Blind/vision impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

Error message

Deprecated function: Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is deprecated in include_once() (line 14 of /home/mediacc/public_html/themes/engines/phptemplate/phptemplate.engine).

Unpublished


Top of page

GoDigi National Year of Digital Inclusion Expo

no
Show on home page

The GoDigi National Year of Digital Inclusion Expo, presented by Infoxchange, is being staged on 16 November at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern, Sydney. The event aims to help create a society where everyone can innovate, and Media Access Australia will be there, showcasing free Affordable Access resources.

Image of 2016 National Year of Digital Inclusion Expo banner

2016 National Year of Digital Inclusion Expo

Taxonomy: 

Top of page

The accessibility of augmented reality – Pokémon Go or no go

no
Show on home page

Dr Scott Hollier, Media Access Australia’s Specialist Advisor on Digital Accessibility, put 2016’s biggest hit in augmented reality – Pokémon Go – under the accessibility spotlight, to see just how accessible this very popular game really is. Find out how it fared and discover a little about the future benefits of Augmented Reality in this fascinating podcast article.

Image Pokémon Go logo

Image of Pokémon Go logo

 

Listen to the complete interview where Dr Scott Hollier chats to Philip Jenkinson about the accessibility of augmented reality in general and Pokémon Go in particular.

Digital media and technology: 

Top of page

New access app Blappy is making people happy

no
Show on home page

A new Bluetooth chat application for accessibility, called Blappy, aims to bring more people together. The app translates voice to text and text to voice, to enable people who are vision impaired to effectively communicate with those who are Deaf or hearing impaired.

 

Blappy running on three smartphones

Blappy running on three smartphones. Image from UC3M.

Blappy was created by CESyA, the Spanish Centre of Subtitling and Audio Description, with the support of UC3M's Audiovisual Accessibility Laboratory, which is part of the Center for Technologies for Disability & Dependence in UC3M’s Science Park in Madrid, Spain.

Taxonomy: 
Digital media and technology: 

Top of page

Bionic Olympics for competitors using 'AT' staged in Switzerland

no
Show on home page

In what is claimed as a world first, the Cybathlon Championship was held in Switzerland on 8 October, featuring six contests based around every day obstacles, with disabled athletes using and controlling Assistive Technology (AT) and/or robotic devices.

Cybathlon Championships logo

Cybathlon Championships logo

Taxonomy: 
Digital media and technology: 

Top of page

Online Census accessibility review - Pass or Fail

no
Show on home page

Dr Scott Hollier, Media Access Australia’s ‘Specialist Advisor, Digital Accessibility’, undertook an accessibility review of the 9 August Census… conducted before, during, and after that fateful night. Unfortunately, the 2016 Census was a total debacle from go to woe… but did it pass or fail in terms of accessibility, in its online form? Find out in this fascinating podcast article.

Image of Census 'This site can't be reached' message

Image of Census 'This site can't be reached' message

 

Listen to the complete interview where Dr Scott Hollier chats to Philip Jenkinson about the accessibility of the online Census.


Top of page

New literary magazine provides digital access for those with a disability

no
Show on home page

The Deaf Poets Society is a digital journal for writers with disabilities that was launched in August 2016. It was created to offer people of all abilities an accessible way to access writers with a variety of disabilities, from the USA and around the world.

Photo of poet Sarah Katz taken by Valerie Wallace

Taxonomy: 

Top of page

Accessibility in the workplace has widespread benefits

no
Show on home page

Almost half of all EU citizens living with a disability are unemployed, a new study commissioned by Microsoft has revealed. As people increasingly rely on technology to get their jobs done, the report also showed that many employees who are Deaf, blind, vision, hearing or cognitive impaired, or who have a physical disability, are finding it harder to participate productively in workplaces that are not technologically accessible.

Image of ‘thumbs up’ signifying ‘good’

Image of ‘thumbs up’ signifying ‘good’

 


Top of page

USAA’s new banking app allows voice-guided cheque depositing

no
Show on home page

USAA, a Texas-based Fortune 500 diversified financial services group, has recently demonstrated that banking and accessibility can easily go hand in hand with each other. This was proved in a recent update to their banking app which will mean that individuals who are blind or have a vision impairment will hear the benefits – literally.

USAA logo

This system offers verbal cues to guide a vision impaired customer to be able to properly position a cheque to deposit it. They use commands like ‘push out’, ‘pull in’, ‘move right’, ‘lift device’, ‘hold steady’, ‘image captured’, and more.


Top of page

Political websites offer a lesson in access

no
Show on home page

Election campaigns… The drudgery of all those politicians, political parties and media outlets all vying for your attention. Trying to get the latest news, funding promise, budget saving, tax cut, baby kissing, high-visibility vest, hard-hat-wearing politician video to us in real time. Well some of us…

A hand clicking a computer mouse with a keyboard and PC in the background

Taxonomy: 
Digital media and technology: 

Top of page

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Blind/vision impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news