Assistive tech

Hello all, welcome back to our course on digital accessibility. I uh today we will talk about assistive technologies. We've been talking about assistive technologies uh in our previous sessions several times. Uh in today's session what we are going to do is we are trying we will try to go through uh a lot of examples and uh the different types of assisted technologies which are there and uh what comes under the definition of assisted technologies. I think that is uh something that uh we will talk about in this session. So let us start at uh what are assisted technologies. Um so they are primarily tools which supports independent task performance. So you should see that in the definition itself there is no mention of um disability or anything of that matter. In fact if uh most of us uh are also using assistive technologies in our day-to-day life which maybe you don't know is also assisted technologies are spectacles. This also comes under the definition of assisted technology. So basically why it comes because uh without this you primarily uh uh probably you're unable to read the whiteboard or the blackboard in your classroom or something and basically you're not able to uh read uh near text or far things and with uh the help of a set of pair of glasses you are able to uh read and independently interact with the written material. like a newspaper or something on a billboard or a blackboard that means that it is enabling you to independently perform a task. That is the only definition. The moment you add independent task performance automatically you'll be able to see a lot of um um you know in in cases where people have complete sensory deprivation or there is some impairment they are either dependent on other human being uh to help them in completing the task or they are um uh you know dependent on technology. So very I like to give this example uh in my class also. So I'm sure all of you might have heard about uh Ditarashtra who was a blind king and uh throughout the Mahabharat war uh the there was his aid uh who was a human his name was Sanjay who was visually describing the he was seeing the war and he was describing it verbally word to word sitting next to him throughout the war that what this is not what is happening This is happening. What is happening now? What is happening? So it's like almost like a commentary, right? So he was dependent on that human being in order to analyze the or get a real time information and he was not able to access the information of that war independently. Right? So that is where the role of a say assisted technology comes in. Say had this been the same situation now we have the technologies uh you know to kind of describe in audio or text format uh a scene in a movie or in a real life and then that would be something like a digital virtual agent will be who will be able to describe a scene for you. So it is the same thing. So any tool, any machine, any um support system which is enabling independent task performance comes under the uh definition of assisted technology. It can help you in improving your daily functioning particularly in the case of people with certain disabilities or impairments. I just don't want to say that it is only uh a disability because then that basically is a constricted definition. People who are as I said have uh myopia also has a visual impairment right and this glasses is able to help us uh in our day-to-day functioning reduces barriers in communication and learning. Uh helps us access educational material. helps us access information in our day-to-day conveyance in our employment uh areas in accessing help in accessing education everything enhances mobility in information access. It ranges from simple tools again simple tools like a GL pair of glasses to advanced very advanced AI based solutions like real time speech to text and all of those or real time dis generating realtime description of a real world scene is also requires a lot of advanced systems to come together. All right. So there can be this there are plethora of products which come under the category of assisted technologies and I'm sure you might have seen or heard about uh these products but probably you might have not thought about it uh from an assisted technology perspective. Uh so even like you know I'm sure the common ones like a wheelchair or um you know a hearing aid all of those um but also like uh knee brace or an automatic calendar clock um uh you know assistive limbs or variable devices. All of these uh can help us in um improving our day-to-day interaction with the world at some or the other level. So exoskeleton or muscle movement all of these. So they can be visual assisted devices, hearing assisted devices, mobility physical assisted devices, speech communication related assisted devices, um cognitive and learning assisted technologies, digital software based assisted technologies, education, STEM based assisted technologies. So maybe what you can do is also do um like a search if you want to kind of deep dive into any of these. If you are working in any of these domains and you would like to explore in a deeper sense uh in terms of uh benchmarks, standards, state-of-the-art all of those you can kind of deep dive into individual uh one of them and get get in get a hang of what are the existing assisted technologies. Still we'll uh discuss some of the commonly known assisted technologies. Um one is of course your screen reader. We have spoken about it several times in our uh previous sessions. It is counted as an assistive technology. Uh it converts onscreen content into speech or braille through a refreshable braille display. It enables navigation without a mouse. We have talked about it several times in the W CAG related sessions and all of those. Um, so it is also helpful not just