Accessible Technologies in Museums
Kirstin Broussard, a guide at the Museum of Modern Art, gathered a dozen senior citizens in front of Joan Mitchell’s exuberant 1957 painting Ladybug one recent afternoon to discuss the luscious blue, green, and orange slashes animating the large expanse of white canvas. “It’s chaotic,” observed one visitor. “But it’s beautiful chaos.” When Broussard wondered aloud why Mitchell had titled the picture Ladybug, another member of the group suggested that it captured the spirit of spring. “No! It’s set in winter,” protested another. “Look at all that white.” And a fourth participant offered up the ditty: “Ladybug, ladybug, fly away”….
Continue reading at: ARTnews
The head of the Civil Service Division for Google Spain, Esperanza Ibáñez, has taken firm steps to ensure that “the Net is within everyone’s reach”, whilst also insisting that Google “will continue to develop tools to cover all the needs of persons with disabilities”.
Ibáñez announced this during her speech at the Second National CENTAC Congress on Accessibility Technologies which took place on 18 October in La Cartuja Monastery, Seville.
“Internet has changed our lives”, Ibáñez pointed out. She also announced that in a recent survey carried out by Cisco, “32% of young people said that the internet is as essential as the air we breathe”. She said that there are currently 325 million websites and that the internet contributes 234 billion euros to Spanish national GDP and that its “economic impact continues to grow”.
Since its early days, as Ibáñez highlighted, the main aim of Google “has been to order information and make it accessible, because all users matter”. However, she stresses that, “we often make the mistake of thinking that persons with disabilities are only a small percentage”. As a matter of fact, in 2009 the number of internet users with a disability in Spain was greater than the total number of internet users in Bolivia.
In addition to this, she also presented some of the accessible products developed by Google, such as “Chrome Vox”, the web browser for those with a visual disability, the ‘Android’ open-source system for mobile devices or the application which allows users to subtitle YouTube videos.
Previously, a roundtable was celebrated under the title, “How can an idea become reality?”. The Head of Projects at CENTAC, Diego Soriano pointed out during this gathering that, “innovation is a motor for growth”, and he explained that because of this, “many companies solely focus on innovation and accessibility technologies”.
Source: Servimedia
Despite the fact that screens of the well-known tablets are flat and have nothing that can create sensations in the fingers, they will no longer represent a handicap for those with a visual disability. Engineers from the United States have managed to take a step forward towards electronic accessibility. What is a Braille word processor like for touchscreen devices? It is a system similar to the virtual joysticks located under the user’s thumb which are used for tablet videogames.
Adam Duran is a student from the University of New Mexico who last year visited the University of Stanford to participate in a two-month summer course organised by the Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC). The aim of the course was to develop great ideas that are new and Duran can feel proud of having reached this objective. Together with professionals like Adrian Lew, a professor of mechanical engineering and Sohan Dharmaraja, a mathematician, he thought up a simple system for improving interaction between people who are blind or partially sighted and the touchscreen devices they use.
The first idea was to create a Braille text recognition system for tablets which makes use of the cameras that these devices normally have. But, what if blind people could write in Braille straight onto the touchscreen? There are already computers which have been adapted to writing in Braille, but as Duran himself says, a standard tablet has many more functions for a tenth of the price. In essence, this would be a cheaper and more comfortable way of bringing those with a visual disability closer to the latest technology.
The solution chosen in the end was that the Braille keyboard of a conventional word processor, which consists of eight keys, would be adapted to touchscreen devices. The key to this solution is that it does not consist of a solid set of keys – instead the keys are created wherever the user wants them to be. This means that the user does not have to search around for a key that they cannot feel with their fingertips. The team from Stanford has thought up a keyboard design which adapts itself to each individual. The application can be fully customised and it even adapts to different finger shapes and sizes.
“Smart, isn’t it?”, Professor Lew proudly says. Charbel Farhat, member of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Stanford and Executive Director of the summer program, said, “no Braille writing machine can do this. This is a real step forward for the blind and partially sighted.”
Source: Europa Press / Gizmag
The application period for the third ‘Programa Profesionales Digitales’ (Professional Digital Program) is already open. The Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Information Society, through the web Red.es and the organism `Conferencia de Rectores de las Universidades Españolas´ (CRUE is the Spanish acronym of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities ) has announced a budget of 8 million Euros for the inclusion of new projects.
The main goal of this program is to promote the national industry of digital content. It pretends the creation of production centers, the training of students and professionals in that comercial sector and the collaboration between universities and companies whose speciality is multimedia creation.
In this call could participate all the Spanish public universities associated with the CRUE and located in the following Spanish Autonomous Communities: Aragón, Baleares, Cantabria, Catalonia, Madrid, Navarra, La Rioja and Basque Country. The deadline for present the applications is November 15, 2011.
