Wireless Inclusive RERC| Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, GA - Apps

Proceedings of the Wireless RERC 2021 State of Technology Forum

Mz22 — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 18:44:16 +0000

Publication Type:

The Wireless RERC convened the Virtual State of Technology (SoT) Forum 2020One on March 23-24, 2021. The 2021 virtual SoT was a focused, robust event, with a lively, informed, and diverse group of attendees representing the research community, people with disabilities, industry, technologists, advocates, policymakers, and disability service providers who explored the state of, and emerging trends in, inclusive wireless technologies and applications.

The Forum Proceedings is an interactive document with papers, presentations, videos, and bios from the two-day event. Further, it opens with a summation of the event and closes with a chapter on key activities to pursue to ensure inclusion is always at the forefront of wireless technology, design, development, and deployment.

Date of Publication:

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

New Application Enables People who are Non-Verbal to Access Voice-Activated Smart Home Devices

Mz22 — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 19:08:37 +0000

Publication Type:

Products

August 11, 2021 – The IDEAL Group is pleased to announce the release of the Smart Home Helper (SHH). SHH is a free Android app (available on the Google Play Store) that enables individuals who are nonverbal and individuals with speech disorders such as stuttering, apraxia, and dysarthria to issue verbal commands to voice-activated smart home devices, using Android’s Text-to-Speech engine. SHH enables its users to issue smart home commands, in any one of 63 languages/dialects. Smart home voice commands can easily be created, organized, and shared with other users of the app. SHH development was funded by The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Wireless Inclusive Technologies’ (Wireless RERC).

About Voice-Controlled Smart Home Devices:

In the U.S., home-based, voice-controlled devices represent a rapidly growing market. Key players include Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Samsung’s Bixby and the Google Assistant. According to 16best.net and IDC:

Over 60 million people in the U.S. own 157 million smart speakers.
At least one voice-activated smart speaker is owned by 53 million Americans.
The number of smart homes worldwide is expected to be 451 million in 2025.
Global smart home device shipments are expected to reach 1.4 billion in 2025.

Why SHH is important:

Given the benefits of voice-controlled smart home devices, those who lack the ability to speak, or who can speak clearly are not able to fully take advantage of these devices. The SHH was developed to level the playing field by enhancing the accessibility of these devices.

Nonverbal Statistics:

According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 70 million people worldwide stutter (about 1% of the population). In the United States, this represents over 3 million people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Autism Speaks, an estimated 30,000,000 people with autism worldwide are nonverbal.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, dysarthria is a speech disorder that happens because of muscle weakness. Motor speech disorders like dysarthria result from damage to the nervous system. Researchers don’t know exactly how common dysarthria is. It is more common in people who have certain neurological conditions, such as:

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): Up to 30% of people with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) have dysarthria.
Multiple sclerosis (MS): Around 25% to 50% of people with MS get dysarthria at some point.
Parkinson’s disease: Dysarthria affects 70% to 100% of people with Parkinson’s disease.
Stroke: About 8% to 60% of people with stroke have dysarthria.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI): Some 10% to 65% of people with TBI have dysarthria.

Download Smart Home Helper from the Google Play Store

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.idealgroup.aaucommand

Smart Home Helper User Documentation

https://smart-home-helper.web.app/user-documentation

Acknowledgments:

The Smart Home Helper (SHH) and supporting materials were developed by The IDEAL Group with funding from the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Wireless Inclusive Technologies (Wireless RERC).

Date of Publication:

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Seeking Participants for Research Study on Non-Traditional Employment Experiences

Mz22 — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 16:14:06 +0000

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta are seeking people with disabilities and people without disabilities who work in nontraditional jobs to help us improve the reliability of a new survey: The Contingent Employment Participation Survey (CEPS).

We are conducting a project to understand how people with disabilities find and obtain nontraditional work, such as temping, contracting, and freelancing. We also are interested in learning how such jobs affect your everyday life, your expectations for work, and your sense of independence.

If selected for the study, you will take the CEPS twice. The second time will be 2 weeks after the first time you take the CEPS. The survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. You will receive $100 as compensation for your time.

In order to take part in this study, you must be:

Over 18 years of age.
Be able to understand and speak English or be an ASL speaker
Have a disability OR do not have a disability
Should currently be in and work in the United States at the time of participation. (You may not currently be in or work in an EU country at the time of participation.)
Have access to a phone or computer
Work or have recently worked (within the last 6 months) in a nontraditional job, such as a temp agency, freelance, contract, piecemeal work, or app-based jobs such as Uber.

If you would like to participate in this study, please contact Salimah Laforce at 404-894-8297 or salimah@cacp.gatech.edu for more information.

Date of Publication:

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

AFB Shares Impact of COVID-19 on People with Vision Disabilities

Mz22 — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 20:14:39 +0000

September 2020 — The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) recently released a comprehensive report on the impact of COVID-19 on people with visual disabilities in the following subject areas: healthcare, employment, social experiences, education, transportation, voting, access to food, meals, and supplies. In this study of 1,921 U.S. participants, 92% of participants indicated that they had access to technology. However, many participants expressed that this access to technology did not mean access to information. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of participants shared that they were concerned that visual information about COVID-19 on television was not accessible to them. As a result of needing vital information relating to COVID-10, 80% of participants indicated that they have increased their use of assistive technology apps such as Aira and Be My Eyes.

