Adaptive Technologies
Technology is used by nearly everyone in the world nowadays because it makes
everything so much easier, however some people may find it very hard to
use for different reasons. For example, someone may have difficulty seeing or
hearing and some programs technology has to offer, does not consider everybody's
needs which can be very frustrating. Fortunately there are now adaptive
technologies which help improve computer accessibility, they were designed to
increase and maintain the capabilities of people with disabilities. Some
examples are; reading devices and magnification.
<1>
Magnification
This type of adaptive technology is one of the most useful ones around
because more and more people have been complaining about their eyesight recently,
some say the text is too big while others complain about the text being so small
they can hardly see it. This all depends on your eyes which vary from everyone
else's. Those who use this are usually those with partial sight, the
magnification enlarges and reduces text, it also allows pictures to be brought
to focus and observed closely allowing people to notice small details you might
have just overlooked before. This is considered as an adaptive technology
because it helps those who have difficulty seeing, they can all see the text
or picture in whatever size they want it to be. <2>
Reading Devices
Another example of an adaptive technology that is widely used are reading
devices, there are many different types that help people understand something
if they cannot read such as the text-to-speech which reads text out loud allowing
those who struggle to read to understand what the text is saying. The great
thing about this is how it works with nearly every digital device computers,
smartphones, and tablets. The text-to speech has many features which can be
changed depending on how the person using it wants it to be, for example, the
reading speed. You can change how fast you want your text to be read, whether
it is to be read slowly or quickly. This adaptive technology can also change
voices, you do not have to have the device reading to you sound robotic, it can
sound more like a human's voice and there are some computer-generated voices
that sound like children. Although not all of these text-to-speech tools have
this, those that do are very helpful, especially for those who have dyslexia or
are blind because it reads text found in images out loud. This tool is called
optical character recognition (OCR). <3>
Sticky Keys
Sticky keys although may be unheard of and is uncommon, is one of the
simplest adaptive technologies there is, however it still does help several
people. In order to activate this tool, you can just simply press the Shift key
five times, it is usually used by those who have difficulty holding down two or
more keys at the same time. Sticky keys prevents you from needing to hold down
two keys at the same time and instead allows you to press a modifier key (Ctrl,
Alt, Shift) which keeps it active until another key is pressed. For example, if
you want to copy something you would usually press Ctrl and C at the same time,
with this tool you can first press Ctrl then let go of that key and it will
still be active, then you just press C and whatever it is that you wanted
copied will be copied. If you tend to constantly turn sticky keys on and off,
you may want to press "On" for the show sticky keys because it will then
display an icon whenever it is turned on. Some people also choose to play a
tune which will indicate when a modifier key has been pressed.
<4>
Questions
1. Why were adaptive technologies invented?
2. What are the 3 examples of adaptive technologies?
3. For each one you have listed, explain how it is useful and which type of people can benefit from it.
You can check your answers here
Bibliography
Belay, Tamru E. "What Is Adaptive Technology." 23 Jan. 2013.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/tamru/resource/what.html
The Understood Team. "Text-to-Speech Technology: What it is and how it works." Understood.
https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/assistive-technology/assistive-technologies-basics/text-to-speech-technology-what-it-is-and-how-it-works
Robin. "Using Stickykeys for Computer Accessibility - Windows and Mac." Disabled World, 02 July. 2017.
https://www.disabled-world.com/assistivedevices/computer/sticky-keys.php
"Disability Resource Center." UA Little Rock
http://ualr.edu/disability/students/
"Video Magnifiers with Variable Magnification." Vaughn Engineering, 2007.
https://www.affordablevideomagnifiers.com/video-magnifier-variable-magnification/
Hokmabadi, M. "Manuscripts by an amateur journalist." 2009.
http://mh-press.blogfa.com/cat-6.aspx
"Text-to-Speech." Ivona, 2018.
https://www.ivona.com/us/about-us/text-to-speech/
"Sticky Keys." Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, 2018.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_keys