Extrasensory Computing
PC Magazine - April 20, 1999 - page 30
Sharon Nash

When technology advances sweep the education and business markets, the
visually impaired are left to wait for product developers to build costly
adaptive solutions. But that’s changing.  

To speed the development of adaptive Java apps, IBM recently released its
Self-Voicing Kit, which lets users add, expand, or customize Java apps with
accessibility features for the disabled, such as an audio user interface that
reads aloud what's on the computer screen. The kit is available for free
download on IBM’s alphaWorks Web site. IBM has also announced a talking Web
browser called Home Page Reader.
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/formula.nsf/toolpreview/
http://www.austin.ibm.com/sns/hpr.html

One new company, Touch Graphics, has designed the Talking Tactile Tablet, a
low- cost input device that uses a touch screen overlaid with a removable
"tactile diagram" - a plastic overlay with raised shapes representing on/off
and back/forward buttons and soon. Each application has a corresponding
tactile diagram. A blind or visually impaired user slips a tactile diagram
onto the touch screen, and audio messages provide instructions for using the
application. The tablet can also help the visually impaired work with
spreadsheets and spatial math.  http://www.touchgraphics.com/

Meanwhile, a new Purdue University Web site called TAEVIS Online is offering
an electronic library with more than 2,500 tactile diagrams covering
college-level course material including chemical structures and biological
drawings. Capsule paper lets users create tactile graphics from Adobe Acrobat
documents by using laser printers and a heating unit. An image is copied onto
the capsule paper, which is then heated to make the areas covered with toner
expand and rise.  http://www.purdue.edu/odos/TAEVIS/index.htm

Microsoft is also targeting the adaptive- products market with an
accessibility site (located at http://www.microsoft com/enable) that includes
information on where to obtain Microsoft products adapted for the disabled.  

Caption: PLEASE TOUCH: The Talking Tactile Tablet uses a tactile diagram
overlaid on a touch screen as a graphical interface for the visually impaired.