Painting The Extension Page
This page is devoted to those ideas, speculations, dreams that we indulge
in while we are doing things like painting the extensions on our house,
weeding the garden, strolling along the beach, etc. They are the musings
about things that we would like to see happening, information about
developments in the pipeline and ideas for future developments. They
are basically a bit of dreaming and crystal ball gazing. Maybe these
things will happen, maybe they won't. Some may be just around the corner,
and some may be idle speculation that will never happen.
Nevertheless, it can be a bit of fun to play the "What if?"
game. If you have any what ifs to throw into the pot, please email them
to the Project Co-ordinator
What Ifs?
Random Thoughts
Kurzweill K3000
Voice Recognition
Sharing Electronic Books
Using textHelp! for People with Cerbral Palsy
Random Thoughts
Trevor Allan:
"Wouldn't it be great if the Developers of AT products got
together and integrated their products better? In testing different
products, for example, I now have something like 12 different screen
reading programs on my Laptop - they take up space, perform the same
functions, sometimes conflict with each other and create unnecessary
difficulties in use. It would make a lot of sense for developers to
at least give people the option of choosing an existing screen reader
for their product, instead of automatically installing the umpteenth
screen reader on your computer. This would also give people the option
of using particular voices and setups from their favourite program much
more quickly and easily. If the user became aware of a new and better
product, they could then install it instead. People with disabilities
should be able to choose their screen readers the way other people can
choose their fonts, backgrounds and screen savers, etc.
K3000 Dreaming
Trevor Wilks was thinking about desirable future directions for develoments
with Kurzweill K3000. He wrote to Kurzweill suggesting a number areas
of potential improvements:
1: The ability to create MP3 files of the Audio output from K3000
2. The ability to read PDF files
3. The possibility of short term loans of scanned files.
Kurzweill replied:
"We are in the thick of setting priorities for future releases
of the K3000 - so while I am willing to discuss what is likely to happen,
take what I
say with a grain of salt and stay in touch.
Mp3 file creation is high on my list and appears doable. Handling PDF's
has some complications and will probably not be a seamless process,
however we
know it is important - stay tuned on this one.
I support the idea of widespread short term lending of scanned files
in our format, as long as precautions are taken to keep it within the
community
served by our accessibility features, ie not violating copyright law.
Anything which mitigates the burdens of scanning is a good idea for
me."
Ideas from a student using K3000:
"Is it possible to save the scanned page straight to Word for
proofreading and editing? (Editing is painfully SLOW in this program!)
The scanning is better but if the original copy is bad the editing
is slower than in the previous program - can't use things like the scroll
button on the mouse, which speeds up the job significantly.
Also when several pages are scanned, it is impossible to scroll from
one page to the next, or use Page Down, except within the current page.
You
need to be able to jump from one part of the document to the next without
having to use the tab on the Tool Bar. some sort of scroll function
or shortcut key would be great.
It would also be good to have a shortcut button to the Zone Edit feature,
as this would save a lot of mousing."
Where's HAL? VR Speculation
Trevor Allan:
I would like to see Voice Recognition software develop the ability to:
- Recognise multiple voices without having to stop and load new
voice files - i.e. have the ability to access multiple voice files
at the same time;
- Develop microphones that are effective without being intrusive
- something like a wearable microphone that sends signals via FM radio
waves, so that people can move around, without having headsets in
front of their faces.
- be able to be used for transcribing lectures (See Liberated
Learning Project)
I am keen on playing around with a Mini Disk Recorder to see if it
works any better as a Mobile transcription tool. It has a number of
potential advantages over the supplied Digital recorder:
- Longer recording time (74/128 min)
- Removable storage disks allow permanent or short-term retention
of audio data
- More flexibility in when transcription is done (no need to free
up storage space on recorder - just use another disk)
- More accurate transcription?
- Ease of operation
I have purchased a Mini Disk recorder and will be doing some testing.
Watch out for the Report.
Sharing Electronic Books
Trevor Wilks:
"I have been thinking for ages about how wasteful it is for people
to spend so much time scanning books or articles, and then they never
get used any more. Often books are used year after year, and get scanned
year after year.
I tried a while ago to set up a web page where different people and
institutions could list the scanned material they hold, and other people
could search the site and see if the books they needed were there. They
could then borrow the electronic book and use their screen reader/enlarger/K3000,
etc to read the books. If they had any scanned material (as most users
of this technology have) they could post their material to the site
as well.
Unfortunately, the proposal was blocked at the time by the copyright
laws, which restricted electronic copying, but recent changes in the
laws might mean that the idea is possible. It certainly is in the USA,
where a site has been established. It is called Bookshare,
and it is in the process of establishing an electronic library. It is
currently restricted to US citizens or institutions, but I would think
that we should be able to do the same sort of thing here. At least there
is now a precedent."
Using textHelp! Word Prediction for People with Cerebral Palsy
We conducted an interesting exercise at a recent assistive technology
workshop. A person with Cerebral Palsy wanted to investigate using a
screen reader to read back what he had typed. He had limited mobility,
very little speech and used a head pointer to type out messages on a
keyboard. Typing was a slow and laborious process, but was his most
effective means of communication.
Since he only required a basic screen reader, we set him up with textHelp!
Read'nWrite 5.0, as a cost-effective solution to his needs. The Screen
reading funtion worked well, but the really exciting development was
when we switched on the Word Prediction function. By using Word Prediction,
we were able to reduce the necessary key strokes by 70% to 80%, depending
on what was being typed.
Word Prediction works by bringing up a list of possible words in a
pop-up box, which gets more refined as more letters are typed in. If
the desired word appears in the box, simply hitting the corresponding
function key will insert the word in the document. For example, to type
"this," the person typed "t" then "F4".
To type "photosynthesis" he typed "pho" then "F8".
This resulted in a much faster process, less typing, less fatigue,
clearer communication and faster and more accurate text entry. He also
had the added benefit of being able to set up the program to read back
each word as it was typed, or the finished sentence, or highlighted
text, whatever was desired.
Using the dual functions of Word Prediction and Screen Reading may
be a valuable tool for many people with Cerebral Palsy or other limitations
in using a keyboard. (Detailed Report following)
Painting the Extension
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