Assistive technologies: Accessibility for People with Visual Impairment

1. Assistive technologies: Accessibility for People with Visual Impairment René ANDREESC( Polytechnic School Bucharest Association)

2. INTERNET for Blind • People who are visually impaired, can to find ways to accomplish routine daily tasks and could be able to: • Live independently and productively • Read and write • Raise a family • Have a social life • Travel • Maintain a career—or launch a new one • Enjoy recreational sports and games • In short, lead a normal life BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

3. VISIO CENTER VISIO Virtual Environment (VVE) The system is developed jointly by: « Polytechnic School of Bucharest Association » - ROMANIA and “R&D Media” - Switzerland BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

4. ICT for peoples with disabilities

5. INTERNET for Blind • The school in Bucharest with 350 students from grade 1 to 8, which more than 50 students completely blind benefited from a donation and the equipment is available in the school lab. • It consists of the following items : • one computer • Internet access • one Braille keyboard • one specialized software JAWS with voice synthesizer and 36 languages capabilities. • The equipment and software was purchase from Polytechnic School of Bucharest Association - Romania and R&D Media - Switzerland BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

6. INTERNET for Blind The Bucharest School for the Blind has begun to use specialized software and equipment that can speak aloud text on a computer screen, or translate it onto a Braille display that the user can read. Thanks to the technology, students with visual impairments can complete homework, read books or send e-mail in a similar way to sighted children. BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

7. INTERNET for Blind A visually impaired student can write a text in Braille using the keyboard, which the JAWS software then transforms into normal characters that appear on the computer screen. It can also perform the task in reverse, changing text on the computer screen into Braille output that the student reads by touching the keyboard. Alternatively (but less popular with the students), JAWS can be used with the voice synthesizer to read aloud on-screen text. BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

8. INTERNET for Blind The system makes 36 languages available, and it allows blind and partially sighted children to read content on the Internet and to exchange e-mail with people from far and wide. Significant results have been achieved after only one year of operation. Students are not only able to receive a wider education, their parents are happy that their children feel more connected to the world at large. BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

9. INTERNET for Blind BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

10. INTERNET for Blind BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

11. INTERNET for Blind BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

12. INTERNET for Blind Empowering persons with disabilities BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

13. Empowering persons with disabilities BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

14. Empowering persons with disabilities Petra Pintelei, a student in her final year at the school, described how she learned to use the new equipment. "It is very interesting, because there are different nationalities of blind people who need a thing like this," she commented, pointing out that many different languages can be translated into Braille or a synthesized voice.However, only one unit is not enough for the whole school. If we could have more of these, we would be so glad because then we could communicate and become better integrated into society," BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

15. INTERNET for Blind BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

17. Roxana Dunnette is the second to Mr.Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid Director of ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau

18. INTERNET for Blind BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

19. INTERNET for Blind BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

20. INTERNET for Blind BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

21. INTERNET for Blind NEXT STEP?????VISIO Virtual Environment (VVE)Implement a 30 workstation system, divided in two groups, and a VISIO Virtual Environment, a set of online tools, systems and processes interoperating to facilitate or enhance the learning process for eye disabilities persons BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

22. INTERNET for Blind NEXT STEP?????The purpose of VISIO Virtual Environment (VVE) is to provide teachers and students with the tools and services they need to do learning process of any type as efficiently and effectively as possible. This means VVEs will help individual teachers and students manage the increasingly complex range of tasks involved in doing learning. In addition they will facilitate collaboration among communities of eye disabilities, often across disciplinary and national boundaries BUCHAREST_ROMANIA Austrului Street_ Pilot Project

23. VISIO- CENTER • While CENTERs are not an entirely new idea, the strong emphasis on this new policy option offers an intriguing and encouraging approach to overcoming the wide disparities of access in the Information Age, and opportunities for disadvantaged young students to participate in the newly emerging social and economic orders. • VISIO- CENTERs address two major concerns with respect to telecommunications and information access for eye disabilities persons: • First, VISIO CENTERs integrated as a part of ICT lab, in primary schools, high schools and colleges will provide access to the newest ICT technologies to the eye disabilities persons, as a transitional guarantee to all students for equal access to the full range of programs and ICT resources; • Second, VISIO CENTERs can also provide a myriad of ICT services, and act as a focal point in order to permit the access to e-learning, build-up electronic VISIO libraries, and to electronic commerce applications, and to many other public information services. • The VISIO CENTER models reviewed in this paper offer numerous economic and social development opportunities for the communities they will serve.

24. VISIO- CENTER • Elements of a VISIO CENTER: Supply and Demand • We define CENTERs based on a supply and demand model. That is, a CENTER depends upon both those technologies and services that it is capable of providing to the eye disabilities persons, and the demand for applications that will meet the needs of the specific community or it targets. • The Supply Side • The supply side of the VISIO CENTER refers to what the CENTERs can offer, both in terms of infrastructure as well as services. The VISIO CENTER infrastructure also reflects the technological capacity available, which is a main determinant of the types of services and applications that can be offered. The key supply elements of VISIO CENTERs include: • Hardware or physical infrastructure, including telecommunications access and backbone connectivity; electrical power; and specific technical equipment; • Software infrastructure, including available services and applications for users (interfaces, programs, as well as training materials), and also management methods and materials for the VISIO CENTER managers; • Human resource infrastructure, meaning the personnel who operate the VISIO CENTER, their degree of skills and resources, and the roles that they play in managing the VISIO CENTER, providing service to users, and contributing to training

25. VISIO CENTER Any question or development are helpful for all off us!Don’t forget our contact points:mugurel.andreescu@ties.itu.intPhone: +40 722542825