Participants had varying levels of agreement to “increased use of apps designed to connect people with visual impairments with sighted assistance.” Seventeen percent (17%) of female participants strongly agreed or agreed with this statement compared to only 9% of males. The statement also received higher agreement levels from those who were blind (20%) compared to those with low vision (6%). COVID-19 has also altered how some participants utilize visual-interpreting services. Some respondents shared that they use visual-interpreting services to verify the location of items delivered to their home and to read and enter CAPTCHA information on websites [p. 24]. Technology was used differently to create social connections between people with visual impairments. 808 participants shared that they contacted other people with vision disabilities in their personal network for COVID-19 support while 785 did not reach out to any organized group for support or support for information. Some of AFB recommendations are provided below:

Any government agency distributing information about the coronavirus should provide equivalent levels of access to people who are visually impaired.
Information presented in graphical form, such as maps and bar graphs need provide text equivalents.
Product developers should incorporate digital accessibility into products as the products are initially being developed.
Provision should be made for visual interpreting services, such as Aira and Be My Eyes, to ensure that people with limited financial resources can take advantage of these services.

The report also shares the most up-to-date and salient findings on technology use, technology tools used, app/programs used, and other concerns. This report is comprehensive in the six major subject matters. The survey was distributed across a diverse demographic of people with visual disabilities. Seventy-five percent (75%) of the respondents were White, 7% were Hispanic/LatinX, 6.7% were Black, 3% were Asian. The report is publicly available as are the early releases of results of the analysis. [Source: AFB]

Flatten Inaccessibility

Date of Publication:

Monday, October 5, 2020

Center for the Development and Application of Internet of Things Technologies (CDAIT) - Biweekly IoT News Digest

Mz22 — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 11:16:10 +0000

Bent on solving real-world problems, the Center for the Development and Application of Internet-of-Things Technologies (CDAIT, pronounced si-ˈdāt) fosters interdisciplinary research and education in Internet of Things (IoT)-related domains and bridges sponsors with Georgia Tech researchers and faculty as well as with industry members with similar interests. Central to its value proposition is the belief that only a holistic approach, i.e., mindful of the complexity of the entire IoT value chain and the intricate relationships between the various links, can generate superior results. CDAIT’s broad overarching goal is to expand and promote IoT’s huge potential and transformational capabilities.

Date of Publication:

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Wireless RERC @ the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference

Mz22 — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 14:23:02 +0000

The 35th CSUN Assistive Technology Conference (CSUN 2020) convenes March 9 through 13, 2020, in Anaheim, California and Wireless RERC researchers Paul Baker, Salimah LaForce, Nathan Moon, and Bruce Walker will be leading several sessions.

Come see us on Thursday, March 12, 2020:

8:00 AM PST - Survey of User Needs for Wireless Devices: Key Findings

We present survey findings on wireless device use by consumers with disabilities, including screen readers, screen magnifiers, real-time text, and intelligent personal assistants.

11:00 AM PDT - Chart Sonification for All: Accessible Multimodal Graphs

Georgia Institute of Technology and Highcharts have collaboratively developed and evaluated an accessible online multimodal graphing tool, combining sonification and advanced data visualization.

2:20 PM PST - The Accessibility Divide in the Mobile Phone Market

The research presented reveals an accessibility divide in the mobile phone market based on disability type, provider type, and phone type that inhibits access equity.

4:20 PM PDT - Digital Tech for Inclusive Aging: Usability/Design & Policy

This session offers a literature derived policy and design model for the development and deployment of effective, inclusive technologies in assisted

Date of Publication:

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Seeking Research Participants for Project on App-Based Employment & People with Disabilities

Mz22 — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 13:10:29 +0000

Georgia Tech is conducting a project to understand the experiences of people with disabilities within non-traditional work, app-based jobs such as driving for Lyft, doing small jobs Task Rabbit, or freelancing through Fiverr, to name a few. The goal of our project is to understand the job experiences among persons with disabilities who work in app-based jobs, frequently known as “the gig economy.”

Our research focuses on why and how people with disabilities do this type of work. We also are interested in learning how such jobs affect your everyday life. If you work in an app-based job and are interested in sharing your experience, we invite you to participate in telephone interviews for this study.

How to Participate: To participate in the study, you must be:

Over 18 years of age.
Be able to understand and speak English or be an ASL speaker
Have a disability
Work in an app-based job, such as:
- Uber, Lyft, Via
- Handy, Taskrabbit
- Wag, Rover, Care.com
- Fiverr, UpWork
- DoorDash, UberEats, Postmates, Cavia, InstaCart
- Turo, Maven, Zilock, Airbnb
- And similar app-based jobs.
You cannot participate if: 1) you had already participated in 2018, 2) are under 18 years of age or are unable to give consent, 3) do not understand or speak English or ASL, 4) are employed only in permanent full-time or part-time work, or 5) are otherwise unemployed.