for people who are visually impaired, who are unable to locate buttons on a screen, but also for people who are who have who do not have gross motor or fine motor skills, people with cerebal pulsy etc. uh they can also interact with digital interfaces using screen readers. They can use semantic structure to convey meaning. Uh so of course the common examples are NVDA, JAWS, voice over, talkback. All of these are mobile based screen readers and uh these are system based uh based screen readers. Then comes our refreshable braille displays. These are not very commonly seen uh particularly in India because they their cost is still a little bit on the higher side but uh I mean there are several indigenous um um develop indigenously developed refreshable braille displays dotbook being one of them. You can go and check it out. actually I was part of the team that has created uh the dotbook and I worked uh on the dotbook as the product designer. So it's uh it's a good uh product and uh you can you know try to check it out uh on the website and so what it does is basically it's um it's a digital device which kind of u raises the braille pins line by line. So it's uh in in a hard copy print version what happens is the the pins or the dots are raised permanently. Here the dots keep going up and down and it uh it can change as per the different words and we all know that the braille letter is represented on a grid of six. So that is what it is right. So if one pin is up here one pin is up that means some letter. If these pins are up that means some other letter and it can keep changing according to each sentence and uh word. Um so as per uh a digital file which is fed into it. So basically it's a hardware device that converts text into tactile uh verbal tactile feedback and uh it enables interaction for persons who are blind. Braille movable pins dynamically form Braille characters. It is used by blind and deafb blind users. Primarily it is also very beneficial for deb blind users because many of times you've seen that blind users can also use audio feedback or as we saw the screen reader. It's it's like a talkback or a voice over right but deafb blind users um cannot avail the audio as well. And then the tactile form of uh the written word becomes even more uh crucial and more important for such users. Provides private accurate realtime text access. So what happens with audio? It is almost non-private many a times. If you're not using a earphone at all times, it is also kind of announcing what you're reading. You may not want to do that. uh it supports reading, coding, web uh browsing, STM, learning, exams etc. Then uh of course we are all aware of uh hearing aids or cocklear implants. So they are also some of the commonly known uh assisted technologies to helps in improving access to speech and sounds. Hearing aids amplify and customize sound. Cocklear implants, stimulate auditory nerve, enhance communication and classroom participation. Highly effective with captions and visuals. Then comes our very own speechtoext softwares. So it converts the spoken word into the written text in real time. So this is primarily an AI enabled system and we have also spoken about this in the AI for accessibility session and uh if you want to uh check that session out you can go back and check uh that out as well. So one of the commonly uh used version of speechto text software I'm sure there are a lot of apps which you might be aware of uh particularly that offer ST uh facility but in now it is also embedded in your office word right so you can dictate and it automatically converts it into a text format in the real time. So it supports users with motor impairments who cannot type uh quickly or learning disabilities who may have dyslexia. It may be difficult to find the letters on the keyboard or type in real time and uh check as well what is written or may have temporary limitations. It enables hands-free interaction for writing, searching or form filling. It also enables u you know multitasking in uh uh a lot of situations where uh actually people with no disability can also utilize this um um you know uh assisted technology when actually they're working at multiple things in the at the same time and they can just keep dictating it's almost like a secretary taking notes so of course the good examples are Microsoft dictate autoai and Google speechtoext algorithms. Moving on, um the other set of such tools is also texttospech algorithms and reading tools. So similarly now Microsoft Word has this read aloud uh button which can help you in uh reading a document um through uh kind of a texttospech algorithm and again it converts digital text into the spoken audio helps users with visual impairment or people with learning disabilities like reading disabilities like dyslexia and other uh reading difficulties. It can support multiple formats uh web pages, PDFs, ebooks, documents. It integrates with screen readers most of the time. It consists of customization options like voice, speed, pitch, and language for flexible learning. It enhances comprehension and multitasking by combining audio with visual highlighting. Then we also have AAC devices which is called augmentative and alternative communication devices. So it's like a it's almost like a multimodel uh uh app bank kind of a device which uh you know allows you to um express uh different emotions. You can just press buttons and uh express anger or happy or excited. So uh it supports uh or replace me speech communication abilities. It includes low tech boards as well as high techch A devices. It is used by people with diverse communication related conditions. It enables expression, independence, learning and social participation. Then we also have which a technology which has now become very mature uh and uh with the recent