A short film:
Showing posts with label Dyslexia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dyslexia. Show all posts
Monday, 28 January 2019
Monday, 26 April 2010
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Inclusiv-IT-y 2009
I attended this event yesterday, and here are some comments from my notes (I've not written up all my notes here, only those which are directly relevant to my research and work interests).
David Banes of abilityNet gave a talk on the history of assistive technology, and the big message from this talk is that there is a convergence of the various technologies being used to support disabled users (e.g. screen readers, speech synthesis etc) and that there is a clear move toward ubiquitous and pervasive computing on mobile devices (phones, PDA's, netbooks). This transformation into the mainstream of various technologies (they can be used by abled bodied users as well), is really helping. He talked about Universal Design, the first time I've come across the idea. He also briefly mentioned the move of assistive technologies in the cloud (a recent trend). But the big message is - mobile!
Rachel Burnett gave a talk on the law and IT - quite useful in terms of the need for assistive technologies (i.e you've got to do it!). Some resources mentioned included Disability Law Service and Mind's Legal Advice Service.
Miguel Gonzalez Sancho gave a talk on EU inclusion policy, what is is, past projects to support the policy, and plans for the future. He talked about i2010, which is just about to wrap up:
There are plans to move this strategy forward (they are currently going through the consultation process), but it looks like they may well address the problems in ageing. Its all very sketchy at the moment, but I will try my best to keep and eye out for any developments. Hearing report can be found here:
Alasdair King gave a talk on the new assitive technologies group. This was set up to replace the now disbanded disabilities group, which used to be run by Geoff Busby.
Robin Chrisopherson of abilityNet (they were very prominent at the event!), gave a very entertaining demonstration of how blind people use computers. What was particularly interesting is that many flashly designed websites using CCS as very hard to use for people who utilise screen reader to interact with the browser. What was even more interesting, was that he showed that using the interfaces set up for mobile devices (facebook, new scientist) were far more useable to users who needed assistive technology to navigate pages. The implication here is that designing for mobile might generally be a good idea!
David Banes of abilityNet gave a talk on the history of assistive technology, and the big message from this talk is that there is a convergence of the various technologies being used to support disabled users (e.g. screen readers, speech synthesis etc) and that there is a clear move toward ubiquitous and pervasive computing on mobile devices (phones, PDA's, netbooks). This transformation into the mainstream of various technologies (they can be used by abled bodied users as well), is really helping. He talked about Universal Design, the first time I've come across the idea. He also briefly mentioned the move of assistive technologies in the cloud (a recent trend). But the big message is - mobile!
Rachel Burnett gave a talk on the law and IT - quite useful in terms of the need for assistive technologies (i.e you've got to do it!). Some resources mentioned included Disability Law Service and Mind's Legal Advice Service.
Miguel Gonzalez Sancho gave a talk on EU inclusion policy, what is is, past projects to support the policy, and plans for the future. He talked about i2010, which is just about to wrap up:
There are plans to move this strategy forward (they are currently going through the consultation process), but it looks like they may well address the problems in ageing. Its all very sketchy at the moment, but I will try my best to keep and eye out for any developments. Hearing report can be found here:
Alasdair King gave a talk on the new assitive technologies group. This was set up to replace the now disbanded disabilities group, which used to be run by Geoff Busby.
Robin Chrisopherson of abilityNet (they were very prominent at the event!), gave a very entertaining demonstration of how blind people use computers. What was particularly interesting is that many flashly designed websites using CCS as very hard to use for people who utilise screen reader to interact with the browser. What was even more interesting, was that he showed that using the interfaces set up for mobile devices (facebook, new scientist) were far more useable to users who needed assistive technology to navigate pages. The implication here is that designing for mobile might generally be a good idea!
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Sunday, 20 July 2008
Software to help Dyslexics with Spelling
Here's a news story on some software which can help dyslexics with there spelling. This has been created by an Israeli start up Company called Ginger Software. They have a demo of their software on the front page of their web site.
Here's what I got when I typed in three sentences:
The results:
On result 3 - Oh dear......
There is also another service like this available on the web, called 'Ghotit'. Here's those same sentences above with this particular service:
The third one is text speak, and really doesn't so that well, but is definitely better than Ginger Software's result!
Ghotit works differently from Ginger Software's version, in that it is more interactive. Ginger software just comes back with a result, whereas Ghotit's services allows you a choice of words for each spelling mistake and provides you with definitions. Ginger Software does however show where the mistakes are by highlighting them in Red.
These services are excellent, and I would recommend them to anybody. If you just want a fast result Gingers probably good enough, if you want to examine a sentence in more depth, the Ghotit's the one for you.
(h/t: Norman Geras, and Areej Al-Wabil).
Links to all the posts in this series are available here.
Here's what I got when I typed in three sentences:
- 1. "Oi arm a god mann hoo doz not no hou to spel. Plese, reeda Who To Us the Spel Cheker nstractions."
- 2. "My aidl holiday wood bee in nue zeelend, were I can go hickin"
- 3. "I put up q6 for us to do, I hope thas ok wiv u - its jus dat every1 was takin d qs ;) hehe lolz im at home today, was lisenin 2 d lect online. nways lemme noe if u wanna link up 2 do dis q OR u wanna jus do it over dis discussion board ting. i dnt mind."
The results:
- 1. "I am a good man who does not no how to spell. Please, readers who told us the spell checker store"
- 2. "My ideal holiday would be in new Zealand, where I can go hiking"
- 3. "Server Error in '/' Application.
parsing ";)(\s+)" - Too many )'s. Parameter name: ;)(\s+) "
On result 3 - Oh dear......
There is also another service like this available on the web, called 'Ghotit'. Here's those same sentences above with this particular service:
- 1. I am a good man who does not know how to spell. Please, reader How To Use the Spell Checker instructions.
- 2. My ideal holiday would be in new zeelend, where I can go hiking
- 3. I put up q6 for us to do, I hope that ok wiv u - its just dat every1 was taking d qs ;) he-he lolz im at home today, was listening 2 d lect online. anyways lemme know if u wanna link up 2 do dis q OR u wanna just do it over dis discussion board thing. i don't mind
The third one is text speak, and really doesn't so that well, but is definitely better than Ginger Software's result!
Ghotit works differently from Ginger Software's version, in that it is more interactive. Ginger software just comes back with a result, whereas Ghotit's services allows you a choice of words for each spelling mistake and provides you with definitions. Ginger Software does however show where the mistakes are by highlighting them in Red.
These services are excellent, and I would recommend them to anybody. If you just want a fast result Gingers probably good enough, if you want to examine a sentence in more depth, the Ghotit's the one for you.
(h/t: Norman Geras, and Areej Al-Wabil).
Links to all the posts in this series are available here.
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