If You are Selected: If you are selected, we will conduct a telephone interview that will take approximately 60-90 minutes. (If you are an ASL speaker, we will arrange for video conferencing and will provide interpreting services.) The interview will be scheduled at a time that is convenient for you. You will receive $50 as compensation for your time.

To participate, contact Salimah LaForce at 404.894-8297 or salimah@cacp.gatech.edu.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Date of Publication:

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Tactile Graphics Helper Available Now in the Apple App Store!

blippincott4 — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 14:27:42 +0000

Publication Type:

Products

TACTILE GRAPHICS HELPER for iOS is available now: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tactile-graphics-helper/id1469997677

October 3, 2019 - The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Wireless Inclusive Technologies’ (Wireless RERC) App Factory project team is pleased to announce the release of the Tactile Graphics Helper (TGH) on the App Store. TGH was developed by researchers at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute led by James Coughlan, Ph.D. TGH is a free iOS app that makes tactile graphics more accessible to people with visual impairments. The basic idea of TGH is to track the user’s pointing finger as they explore a tactile graphic, like a map or the periodic table, announcing text-to-speech information about the location they are pointing to.

The Tactile Graphics Helper (TGH) is highly accessible to blind and low vision users and is intended to help them learn “graphicacy” (literacy with Tactile Graphics). Tactile graphics use raised lines, textures, and elevations to provide individuals with visual impairments access to graphical materials through touch. Tactile graphics are particularly important for students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, where educational content is often conveyed using diagrams and charts. However, providing a student who has a visual impairment with a tactile graphic does not automatically provide the student access to the graphic's educational content. Instead, the student may struggle to decipher subtle differences between textures or line styles, and must deal with cramped and confusing placement of lines and braille. These format-related issues prevent students with visual impairments from accessing educational content in graphics independently, because they oblige the students to ask for sighted clarification. The TGH app makes tactile graphics more accessible to visually impaired users, and might also be of significant benefit to students without recognized disabilities by facilitating a multi-modal (visual, tactile and audio) interaction with tactile graphics.

Helpful information on how to use TGH can be found here: https://tactilegraphicshelper.wordpress.com

Please note that in its current (beta) version, TGH requires assistance from a sighted person to aim the camera properly on the tripod before the app is used.

Date of Publication:

Monday, October 14, 2019

Google Innovates for Access

Mz22 — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 13:31:50 +0000

May 2019 – In anticipation of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), Google unveiled several accessibility initiatives that seek to improve daily living for people with disabilities. One such invention is the new Live Caption feature on Android phones that will transcribe any audio or video in real time regardless of the audio’s source. For example, captions can be generated from audio recordings of an in-person conversation or audio feedback on a maps app. It also allows users who are nonverbal to respond by typing. In efforts to innovate for access, Google is also working on two additional initiatives: Project Euphonia and Live Relay. The former project utilizes artificial intelligence to decipher people with speech impairments’ words and transcribe them. The latter project, Live Relay, assists with making phone calls more accessible for people with hearing disabilities. Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared that “Building for everyone also means ensuring that everyone can access our products. We believe technology can help us be more inclusive and (artificial intelligence) is providing us with new tools to dramatically improve the experience for people with disabilities.” [Source: Shaun Heasley, DisabilityScoop]

Google Unveils New Accessibility Initiatives

Date of Publication:

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

FCC Seeks Nominations for Chairman’s Awards for Advancement in Accessibility by February 28, 2019

Mz22 — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 22:23:34 +0000

February 2019 - The Commission is accepting nominations for the eighth Chairman’s Awards for Advancement in Accessibility. These awards recognize the efforts of individuals, organizations, academic institutions, companies and government agencies to make communications products and services more accessible to people with disabilities. The nomination period opened on December 1, 2018 and continues through February 28, 2019. The nominated products, services, technologies or practices must have been introduced to the public between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018.

The nomination process is simple and straightforward. Send an email to ChairmansAAA@fcc.gov with the following information about a product, service, standard or other innovation developed or introduced to the public during calendar year 2018:

Description of the program/challenge that is addressed by the innovation.
Description of the innovation, with attachments or links to more detailed information if available.
Description of how the Chairman's Award would impact continued development in this area, or improvement in the solution.
Description of why this particular innovation qualifies for the Chairman's Award.

Anyone can submit a nomination, and self-nominations are encouraged

For more information, please see the Public Notice or visit: fcc.gov/chairmansAAA.

Public Notice:

Word: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-355290A1.doc

PDF: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-355290A1.pdf

Text: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-355290A1.txt

For questions, please contact Deandrea Wilson at (202) 418-0703, or send email to ChairmansAAA@fcc.gov. For those using videophones and fluent in American Sign Language (ASL), you may call the ASL Consumer Support Line at (844) 432‐2275. TTY users may call the FCC’s TTY number at (888) 835-5322.

Date of Publication:

Monday, February 11, 2019