1. Blind Cheshire man runs visionary shop
Ventura County Star
June 20, 2011

2. Opening Doors to computing skills for students with visual impairment
ASU News
June 21, 2011
    
3. Hebrew U device uses sonar to help the blind navigate
Jerusalem Post
June 22, 2011
     
4. Local student to compete in National Braille Challenge Finals
Chicago Sun Times
June 23, 2011

 
1. Blind Cheshire man runs visionary shop

Charlie Collins placed a piece of paper beneath a tiny camera mounted on a small black box, and in a few seconds, a computerized voice began to read the printed words out loud.

With a wave of his hand, he silenced the voice. (Another wave would start it). The spoken words could be stored on a computer drive the size of a thumb, and loaded into any number of electronic devices for reading later on.
"Back in the day, we used to have huge learning curves with all of this stuff," said Collins, 44, legally blind since age 13 as a result of juvenile macular degeneration. "Now, it's so simple."

This was just one of scores of devices around the West Main Street shop, Vision Dynamics, that Collins opened in 1997. Among the products are low-tech signature guides Collins sells for 65 cents to high-power computerized cameras that cost thousands.

Collins says he is the only "brick and mortar" retailer in New England offering products that open possibilities for people with visual impairments. He sells tools that turn written words into sound, talking clocks and software that reads aloud whatever is on a computer screen.

Collins, who can see just well enough to make out shapes and colors, has lived for 31 years without clear, focused vision. He turns to point out a nearby customer, quietly explaining that the older woman is a newcomer.
"She has no idea," Collins said. "We're opening a whole new world to her."

He showed off another device, with a camera that could focus on both distant objects, such as a classroom blackboard, and documents placed beneath. He spoke, almost wistfully, about the advantage it offers for a student with limited vision, something he did not have the benefit of when he "barely graduated high school" and "feared out of college."

Collins' customers include individuals and institutions; his pitch is delivered to groups large and small across the country. Once faced with a life of lost opportunity, depression and disability, Collins now preaches possibilities.
"There is a great way to live life happy," he said, asking a reporter to imagine a grandparent being able to see family photos for the first time in years.

That part of his pitch was echoed by one of his customers, reference librarian Jaime Hammond at Naugatuck Valley Community College, which recently purchased a digital magnifier and Eye-Pal Solo reader and magnifier (the device that Collins demonstrated with a wave of his hand).

Hammond, enthused about the new devices available to library patrons including students and the public, said the training provided by a consultant on new equipment, along with software for the computer lab that reads computer documents aloud, also prompted a fresh look at other aspects of library life.

She pointed to a sign at the entrance, done in black block letters on a white background for maximum contrast.
"This whole process has kind of changed who we thought about other things, too," Hammond said. Signs with script letters, clip art, pastel colors and the like were out: too difficult to read. Training sessions are being set up for the fall to get faculty and staff up to speed on the new technology.

Hammond secured the $10,748 federal grant from the Connecticut State Library, one of two such grants awarded in the current fiscal year.

The Library Services and Technology Act program brings about $2 million a year into Connecticut, a small portion of which is used specifically for "adaptive technology," computerized cameras that magnify images, read documents aloud, or both.

In the current one-year grant cycle, which ends June 30, West Hartford's public library and the Waterbury college were the only libraries to purchase the devices. The list of libraries that already have such systems in place is still relatively short: Collins provided a short list of customers, including the Silas Bronson Library in Waterbury, among the first to take advantage of the federal grant program.

Silas Bronson Director Emmett McSweeney said he does not keep statistics on how many people use the devices, but he has little doubt the demand is there.

"Any time they're not working, I hear about it, trust me," McSweeney said.

Collins chafes at the lack of interest displayed by assisted living centers, and many libraries that he said have proven tough sells. McSweeney said budgets and a lack of physical space are probably factors.

Douglas Lord, who coordinates the federal grant program for the Connecticut State Library, said in these days of tight budgets, it is more likely a lack of popular demand than a lack of willingness to help on the part of librarians.

"More than anything, we need people's support," Lord said. "We need time, or votes, or people to stand up at a town meeting."

Read more: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/jun/20/blind-cheshire-man-runs-visionary-shop/#ixzz1Q1pHzm1w
  
2. Opening doors to computing skills for students with visual impairment

Ten young Phoenix-area students who are visually impaired recently took part in a special four-day computing workshop designed especially for them, thanks to an alumna of Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

Stephanie Ludi, who earned her Ph.D. in computer science at ASU in 2003, leads a National Science Foundation (NSF) project to encourage middle school and high school students who have visual impairments to study computing.

