Ranendra Kumar Dhar

ICT ENABLED WORLD FOR THE DISABLED The first handshake ICT is Information and Communication Technologies and has become a very important part of the educational system, business and management processes. It facilitates opportunities to developing countries for enhancing their educational outputs particularly for the underprivileged , disabled and thereby for raising the level of quality of life of their people. Due to its capability to offer anytime and anywhere, access to remote learning resources, ICT is a potentially powerful tool for offering educational opportunities, both to poor population including persons with disabilities. The digital format is not single technology but combination of hardware, software, multimedia, a great range of rapidly evolving technologies such as desktop, notebook, and handheld computers, digital cameras, local area networking, Bluetooth, the Internet, cloud computing, the World Wide Web, streaming, etc. Different types of ICT tools assist the people with disabilities by providing them with learning opportunities, capabilities and also increase potential of the disabled in different walks of life. An illustrious example in this respect is that of Stephen Hawking, the world renowned astrophysicist, who cannot even move any of his limbs and hardly can utter some words, contributing significantly at the highest level to the world of knowledge and research. It became possible due to the ICT device developed for him to communicate his ideas to the world at large. We will explore the accessibility problems faced by different types of disabled persons and the solutions provided by ICT for them. ICT and the various types of disability Disability may be one or more of the kind of physical, mental or sensory one including visual and hearing. Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments, which may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis. Various types of Disability Vision Impairments: The term “vision impairment” is used to describe many degrees of vision loss, such as low vision, legally blind, and totally blind. Hearing Impairments: Hearing impairments vary greatly from mild hearing loss to total deafness. Physical Impairments: It is used to describe numerous disabling conditions which affect movement and functioning of limbs. Physical impairment includes cerebral palsy, loss of limbs, severe arthritis etc. Cognitive Impairments: It is used to describe those conditions that affect, or appear to affect, the mental and/or physical development of individuals. It includes mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism epilepsy, and learning disability. Difficulties of Differently abled in using ICT Due to different kind of limitations , disabled people may not be able to use ICT applications and devices with ease , as it may be used by others. Some of the difficulties which are generally faced by different types of a disabled are: • • • • A physical impaired user may have difficulties in using input devices. A visual impaired user may have difficulties in seeing display devices. A hearing impaired user may have difficulties in hearing audio information. A person with learning/cognitive disability may have problem in understanding system operations. To solve above mentioned problems, assistive technologies are used. Assistive technologies usually refer to those products, devices or equipment’s, which are used to increase or improve the functional capacities of individuals with disabilities. Certainly it provides an opportunity to communicate, gain access to education services and become gainfully employed. ICT helps disabled in learning, thoughtful processes It helps in removing discrimination and providing more opportunities to engage people with disabilities in all aspects of life including teaching and learning. Also offers a range of specialized software and hardware solutions for communicating, accessing and inputting data/information to/from web applications. Following are some of the ICT tools/applications for assisting different kind of disabled persons • • • • • • • • • ICT imparts specialized training Specialized Keyboards, such as Braille Braille Printer Conversion of local language to Braille Screen Readers Touch Screens Eye Tracking Talking word processors Screen Magnifiers Accessibility Guidelines : Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines are the result of the negotiations that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) adopted for promoting the use of ICT for people with disabilities. These guidelines are published and broadly used guidelines for W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 has given wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these web applications developed using these guidelines often make Web content more usable to users in general. Some of the key points of are: • Provide text alternatives for any non-text content • Provide alternatives for time-based media. • Create content that can be presented in different ways without losing information or structure. • • • • • • Make it easier for users to see and hear. Make all functionality available from a keyboard. Provide users enough time to read and use content. Make text content readable and understandable. Help users avoid and correct mistakes. Maximize compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies. User Agent Accessibility Guidelines for software developers, explains how to make accessible browsers, multimedia players, and assistive technologies that interface with these special problems. Assistive Technologies Software: Assistive technologies are used for helping the disable people for studying and gaining knowledge with the ICT; we briefly discuss abut some of the softwares used by different types of disabled people including physically impaired, visually impaired and hearing impaired. Window-Eyes is one of the most established and powerful screen reader tools available today. This tool gives total control over what you hear and how you hear it. It also provides enhanced Braille support. Window-Eyes provides key to opening the doors of unlimited information, to the visually impaired. JAWS is a powerful accessibility solution for visually impaired, that reads information on computer screen using synthesized speech. It provides many useful commands that make it easier to use programs, edit documents, and read Web pages. With a refreshable braille display, Jaws can also provide braille output in addition to, or instead of, speech. Jaws cab be customized as per individual needs and preferences. TOBII Eye Tracking System is a specialized eye tracking and eye control technology. This technology makes it possible for computer to know exactly where users are looking. Tobii’s eye tracking technology work on principles of advanced image processing of a person’s face, by using eyes and reflections in the eyes of near-infrared reference lights to accurately estimates the 3D position in space of each eye. It finds the precise target to which each eye gaze is directed towards. It is a fully automatic eye tracking technology with high tracking accuracy and tolerance of head-motion. ICommunicator is an assistive tool for the people with hearing impairments. It assists in dependent communication for persons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing .It translates contents in real-time, like Speech to Text, Speech/Text to Video Sign-Language and Speech/Text to Computer Generated Voice. Text Help System provides literacy software solutions. This software is developed to help struggling readers and writers, those with literacy difficulties, learning disabilities such as dyslexia, mild visual impairments, and also those for whom English is a second language. It helps to improve users reading, writing and research skills at school, in the workplace, and at home. Future Development in Disabled Friendly ICT Despite all the progress in the designing and development in the area of assistive technologies, the growth in technological development and use of ICT at different levels including teaching and learning, for assisting disabled still suffers from limitations. Limitations for disabled in using ICT • • • • • • • Lack of specialized disabled friendly teacher training Limited flexibility in training options for people with disability Limited availability of specialized disabled friendly hardware and software resources, due to business constrains Lack of formal involvement of the government organizations and support structure for ICT for the disabled Attitude barriers towards people with disability Lack of appropriate disabled friendly policies and their implementation Limitation of finances Recommendations for further improvement Below are some recommendations which we strongly believe that, if taken care of, while suggesting, planning, using, developing tools, applications and infrastructure for people with disability, will have impact in imparting assistive teaching and learning: • • • • • • • • • • Improvement of networking facilities to allow more effective co-operation between institutions and telecentres to assist all types of disabled people using online network. Adaptation of standard software to the needs of learners with intellectual impairment. Creation of virtual environment for supporting different types of disabled learners Customization of workspace setup to fit a wheelchair Development of user-friendly multiple types of user interfaces for the same devise\application for facilitating different types of disables , to increase their ability to use the services Making of people with disabilities as part of the decision making and planning effort alongside disability experts in projects related to disabled users Making tools used by disabled, to create, check and validate educational content , in such a way so that it should be accessible for teachers and system administrators with disabilities Providing consistency in the layout of keypads at least for blind learners Enabling hearing impaired person with access to audio output with proper volume control Advocating and supporting of more open source applications development for people with disabilities. Concluding part ICT means new digital technologies (hardware and software) and of course new hope for people with disabilities for their teaching and learning. It can be a powerful tool in supporting education and inclusiveness of the people with disability. The learning resources must be developed to meet the requirements of all disabled people by overcoming the traditional barriers to mobility and geographic distance. Designers and developer of ICT applications do not have to forget usability, and must adhere to the conformance all accessibility guidelines in their usage and applications. References Rehema Baguma, Jude T. 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