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Archive for July, 2010

House acts to improve Internet access for disabled – Yahoo! News

The House on Monday celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act by approving legislation assuring that the disabled
have full access to the Internet and television.

“The ADA mandated physical ramps into buildings,” said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., sponsor of the bill. “Today, individuals with disabilities need online
ramps to the Internet so they can get to the Web from wherever they happen to be.”

The bill, which passed 348-23 and now moves to the Senate, takes such steps as making it easier for the blind to access the Internet from smart phones,
providing deaf people with the ability to watch new TV programs online with captions included, and requiring that telecom equipment used to make calls
over the Internet be compatible with hearing aids.

The measure also:

_Gives the blind a fuller TV experience through audible descriptions of on-screen action.

_Makes cable TV program guides and selection menus accessible to people with vision loss.

_Mandates that remote controls have buttons or similar devices to easily access the closed captioning on broadcast and pay TV.

_Provides financial support to help the low-income disabled buy accessible Internet technology.

The legislation does not require manufacturers and service providers to install particular technology, but it does set new federal standards that the telecommunications
industry will follow.

The House took up the measure immediately after paying tribute to the achievements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the landmark bill ensuring the
disabled equal access to public places that President George H.W. Bush signed into law two decades ago.

“Fifty million Americans have taken advantage of the ADA’s promise and have lived richer lives as a result,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

Presiding over the debates in the speaker’s chair was Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., the first quadriplegic to serve in the House. It was the first time Langevin,
a five-term congressman, had served as speaker pro tempore.

At the White House, President Barack Obama marked the anniversary by promising to boost government efforts at recruiting, hiring and retaining people with
physical and mental limitations. He signed an executive order requiring the federal personnel agency to develop model guidelines for hiring people with
disabilities.

Obama also announced that the Justice Department is publishing stronger rules to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities by state and local
government agencies and private businesses.

___

The bill is H.R. 3101.

Could a blind person drive a car? Researchers are trying to make that far-flung notion a reality.

The National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech plan to demonstrate a
prototype vehicle
 next year equipped with technology that helps a blind person drive a car independently.

The technology, called “nonvisual interfaces,” uses sensors to let a blind driver maneuver a car based on information transmitted to him about his surroundings:
whether another car or object is nearby, in front of him or in a neighboring lane.

Advocates for the blind consider it a “moon shot,” a goal similar to President John F. Kennedy’s pledge to land a man on the moon. For many blind people,
driving a car long has been considered impossible. But researchers hope the project could revolutionize mobility and challenge long-held assumptions about
limitations.

“We’re exploring areas that have previously been regarded as unexplorable,” said Dr. Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind. “We’re
moving away from the theory that blindness ends the capacity of human beings to make contributions to society.”

The Baltimore-based organization was announcing its plans for the vehicle demonstration at a news conference Friday in
Daytona Beach
, Fla.

Maurer first talked about building an automobile that the blind could drive about a decade ago when he launched the organization’s research institute.

“Some people thought I was crazy and they thought, ‘Why do you want us to raise money for something that can’t be done?’ Others thought it was a great idea,”
Maurer said. “Some people were incredulous. Others thought the idea was incredible.”

The vehicle has its roots in Virginia Tech’s 2007 entry into the
DARPA Grand Challenge
, a competition for driverless vehicles funded by the Defense Department’s research arm. The university’s team won third place for a self-driving vehicle
that used sensors to perceive traffic, avoid crashing into other cars and objects and run like any other vehicle.

Following their success, Virginia Tech’s team responded to a challenge from the National Federation of the Blind to help build a car that could be driven
by a blind person. Virginia Tech first created a dune buggy as part of a feasibility study that used sensor lasers and cameras to act as the eyes of the
vehicle. A vibrating vest was used to direct the driver to speed up, slow down or make turns.

The blind organization was impressed by the results and urged the researchers to keep pushing. The results will be demonstrated next January on a modified
Ford Escape
sport utility vehicle
 at the Daytona International Speedway before the Rolex 24 race.

The latest vehicle will use nonvisual interfaces to help a blind driver operate the car. One interface, called DriveGrip, uses gloves with vibrating motors
on areas that cover the knuckles. The vibrations signal to the driver when and where to turn.

Another interface, called AirPix, is a tablet about half the size of a sheet of paper with multiple air holes, almost like those found on an air hockey
game. Compressed air coming out of the device helps inform the driver of his or her surroundings, essentially creating a map of the objects around a vehicle.
It would show whether there’s another vehicle in a nearby lane or an obstruction in the road.

A blind person, who has not yet been chosen, will drive the vehicle on a course near the famed Daytona race track and attempt to simulate a typical driving
experience.

Dr. Dennis Hong, a mechanical engineering professor at Virginia Tech who leads the research, said the technology could someday help a blind driver operate
a vehicle but could also be used on conventional vehicles to make them safer or on other applications.

