parks and public places.

Finally, proceeds from the sale go toward supporting the programs and services of Ontario March of Dimes." For more information on sponsoring an AccessAbility Table, please visit the March of Dimes website (www.dimes.on.ca) or call 1-800-263-3463, ext. 250.

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News Bits

  • Compusult (www.compusult.nf.ca) has been busy over the past few months. In March, they completed a project for Transport Canada entitled "Study of Automated Dispensing Machines and Automated Information Kiosks" whose objective was to assess and report on current and future technologies that will make such devices accessible to persons with disabilities. In August, they delivered eleven Caption Display units to Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, NC that have been installed around the campus to provide real-time and scripted captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing students and personnel at the college. In September, Compusult delivered a Sales-Talk system to the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) for installation in their technology center. Sales-Talk is the first fully accessible Point-Of-Sale (POS) system for blind merchants and is both speech-enabled and screenreader-friendly. Last but not least, in October, the Mount Pearl, Newfoundland-based company delivered a Vindicator system to WXXI in Rochester, NY to adapt a Wheatstone Generation 3 (G3) digital audio control console. Compusult's Vindicator NV system makes the digital console controls accessible to a blind engineer who had previously worked with an analogue board, but could not work with the new digital product until now.

  • At the end of August, Liberty Motor Company Inc. (www.libertymotorco.com) and Shoppers Home Health Care (www.shoppershomehealthcare.com) announced an agreement for the exclusive nationwide sales and distribution of Liberty's popular wheelchair accessible minivans. "This partnership gives Canadian consumers the opportunity to acquire safe, affordable and high quality adaptive mobility products with the personal service and convenience of a local and trusted Canadian icon", said Simon Jones, the president of Liberty. Liberty is a privately held Canadian company whose focus has been on commercial accessible transportation solutions and factory-direct retail sales. Shoppers Home Health Care is a division of Shoppers Drug Mart, with 51 locations, making it the largest Canadian retailer of home health care products and services.

  • In September, Ottawa's NetCentric released the only product of its kind that tests and repairs PDF documents for accessibility. The CommonLook suite of products and services includes the CommonLook™ [US Rehabilitation Act] Section 508 plug-in for Adobe Acrobat® QA Professional Editions and the CommonLook™ for HTML Government of Canada, Corporate and S508 Editions. They also offer services to make HTML/PDF documents accessible or to convert between formats. For information about these and other NetCentric products and services, visit their Web site or contact Andrew Oestreich, Business Development, NetCentric, tel: 613-270-9582 ext. 204, mobile: 613-291-6327, fax: 613-270-0574 email Andrew Oestreich at: aoestreich@net-centric.com or visit CommonLook (www.commonlook.com/pdf) .

  • On September 19, HumanWare announced that Victor Reader Wave is now shipping. Based on the popular Victor Reader Vibe, the world's first mainstream MP3 player adapted to play DAISY books, the Wave has the same advantages of an adapted mainstream player, but includes many enhancements over the Vibe: the clam shell style lid has been modified to use the telephone style keypad of the Victor Reader Classic player; an enlarged file system to play complex DAISY books; expanded memory to store hundreds of bookmarks; it saves the playback position of DAISY, MP3 and music CDs; audio prompts have been added for MP3 playback; and learning disabled users will benefit from a larger screen with text feedback for commands and display of book title and current section heading. The Wave is currently only available in English, with more languages to follow soon. Visit the Humanware Web site (www.visuaide.com/hw/en/distributors.asp#victor) for more information.

  • On September 26, Newfoundland and Labrador's Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment announced $79,000 in funding for the Adaptive Technology Program with the Newfoundland Independent Living Resource Centre (ILRC: www.ilrc.nf.ca/). "The Adaptive Technology Program is a real step forward in connecting persons with disabilities to the information highway", said Minister Joan Burke. "...This program will help residents across the province, who may not have access to computer technology, benefit from opportunities for innovative learning, skills development and improved access to government service." Newfoundland and Labrador residents who want to know more about the APT should contact the ILRC at 4 Escasoni Place, St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador A1A 3R6, tel.: 709-722-4031, Regional Toll Free: 1-866-722-4031, TTY: 709-722-7998, fax: 709-722-0147, email the Newfoundland Independent Living Resource Centre: info@ilrc.nf.ca or visit their Web site.

  • On October 19, IntelliTools, Inc. and Madentec Limited (www.madentec.com) announced the launch of a new joint product called IntelliSwitch at the Closing the Gap conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. IntelliSwitch is a flexible interface for the computer, providing wireless access to most switch accessible software from IntelliTools, Madentec's Discover software and other programs. Users simply install its driver software, plug its small receiver into a USB port and plug a switch into one of its five switch ports. The computer can now be controlled by one or more wireless switches from up to twenty feet away. To find out more about this new product, visit Madentec's Web site, contact Mary Senger, Marketing Manager, Madentec Limited, 4664 99th Street, Edmonton, Alberta T6E 5H5, tel.: 1-877-623-3682, e-mail Mary Senger: marys@madentec.com or you can also visit the IntelliTools Web site at: www.intellitools.com .

