Assistive technologies and the visually impaired: a digital ecosystem perspective

Assistive technology devices for the visually impaired form a small part of a much wider support infrastructure of people and systems that cluster about a particular disability. Various disabilities, in turn, form part of a greater ecosystem of sometimes isolated support teams. These may cluster abo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Calder, David
Other Authors: Fillia Makedon
Format: Conference Paper
Published: ACM 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36674
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author Calder, David
author2 Fillia Makedon
author_facet Fillia Makedon
Calder, David
author_sort Calder, David
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Assistive technology devices for the visually impaired form a small part of a much wider support infrastructure of people and systems that cluster about a particular disability. Various disabilities, in turn, form part of a greater ecosystem of sometimes isolated support teams. These may cluster about a nucleus of various specific disabilities, such as vision impairment, speech or hearing loss, each focusing on their own particular disability category. Teams are comprised of therapists, caregivers, trainers, as well as device manufacturers, who design and produce computer-based systems such as mobility aids. There is, however, little evidence of any real crossover collaboration or communication between different disability support teams and a disparate cottage industry of manufacturers. The author proposes a collaborative digital ecosystem framework that may assist this challenge. Although this paper is not a survey of all available devices, examples of some commercial systems are cited in order to draw attention to user interface challenges that confront both those who rely on them....and those who design them.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-366742023-01-18T08:46:43Z Assistive technologies and the visually impaired: a digital ecosystem perspective Calder, David Fillia Makedon Ilias Maglogiannis Sarantos Kapidakis infrared assistive technology portable electronic device ambient sound cues sensory channels ultrasonic pulse-echo Obstacle warning displays long cane laser sound interface displays visually impaired disabled Assistive technology devices for the visually impaired form a small part of a much wider support infrastructure of people and systems that cluster about a particular disability. Various disabilities, in turn, form part of a greater ecosystem of sometimes isolated support teams. These may cluster about a nucleus of various specific disabilities, such as vision impairment, speech or hearing loss, each focusing on their own particular disability category. Teams are comprised of therapists, caregivers, trainers, as well as device manufacturers, who design and produce computer-based systems such as mobility aids. There is, however, little evidence of any real crossover collaboration or communication between different disability support teams and a disparate cottage industry of manufacturers. The author proposes a collaborative digital ecosystem framework that may assist this challenge. Although this paper is not a survey of all available devices, examples of some commercial systems are cited in order to draw attention to user interface challenges that confront both those who rely on them....and those who design them. 2010 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36674 10.1145/1839294.1839296 ACM fulltext
spellingShingle infrared
assistive technology
portable electronic device
ambient sound cues
sensory channels
ultrasonic pulse-echo
Obstacle warning displays
long cane
laser
sound interface displays
visually impaired
disabled
Calder, David
Assistive technologies and the visually impaired: a digital ecosystem perspective
title Assistive technologies and the visually impaired: a digital ecosystem perspective
title_full Assistive technologies and the visually impaired: a digital ecosystem perspective
title_fullStr Assistive technologies and the visually impaired: a digital ecosystem perspective
title_full_unstemmed Assistive technologies and the visually impaired: a digital ecosystem perspective
title_short Assistive technologies and the visually impaired: a digital ecosystem perspective
title_sort assistive technologies and the visually impaired: a digital ecosystem perspective
topic infrared
assistive technology
portable electronic device
ambient sound cues
sensory channels
ultrasonic pulse-echo
Obstacle warning displays
long cane
laser
sound interface displays
visually impaired
disabled
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36674