Advocates for the blind say it will take time before society accepts the potential of blind drivers and that the safety of the technology will need to be
proven through years of testing. But more than anything, they say it’s part of a broader mission to change the way people perceive the blind.

Mark Riccobono, executive director of the NFB’s Jernigan Institute, said when he walks down the street with his 3-year-old son, many people might think
he, as a blind person, is being guided by his son.

“The idea that a 3-year-old takes care of me stems from what they think about blindness,” Riccobono said. “That will change when people see that we can
do something that they thought was impossible.”
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The article above depicts what could be the future of total independence for the blind and visually impaired.  Instead of the blind and visually impaired relying upon public transportation which isn’t always reliable, the blind of tomorrow could be driving down the road in their own cars.

As was stated, some people think that this is some far-fetched idea that will never come to pass, but as researchers show, it is not only possible, but it is likely to happen within the next couple of decades or so when the technology has been greatly improved.

When computers first came onto the scene, blind people weren’t able to really use them, but look at what we have now?  Blind people do programming, write books, create web pages and much more on the computer thanks to speech technology.  So why can’t they drive a car?

The concept of a blind person driving a car sounds quite dangerous, and blind people from all over had joked about the idea by saying, “Stick your cane outside the window to navigate.” or “Have a sighted person go along with you to help you to navigate.”

Of course, the latter of these two things is more acceptable, but a human isn’t really the best option for this.  That is where technology needs to come into play.  So be on the look out for blind people driving on our interstates soon.

WASHINGTON – U.S. health officials have approved a first-of-its-kind technology to counter a leading cause of blindness in older adults — a tiny telescope
implanted inside the eye.

The
Implantable Miniature Telescope
 aims to help in the end stages of incurable age-related macular degeneration, a creeping loss of central vision that blocks reading, watching TV, eventually
even recognizing faces.

The idea: Surgically insert the Implantable Miniature Telescope into one eye for better central vision, while leaving the other eye alone to provide
peripheral vision
. The brain must fuse two views into a single image, and the Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday that patients need post-surgery rehabilitation
to make it work.

There’s little to help such advanced patients today aside from difficult-to-use handheld or glasses-mounted telescopes, while the new implanted telescope
— smaller than a pea — can improve quality of life for the right candidate, said Dr. Malvina Eydelman, FDA’s ophthalmic devices chief.

But it’s only for a subset of the nearly 2 million Americans with advanced macular degeneration, Eydelman warned: Those 75 and older, with a certain degree
of
vision loss
, who also need a cataract removed. In fact, the FDA took the highly unusual step of requiring that patients and their surgeons sign a detailed “acceptance
of risk agreement” before surgery, acknowledging
potential side effects
 — including corneal damage and worsened vision — and the need for lots of testing to determine who’s a candidate.

“We’re not giving people back 20-year-old eyes,” cautioned ophthalmic surgeon Dr. Kathryn Colby of Harvard and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in
Boston. She helped lead manufacturer
VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies
‘ study of the implant.

But by magnifying images onto more of the retina than its diseased center, someone who before couldn’t see an entire face might now miss only the nose,
Colby said.

In a 219-patient study, the FDA said 90 percent of telescope recipients had their vision improve by at least two lines on an eye chart, and three-quarters
went from severe to moderate vision impairment.

Concern about damage to the inside lining of the cornea, the eye’s clear front covering that helps focus light, held up FDA approval for several years.
In that study, 10 eyes had serious corneal swelling, five that required corneal transplants. FDA’s Eydelman said the company proposed candidate restrictions
to minimize that risk, and will study how an additional 770 recipients fare after sales begin.

VisionCare, of Saratoga, Calif., is seeking
Medicare coverage
 for the surgery and rehab costs, a package that it calls CentraSight. The company wouldn’t estimate total costs but said the device itself costs $15,000.
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As technology greatly improves, we will see more and more devices, and surgeries that will greatly enhance the vision of the visually impaired, plus give new site to the totally blind.  We ahve already made great strides, and we ahve some so far, but we still have a very long way to go before blindness becomes a thing of the past, or at least recognized as a very minor inconvenience.

We here at BOSS fully understand the blind and visually impaired, and our aim is to see these people succeed not only in life, but with their own businesses as well.

We provide these articles to show you that there are many new advancements made in technology that aid the blind and visually impaired to live better, more independent lives.

We urge you to continue to read these articles, and please tell anybody else that you may think would be interested to come and have a great read.  We aim to inform, educate and help in any way possible.

If you want to know more about us, you may contact the following here below.

Donald Brown
Founder
Phone: 409-225-5239
Email: donald@blindonlinesuccesssystem.com

Lori Steffen and Jeff Wark
Founders
email: support@netcontentsolutions.com