Supported by a $475,000 NSF grant, Accessible Computing Education (or Project ACE) is conducting hands-on "ImagineIt" workshops around the country. 

"It’s a critical time for them to learn that the challenges that come with their disabilities are not barriers to learning computer skills, going to college and having a career in the field," says Ludi, who is legally blind.
Ludi has been on the faculty of the Rochester Institute of Technology for more than eight years. She’s now an associate professor of software engineering in the institute’s B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences.

Much of her research focuses on seeking better ways to make education in computer science and engineering more accessible to people with disabilities.

The workshop she led at ASU was sponsored by the ASU-Tempe Disabilities Resource Center, the Foundation for Blind Children in Phoenix, and ASU’s Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (or CUbiC) where faculty and students design technologies and devices to assist people with sensory, perceptual or cognitive disabilities.
Ludi "is doing excellent work in motivating students with visual impairment to pursue post-secondary education.  This aligns with CUbiC’s mission, so we were delighted to partner with her," said Sethuraman Panchanathan, ASU’s chief research officer and founding director of CUbiC, which is part of the School of Informatics, Computing, and Decision Systems Engineering.

Working in the CUbiC lab, students used software that provides extra-large type on computer screens and an electronic voice function that reads the information on the screens for the user. The audio-visual enhancements enabled students to learn to program commands to control small robots, using the Lego Mindstorms NXT platform.

"It’s not just a technical exercise," Ludi explained. "The kids start out being quiet and studious, then they get chatty and excited as they work together to figure out how to get the robots to do what they want.  It’s a lesson in how to be creative."

Ludi got help from the Disabilities Resource Center associate director Chad Price and disability access consultant Andy Oliver.

"It was great to see how her workshop got students engaged, and how excited they were about programming robots," Oliver said.

Three ASU students also had learning experiences.

Laskshmie Viswanathan, who will soon earn his master’s degree in computer science, joined electrical engineering student Michael Astrauskas and special education student Shaylyn Savage in assisting Ludi in the workshop.

"We learned a lot about interacting with people, about how to communicate the knowledge we have from our studies and research so that it can be useful to these students," Viswanathan said. "It was pretty awesome."
Beyond encouraging people with visual impairments to study computing, the goal of Project ACE is to see them pursue careers in the field.

"People with disabilities are underrepresented in the drive for innovation and creativity that leads to new advances to improve our lives," said Disabilities Resource Center director Terri Hedgpeth. "Their participation will broaden the diversity among the ranks of innovators."

With more diversity within the computing professions, Ludi said, "not only can more students reach their potential, but we all will benefit from the distinctive perspectives people with disabilities bring to exploring what technology can do in finding solutions to our challenges.

http://asunews.asu.edu/20110621_stephludiworkshop
     
3. Hebrew U device uses sonar to help the blind navigate

The blind and visually impaired could be able to toss away their white canes or at least "see" better with them, thanks to a "virtual cane" developed by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers and patented by Yissum, the university’s research and development company.

The device was unveiled at a HU press conference at the Jerusalem International Convention Center on Tuesday, just before the Israeli Presidential Conference opened there.

Dr. Amir Amedi of HU’s Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada and of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and colleagues unveiled the inexpensive device, which emits a focused beam at objects around the user and transmits the visual information to to him via a gentle vibration similar to the quivering of a cellphone.

The technology transfer company in Jerusalem is now looking for strategic partners for further development.

Amedi estimated that the lightweight device, which reporters quickly learned to use to get through a dark maze blindfolded, would eventually cost about $100.

The highly intuitive electronic device, the size of a cellphone, incorporates several sensors that estimate the distance between the user and the object it is pointed at. This enables the blind person to assess the height and distance of various objects, reconstruct an accurate image of the surroundings and navigate safely. The “virtual cane” is easy to carry and accurate and can function for up to 12 hours between charges.

Amedi said the blind user functions like a dolphin or bat, with sonar-type signals reacting to surroundings.

Unlike a white stick that can give the blind input from only a meter away, the device can function at a much shorter distance and up to some 10 meters in all directions. The young researcher said the device can also distinguish between smiling and sad faces and can be used for research on how the brain flexibly changes upon receiving input and on brain reorganization in the blind.

There is a potential market of some 200 million visually impaired people around the world; 40 million of them are legally blind; all of them have difficulties in orientation and navigation, even with an ordinary stick. One of the main challenges facing blind people is the ability to assess the height of various obstacles as well as to identify far away objects in their surroundings. So far, until the journalists tried it, about a dozen people successfully navigated the maze, and after a very short practice period managed to completely avoid walls and obstacles without bumping their heads.