algorithms is which is called an eyetracking system and uh it is not just used for reading but but now the technology has matured so much that gaze based interaction has also become uh very much in use. So uh which is again based on this eye tracking uh algorithms only that uh firstly these eye tracking systems detect eye movements to control interfaces basically. So if you gaze on a particular button for say so and so seconds it enables that button uh it enables handsfree interaction. It enables um voice free interaction for that matter. It enables and um helps uh users with motoral disabilities, extreme motor disabilities also ALS with extreme injuries, spinal cord injuries and it can be very useful for uh people to navigate um the interfaces using gaze, typing, selection and communication everything. It re reduces reliance on keyboards, mouse and everything all of the other input output devices and increases independence to access digital systems. It is now also being utilized in VR environments uh you know mean gaze gazebased interactions. Then we come to accessible learning tools. So then this is also more of an umbrella heading. Uh in this there can be multiple such solutions which are simple tools but they help uh people with different kinds of disabilities. So one is talking calculator. Um so they provide audio feedback for numbers and operations and help students with visual impairments to perform math uh independently. Tactile graphics they use rays diagrams and raised lines and textures to represent uh images, charts, graphs, shapes, etc. Making visual content understandable through touch. accessible e-learning platforms so designed to work with screen readers, keyboards, captions and adjustable text for diverse learner needs. Then of course uh there are wheelchairs and mobility scooters which are also a big which also form a big chunk of assisted devices. They support people with limited mobility from various conditions. They are they can be manual or powered wheelchair scooters uh and scooters that meet different needs. Accessible infrastructure like ramps and wide pathways are required uh so that these wheelchairs such wheelchairs can be used. Uh design factors affect comfort, control and independent movement. Inclusive mobility design benefits all users not only wheelchair users. So when we say this uh we can also think about other say prosthetic prosthetic limbs and um uh you know wheelchair friendly cars. So where the seats get kind of turn around for the person to get accommodated inside. And then uh ramps etc in the architecture itself are also assisted uh technology devices um u which not just enables wheelchair users but also say stroller users and we have talked about this in uh the very beginning of the course. uh so that that inclusion not just benefits people with different disabilities but also uh with varying needs. So that approach also kind of helps us in innovating around assisted technologies. So to summarize uh assisted technologies include physical devices as well as digital tools, physical devices like wheelchairs, hearing aids, prosthetics, etc. Digital tools like softwares, apps etc. Uh they the main aim is to enhance uh function. Helps with activities like communication, mobility, reading, writing, self-care and cognition. Promotes independence. Empowers individuals to perform tasks they couldn't do before. Fostering inclusion. So I mean this this uh session was to kind of uh bring together a lot of learnings from the previous sessions into successful and implemented assisted technology or rehabilitation solutions. And again if you are an entrepreneur who's trying to look for gaps one way of looking at it is how we can improve the existing assisted technology solutions. A lot of companies are working in um high performance prosthetics for example prosthetics are there but high performance prosthetics lot of companies are working around making say stair climbing wheelchair. Wheelchairs are available. Whether which can climb ramps are also available. But can we think of a wheelchair which can climb stairs if there are no ramps? Then there can be foldable or squeezable wheelchairs which takes very less space. So all all these kind of incremental innovations in existing assisted technologies also possible in and that requires a lot of innovation as well and there are several gaps which can be addressed even with existing successful products. So how we can reduce say the weight how we can make uh screen readers more effective more robust in the real time. So what we are seeing particularly in Indian say for example we were talking about the dictate uh tool. So now in the dictate tool can we make it inclusive uh can we make such speechtoext algorithms that they are so robust that they are able to understand the Indian dialect the Indian accent also or multi-ingual um way of talking that Indians employ which is called English for example. So while speaking English uh we we have the habit of plugging in our our regional language. So for example I'm from north India so I keep plugging in Hindi in between or somebody uh from uh Tamil Nadu may be plugging in Tamil words, somebody from Mumbai may be plugging in Maharashtrian words in between the English. So would dictate be automatically able to convert those words um in the real time in the semantically meaningful manner and uh uh then write uh the supposed. So all of those aspects still remain unanswered and they can be very good opportunities for innovation. So that is all for today and uh I hope uh this kind of ignites uh curiosity amongst you uh and you will dig deeper and try to find out gaps and uh u kind of motivate yourself in working towards making more such uh assisted technology solutions or improving the existing ones. That's all for today. Thank you.