Accessibility

Google Drive and Docs gain accessibility options for visually-impaired users

With a visual impairment, using any software or service can be anything from tricky to impossible. Windows and other operating systems have long included features that make them easier for blind and partially sighted people to use, and now Google is adding similar playing-field-levelling features to Google Drives and Docs. While traditional desktop software has been quick to adopt new methods of opening up to as many people as possible, the same cannot be said of online tools -- Google is looking to change that.

Successfully Crowdfunded Blind Accessible Audio Game, Grail to the Thief, Now Available for Download

For All To Play today announced the launch of Grail to the Thief, an interactive audio adventure for Windows, Mac, and Linux that can be played using only sound,
without the need for visuals. The game has been designed with the needs of the blind and visually impaired in mind but can be enjoyed by everyone. The game delivers an exciting, immersive experience in which the player is always fully aware of what is happening through the use of voice-overs, sound effects, ambient sound and music.

A Braille soldier: Lifestyle magazine for visually-challenged

Twenty-six-year-old Upasana Makati’s Pinterest profile reads: “An Indian classical music lover, a dreamer, a Canadian by heart, an emotional fool with a passion to live LIFE to the fullest.” She believes there couldn’t have been a more apt description of how she feels today. Even as she’s most defined by her literary venture White Print, a Braille magazine, Upasana, a student of Jai Hind College, Mumbai, knows that it is an association she’d be happy to have for a lifetime.

A bank that is blind friendly

At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is aiming at financial inclusion of all sections and the word Braille got a mention for the first time in Union Budget, students of Cept University have designed a bank-cum-cafeteria for people with visual disabilities.

A risky road for blind students in Rohini

Students at the All India Confederation of Blinds in Rohini often get knocked by cars while finding their way to the school premises. Drivers backing without warning or looking around had left three of the girls bruised earlier. The students have a tough time weaving through the vehicles parked haphazardly.
A slip road between Rajeev Gandhi Cancer Hospital, on Bhagwan Mahavir Marg, and a zonal office of North Corporation leads to the school.

Tactile tiles of little use to visually-impaired

Tactile tiles, which are virtually the guiding lights for the visually-impaired, are hardly of any use to them in the Capital. Sometimes they end up leading into drains, as outside the power station adjoining Delhi Secretariat; at other places they lead into obstacles like trees, poles or even a wall. This is so because while placing them is mandated under the civic and building guidelines, the sensitivity needed for such work is missing.

US Gateway unveils app for the visually impaired passengers

San Francisco International Airport has unveiled a prototype version of a smartphone app, which can help visually-impaired passengers to navigate through an airport terminal.

The app was developed through San Francisco Mayor, Ed Lee’s, Entrepreneur-in-Residence Programme, which paired the Californian gateway with Indoo.rs, an indoor navigation technology firm, and was developed in the space of 16 weeks.

Accessibility for the visually challenged

In its 10th year of operations, the Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) under the ADIP scheme of the Department of Disability Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, distributed SmartCanes and PlexTalk Vachak to 50 visually impaired students in the city.

‘Smartcanes’ made by IIT-Delhi team to help 60 blind students in city=

Lab for visually impaired gets Sh4.5mn GE donation

Kenya is among several African countries set to benefit from a skills transfer programme supported by General Electric (GE) the global infrastructure leader.
The citizenship programme dubbed ‘Kujenga’ aims at empowering people by building valuable skills, equipping communities with new tools and technology, and elevating ideas that will help solve Africa’s challenges.