Yissum CEO Yaacov Michlin said that the promising invention "can endow visually impaired people with the freedom to freely navigate in their surroundings without unintentionally bumping into or touching other people, and thus has the potential to significantly enhance their quality of life."
http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=226026

4. Local student to compete in National Braille Challenge Finals

Learning your ABCs and the myriad other concepts a child must master in elementary school can be tough enough. For the visually impaired, those challenges are increased exponentially.
Alexander Traube, a visually impaired Roosevelt Middle School fifth-grader, has faced those challenges head on and succeeded. So well, in fact, that he will participate this weekend in the National Braille Challenge Finals in Los Angeles.

Traube, of River Forest, is one of 60 finalists in five categories, one of two Illinois students in his sophomore category (fifth and sixth grades) and three in total from the state.

Alexander was born with a condition called coloboma of the iris, a series of clefts that form in the eye tissue during pregnancy. The deformities destroy or severely impede the interaction between the iris and the optic nerve, limiting vision.

His condition is severe; he has no depth perception and very little peripheral vision and can only see the top third of his field of vision. He is nearly blind, with 20/800 vision, meaning something 20 feet away appears 800 feet distant.

His mom, Suzanne West, a Chicago Public School teacher, was adamant that he gain the skills to function as independently as possible as he grew up, went to college and began a career.

Alexander had two options: Use large print educational materials or learn Braille.

"I said ‘Absolutely not," West said of large print. Not only is large print "slow and arduous," she said, it offered her son nothing in terms of helping him navigate the greater world outside the classroom.

When Alex did use large print, it required him to hold the material literally up to his face. "It’d be much slower for me," Alex agreed.

With Braille materials, learning is more fluid.

"It’s much easier," he said. "I feel I can actually do things at a pace everyone else does (them)."

Better didn’t mean easier. From second through fourth grade, Alexander traveled to Oakbrook Terrace each school day.

"I didn’t know what to think of it," he said. He learned the basic set of Braille marks, then slowly mastered all the combinations used to convey more complex information.

"If there’s a symbol in front of it, it’s a number," Alexander explained. Then there was mastering the technology.

Perhaps the worst part was traveling to school for three years, away from River Forest friends.

"It was hard, because some people were from (an hour) away," he said.

While there, though, his instructor at Stella May Swartz prodded him to compete in the Braille Challenge. The contest included reading comprehension, Braille speed and accuracy, proofreading, spelling and reading tactile charts and graphs. Alexander balked his first year, but participated in third and fourth grades.

While a competition, the true goal of the Braille Challenge is the challenge. The motto of the contest is "Empowering visually impaired people to live fulfilling lives."

To be better, to be prepared to do everything possible in life despite not possessing something most of the world takes for granted. Alexander was also attracted by the social aspect. "I thought it would be cool to meet other people who read Braille," he said.

It wasn’t instant success.

"I competed in the (qualifiers) two years in a row and nothing happened," he recalled. This year, back in River Forest at Roosevelt, he stopped caring so much about winning, and a funny thing happened.

"I said, ‘I’m not going to win.’ And I did."

"I was very startled. It felt pretty cool," he said. It was even cooler when a letter arrived from the Braille Institute, informing him he was a national finalist.

"I’m wondering what kind of people are going to be there," Alexander said. If the lists of previous winners is any indication, there will be lots of smart, talented, engaged people in Los Angeles. Last year’s sophomore winnerwas featured in “We Also Dance,” a documentary about blind dancers.

Other Braille champions play basketball, wrestle, run, hike and bicycle, and compete successfully in science fairs. The majority also play at least one musical instrument.

Alexander, who wants to be an engineer, knows his path isn’t clear. There’s much research to do. But he also knows his mastery of Braille will allow him to connect to the world in ways "Braille illiterate" visually impaired people can’t.

Alex and his mom say they’re grateful for those who created the various technologies that allow Alex to function relatively normally in his daily world. He has a Gmail account, and his mom sends him e-mails to what looks like an oversized Blackberry device.

"Thank goodness for it," she said. "I can e-mail him something, and it will convert it to Braille."

"If I didn’t have technology, I’d be sitting on a tree stump, learning my ABCs," Alexander said.

While it might sound clichéd, West made it clear she believes Alexander and every one of the kids who will compete in the Braille Challenge are already winners for having learned a set of skills that can make a huge difference in their lives.

She decried the fact that only a small percentage of blind children are afforded that opportunity.

"Only 20 percent of blind kids who need Braille get to learn Braille," West said. "That’s unconscionable."

Alexander said his first and foremost hope is that all other visually impaired kids receive the opportunity he had. "I’d like for a lot more blind people to learn to read Braille," he said. "And for people to be aware of all that Braille can bring to people."