The AudioScreen add-on for NVDA is based on concepts from the vOICe technology discussed in last week’s show. This week hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Mick Curran, co-lead developer of the NVDA screen reader, about how this add-on that he developed can be used to help the blind “see” maps, colors, and more. Mick also demos AudioScreen in action.
The vOICe technology is a general approach for “seeing with sound”. It uses visual input from a web cam or PC display that is converted to audio output. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey speak with Pranav Lal about the technology and how it can be used to visualize data and provide the blind with a representation of the world around them.
Sonification can be used to provide auditory feedback to help the visually impaired explore data, meters, diagrams and more. This week hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Tony Stockman, Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary College of the University of London and President of the International Community for Auditory Display about his research in sonification techniques.
SAS develops tools for analyzing and visualizing big data. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Ed Summers, head of the accessibility team at SAS, about how these tools are made accessible. Ed, who is blind himself, also describes methods the visually impaired can use to interact with various types of analytical data and some of SAS’ educational initiatives.
Richard Ladner is a professor of computer science whose research is directed at enhancing the accessibility of documents and web sites. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with him about his work to make textbook graphics accessible to the blind. The project is aimed at automating the creation of tactile graphics with the embedded text converted to Braille or speech.
The TI-84 Plus scientific programmable graphing calculator is a powerful tool for both students and professionals. Now this device has been made fully accessible to the blind with voice and haptic feedback. This week hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Sina Bahram who worked with Orbit Research and APH to develop this exciting new product.
MathTrax is a powerful software tool that combines mathematical analysis, graphing, and sonification to represent complex equations and data. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Robert Shelton, the developer of MathTrax, about its capabilities including demonstrations of it automatically verbally describing graphs of equations as well as creating audio representations.
Have you ever encountered a set of data and wanted to understand what its graph is like? Dave Engebretson, a blind geologist, demonstrates audio versions of graphs of several geological phenomena. Hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey also speak with John Taylor from ViewPlus about their Audio Graphing Calculator including some demos.