From here, you can download all information about the latest edition of ‘Programa Profesionales Digitales’ (the next documents are only in spanish):
- Presentación del programa - (PDF)
- Tercera Convocatoria Pública - (PDF)
- Recomendaciones Técnicas – (PDF)
Source: Profesionales Digitales
To mark the International Day of the Deaf, held last September 24, the Spanish Confederation of Families of the Deaf (Fiapas) wanted to show that:
In the XXI century, in Spain still claiming the right of deaf people who communicate in spoken language, and are users of hearing aids and cochlear implants to live independently and to be included and participate in society.
It is necessary to move from intention to action. In the political and social to the incumbency and sufficient resources, a rational and coherent investment, adjusting the measures to the real needs of people with hearing loss may occur from the moment it is diagnosed hearing loss.
Has recently been approved by Royal Decree of normative adaptation to the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), to begin to adapt the existing statutory regulation on disability with the guidelines set by the Convention. This is the first of a series of measures that must be put in place to ensure the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in all spheres of public and social life.
Undoubtedly, the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, legally binding on countries that have ratified, a breakthrough in the recognition of the rights of persons with disabilities. However, we can not overlook the fact that in Spain we have a legal frame of reference and medical resources, technological and social well advanced compared to the average of countries affected by this rule must incorporate more universal than all realities.
Thus, taking as reference the provisions contained in the Convention, we must continue working from our concrete experience in order to advance progress and not retreat in the conquests achieved.
• EQUAL RIGHTS
People with disabilities, and in our case, deaf people have the right to live independently and be included and participate in society to which they belong (Article 19, CRPD). It is a right that any person wants any family. Nobody questions it when you’re not a disability.However, families who have deaf children we are forced to its permanent claim.
While there are many advances in terms of equal rights from the associations of families of Deaf-FIAPAS can not settle, because the achievements for deaf people in Spain and more specifically for to communicate in spoken and are users of hearing aids, are still scarce and are far from their everyday reality. Therefore are limited in their ability to participate at various levels of their life course on equal terms and with the same opportunities as other citizens, especially in areas such as education and transcendent employment or access to culture and leisure.
• EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND CONDITIONS
We consider it absolutely necessary to move from intention to action, the political and social will to the incumbency and sufficient resources, a rational and coherent investment, adjusting the measures to the real needs of people with hearing loss may occur from its diversity and in any case, overcoming the old stereotypes that are built from the ignorance and lack of information.
Among others, we refer to the false belief that deaf people who communicate using spoken language and hearing aids, do not depend on third parties to communicate, have solved all the problems and barriers are not, what it conceals, conditions and clearly damaging real choices to achieve a life of active and independent finding no response to their specific needs because it is very subtle barriers, yet of deep rooting. Accordingly, and as paradoxical as it may seem, the most effort and penalize them their resignations and rendered invisible even to those who need to anticipate and plan the resources to respond to those.
You can not ignore the great potential that current medical advances in science and technology provide these people with hearing loss through the means of support for hearing and oral communication: hearing aids, speech therapy and subtitles, along with magnetic loops FM systems, the latter as a resource to support the hearing.
From the conviction and the certainty of experience we can say that the only way our children with deafness be overcome in their daily or barriers that limit their autonomy and their active and independent.
Source: Fiapas
Thanks to an agreement between the FAD and BCD, two pioneer institutions in promoting design in Catalonia, the Barcelona Design Festival has been born. This is a large event which aims to make Barcelona the international capital of design. This initiative is supported by Barcelona City Council as well as several other institutions and private companies that support design as a form of innovation.
The Barcelona Design Festival has two central events: FADfest which will kickstart the festival from 28 June to 14 July, and Barcelona Design Week which will be the closing event taking place from 17 to 21 October. Both of these events will be linked together over the intervening months by a number of activities, exhibitions and tours so that participants can enjoy design in Barcelona.
One of the most innovative activities of the Barcelona Design Festival is the BCN Design Tour and its new application for smartphones. The bcndesigntour application is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. There is also a website: www.bcd.es/es/rutadisseny.asp. Both the application and the website can be used to look up the nearby points of interest so that users can get to know them, find out how to get there and share them on social networks.
Shops, showrooms, bars, restaurants, hotels, local fashion, specialised book shops, galleries, schools, businesses and a number of other architectural elements make up a list of more than 250 points of interest which help those taking part understand why Barcelona is an international capital of design. Many of the points of interest along the route display a vinyl sign at the entrance showing that they are part of the Barcelona Design Festival.
The application can be downloaded here.