  • Also in October, Special Needs Computer Solutions Inc. (www.SpecialNeedsComputers.ca) introduced a 100% Touchless keyboard. Compact in size at 12" X 6", the keyboard detects a finger optically so there are no moving parts and no domes to crack. The user's finger is detected by a matrix of infrared sensors with drift free technology. To find out more about the Touchless Keyboard and Special Needs' other products, visit their Web site or contact Terry Scott, Special Needs Computer Solutions Inc., 50 Niagara St., St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 4K9, tel.: 905-641-4922, fax: 905-641-3406, e-mail Terry Scott: Terry@SpecialNeedsComputers.ca .

  • This October, Vancouver-based PDG Product Design Group Inc. (www.PDGmobility.com)) unveiled a new approach in manual wheelchairs for people with significant disability at two major trade shows, REHACARE, in Dusseldorf, Germany and MEDTRADE in Atlanta, Georgia. The Astrotilt is a manual-tilt wheelchair that enables adults and children with disabilities to do much more for themselves, increasing self-esteem, reducing dependence on care-givers and saving patient-care dollars. Manual-tilt wheelchairs are not a new idea, but the Astrotilt (and the Astrotilt Jr.) is designed so that in many cases, the user can propel, tilt and gain access to tables and desks without assistance. PDG president, Phil Mundy, says that his company "is focussing on enabling individuals with more involved disability in an effort to make [them] more independent. Tasks like independent wheeling, independent shifting or body position in space, and gaining access to desks and tables without assistance is what PDG is all about." For more information about the Astrotilt and PDG's other mobility products, visit their Web site or contact Phil Mundy by phone at 604-323-9220 or email Phil at: pmundy@PDGmobility.com .

  • The first speech-recognition software designed for students with learning disabilities has been launched. SpeakQ was developed at the Bloorview MacMillan Children's Centre in Toronto with funding from the U.S. Department of Education and is available from Quillsoft. With SpeakQ, students speak a word or phrase and see it displayed in a box with four alternate words or phrases that the software predicts. They can click on each word or phrase to hear it spoken before selecting the correct one and inserting it into their document. The product is integrated with the WordQ word prediction software that was also developed at Bloorview MacMillan. To find out more about these products, contact Quillsoft 2416 Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario M1N 1A2, call them at 1-866-629-6737 or 416-698-0111, fax them at 416-698-1555, email Quillsoft at: sales@quillsoft.ca or visit Quillsoft on the Web at: (www.wordq.com) .

  • On November 22, a team or Toronto and Vancouver engineers captured first prize in an international competition. Dr. Alex Mihailidis of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and Jesse Hoey of the University of British Columbia led a research team that developed an anti-collision system for powered wheelchairs, an advance that could provide new independence for wheelchair users with cognitive disabilities. The top prized of $10,000 (US) was awarded in the CanestaVision design contest, sponsored by San José, California-based Canesta Ltd. The prize-winning research is part of a larger study of anti-collision wheelchair systems run by Toronto Rehab, with funding from the Candian Institutes of Health Research. Trials are taking place at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

  • The Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres (CAILC: www.cailc.ca) announced its national kick-off of the UN International Day of Disabled Persons would take place on Friday, December 2, as the actual Day falls this year on a Saturday. Its theme this year is "Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Action in Development". In Ottawa, the event will be marked with information tables and a lunch at the Westin Hotel. In addition to celebrating the International Day of Disabled Persons, the CAILC event will also celebrate the 20th anniversary of Section 15, the Equality section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Mary Gusella, Chief Human Rights Commissioner, will give an address and the Minister of Social Development, the Honourable Ken Dryden, has also been invited to speak. The event will also include the DVD release of the documentary "Murderball", copies of which will be on sale.

Contents.

Our Web Site

Our Web site can be found at www.at-links.gc.ca . At this site are all our old newsletters as well as different listings and links to other sites of interest. Should you be using these old newsletters, please bear in mind that the web addresses were correct when the newsletter was created but that they may not be accurate now. We do not plan to change the back issues of the newsletters.

Contents.

Communications From ADIO

If you would prefer to receive our newsletter on disk or by e-mail, please contact us at the address below.

Contents.

Where To Find Us

For more information or to get on our mailing list, please contact:

Mary Frances Laughton or Deb Finn
Assistive Devices Industry Office
Industry Canada
P.O. Box 11490 Station H
Ottawa, Ontario
K2H 8S2

Tel: 613-990-4316 or 613-990-4297
fax: 613-998-5923
TTY: 613-998-3288
Email: adio@crc.ca

Contents.

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Date Modified: 2010-03-01

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