Assistive Technology

October 2014 – The World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) update to Working Draft of HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives was published this month. The document is a working draft and contains best practice guidance for authors of HTML (HTML5) documents on providing text alternatives for images. The update incorporates changes and corrections from as early as October 2012 and addresses common issues related to accessible web browsing.

October 2014 – In research funded by the U. S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate, Georgia Tech is holding focus groups to discuss assistive technology features, mobile devices, and how people with disabilities respond and are alerted of emergencies. Because different disability types aren’t always considered in the design of alerting systems, this cycle of research is seeking feedback from individuals who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing.

October 2014 – The FCC posted two new videos this month that include American Sign Language (ASL) interpretations of information concerning emergency services and the FCC’s Advanced Video Communications Platform and in ASL Video. The original video that was posted in June 2014 provided information about the launch of an ASL Consumer Support Line that allows people who are deaf and hard of hearing to use the service via videophone.

October 2014 – A research team at Georgia Tech has created Google Glass speech-to-text software that facilitates conversations for users who are hard-of-hearing. The software allows people who are hard-of-hearing to wear Google Glass while another person speaks into a smartphone. The smartphone works with an Android transcription API, allowing the speech to be converted to text and displayed on Glass’ heads-up display.