Source: BCD
The well-known Spanish foundation ONCE and Parques Nacionales will work together in order to reduce architectural and communication barriers. / Funcación Lázaro Galdiano promotes disabled access to the arts. / Social networks don’t pass the test of e-accessibility.
Foundation ONCE has been in the news during the last weeks because of its committed work of detecting social needs in terms of accessibility. Specifically, the foundation has promoted a real action on three core areas of social life: human contact with the environment, the enjoyment of art and culture and social interaction over the Internet. Three areas in which further work to achieve full integration of persons with disabilities.
In recent days, ONCE has made partakers of its renowned commitment to the next Spanish entities: Parques Nacionales and Fundación Lázaro Galdiano. The first, have signed a partnership agreement to promote and facilitate access to people with disabilities to parks and, the second, have signed a similar agreement in order to this persons can enjoy visual arts like someone else.
Both agreements include also the implementation of more accessible design of websites and other communication documents. It is important because one of the great challenges of accessibility is the correct adaptation of ICT to the specific needs of people with disabilities. Fundacion ONCE has shown that so popular tools like social networks are not yet sufficiently adapted in Spain. The report presented by ONCE on Monday 26 October in Madrid said that social networks don’t past the test of e-accessibility. Of the eight plataform tested, LinkedIn and Flickr are the networks with more point, although it means only 3 stars out of five.
Sources: Solidaridad Digital / Europa Press / Discapnet
It has taken 24 centuries, but thanks to the work of archeologists, academics, historians and the arrival of the internet, the Dead Sea Scrolls are one click away for everyone around the world.
Since 26 September, just before Jewish New Year, the collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been available online. This is thanks to a project of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem and the technological support of Google.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written between the 3rd and 1st century BC, include the oldest biblical scrolls in existence. In the year 68 BC, they were hidden in eleven caves in the Judaean Desert on the shores of the Dead Sea in order to protect them against the threat of the incoming Roman army. They were not discovered until 1947, when a Bedouin shephard threw a stone into a cave and realised that there was something inside. Since 1965, the scrolls have been on display in the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. Among other subjects, the scrolls offer a critique of life and religion in ancient Jerusalem, including the birth of Christianity.
Source: Art Info
On 27 September, the Spanish National Centre for Technology Access (CENTAC) presented the document called ‘Guía sobre normalización en la Accesibilidad de las TIC’, a guide on accessibility standardization in ICT. The act took place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade (Spain). The Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Information Society, Juan Junquera, remarked the importance of the fight against the digital divide.
The purpose of this guide is to provide businesses, governments, research centers, universities and users of a tool that contributes to the widespread use and knowledge of rules and standards for accessibility of ICT. Its first aim is bridge the digital divide. It also seeks to boost strategic standardization efforts in accessibility technologies of the Information Society.
Accord to this goal, the guide identifies and describes the technical standards in the world on e-accessibility, according to the next criteria: the phase of the production cycle, the ICT feature or the type of target audience to which directs. It also provides a summary of existing legislation on e-accessibility.
The publication is the volume 2 of a general collection that cover the folllowing topics: Accessibility, Technology and Society. It has been prepared by the professor in the department’s Intelligence of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Informática of the Univeridad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Alejandro Rodríguez Ascaso, and the professor of the department of Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos e Ingeniería de Software of the Facultad de Informática at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Loïc Martínez Normand.
Download the document ‘Guía sobre normalización en la Accesibilidad de las TIC’ - (Spanish)
Fuente: Europa Press / CENTAC
The Tourist Community of Andalusia (Comunidad Turística de Andalucía) has taken the initiative to publish a database of accessible hotels, those which are adapted to disable people. All tourists interested in the Spanish region will plan their trip easier from now on: the new initiative contributes to eliminate all barriers, including the informative ones.
On September 13, the Minister of Tourism, Trade and Sport of Andalusia, Luciano Alonso, said that this tool will reveal the degree of compliance and implementation of the accessibility measures in Andalusia hotels.
In short, the measure consists in distribution of self-assessment questionnaires aimed to hotels. The answers to these questionnaires will form a database of accessible hotels. The project is calling for social responsibility in the service sector.
Tourist Community of Andalusia develops this analysis in collaboration with the Provincial Federation of Associations of People with Physical Disabilities (in Spanish, Feijidif: ‘Federación Provincial de Asociaciones de personas con discapacidad física’) of Jaen. Fejidif is an NGO founded in 1987 to unite the efforts of the movement of people with physical disabilities in the province. Currently brings together 21 associations.
Data from Eurostat estimated at eight million tourists who have some kind of disability in Europe, which represents an important number for the tourist in Andalusia region.
Source: Comunidad Turística de Andalucía / Sur.es
Catalog of mobile technologies for museums
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