A review about Blind Computer, a “monitorless” environment computer for the blind, where the blind able to use computer for daily activity, even for programming (blind programmer)

Technology are created to make something easier. Some decade ago, if blind person want to read a book, they must have it read, or read the Braille version (which very rare). But in the age of computer, anything could happen. Now, the blind, can have it read, not by human, but by computer. Not just read by, now, where the punch card era is gone, the blind can still use a computer. Find out how here!

Blind computer doesn’t mean that the computer cannot see. I mean a computer which is used for the blind people. For the first time I know about them, I wonder about how

I live in Indonesia. In this country, if you are blind, you will lost your future. Many blind people, spend their life, working as a massager. Seeing blind people which excel in other field, is so unusual. But one day, my father told me that once upon a time, he had a friend, which so good in computer. But one day, those guy slowly gone blind due to infection. Sadly the company push him to stop working. Another day, I read an article, about a blind person in Indonesia who able to operate computer, and stated that he can even do programming. As a computer scientist, I wonder how does he do it? It’s not just simple browsing, typing, or using excel, it’s one of the most complicated process in computer field, Programming! A few month’s later, a friend of mine, share a link in stackoverflow.com which discuss about how blind people use computer. A topic in which I’d like to share you here.

ARE THERE ANY?

Yes, not just ANY but MANY blind people able to use computer, even in their daily life. Some of them use it to read, write document, or accessing internet. And believe it or not, some blind use computer for programming!.That’s mean they use computer to create a program/software.

You might don’t believe that there are any blind programmer, since programmer is -usually- one of the highest level in computing skill. But I do tell you, they does exist. Some of them even become one of Google employee like T.V. Raman. Some others, even join in Microsoft and some .

So, for you any normal computer scienctist student, who still can see, it’s a shame to them if you cannot programming your own software!.

DO YOU REALLY MEAN BLIND?

Yes, total blind. Not just partial blind. Although you can categorize the blindness in several level, start from those who still can see but with very little sight left, to those who have total blindness, Both can still use computer. For those with a very little sight left, they usually still use a monitor with high contrast (as you can set in display setting configuration), and use magnification tool in accessibility option. But for those who have total blindness, willy milly they must choose another approach. And this is what I would talk about.

SO HOW DOES BLIND PEOPLE USE COMPUTER?

tv raman, Google blind programmer – photo by new york times

Some decade ago, when computer didn’t use monitor, instead using punch card (a card with hole in it), blind people can learn it better. But nowadays, when using punchcard is so obsolete, when computring and programming are done through seeing a lot and a lot of text and graphic in computer, these are giving an accessibility problem to the blind. So how does they deal with it?

in blind computers, Sure is they don’t use our ordinay monitor, since that is useless for them. They change it with other “monitor” which support their other senses. This means their hearing sense, or their touch sense.

There are two main approach. First, as you can predict, one most common option for the blind is using synthetic speech. It is a speech spoken by computer to tell you what are on your monitor. The technology is called text-to-speech (tts).

For Windows user, a software called JAWS is one of the most popular ones. This software helps the blind by telling them what are “displayed” in monitor. There are the free version, and paid professional version. You can refer the pricing in their site.

Meanhow, for Linux user, Emacspeak is one of the most popular ones used by programmer. It is a text editor with text-to-speech capabilities. T.V. Raman, is stated using it, and tune the software so it can speak at three times normal speed. For untrained ears, those synthetic sounds would be heard like a gibberish, but for any trained .

Emacspeak is one of the most popular since it is supported in both Linux and Mac, As we know that programming environment, usually deal with indentation, colouring code, comment, punctuation, and code fold. Emacs is said to have many plugin which support these problem. It is done through Auditory dimensionality (pitch, rate, volume, inflection, richness, stress, etc) which can convey a concept (keyword, class, variable, error, etc). For example, comments can be read in a monotone inflection…suiting, variables, or colour code in different tone, etc.

HOW ABOUT NON-PROGRAMMING APPLICATION?

The more common solution by far is to have a screen reader which runs in the background monitoring OS activity and alerting the user via synthetic speech or a physical braille display . This then means a blind person can use any accessible application.

WHAT IS BRAILLE DISPLAY?

what is braille display, photo from howstuffworks.com

Sorry, forgot to say. Another option for blind people on using computer, is by using Braille Display. It is a tool, which generally showing somewhere from 20 to 80 characters at a time. As you can predict, this tool have a series of dot on a surface which enable the blind to touch and read the braille characters on it. Unlike synthetic speech, A Braille display is less common and is comparatively much more expensive, but very usefull when exact positioning/punctuation is important.

EHM.. HOW DOES THEY NAVIGATE WITH MOUSE?

As we can predict, blind people cannot see the mouse cursor. In a console environment, this won’t be a big problem. But in Windows and GUI environment, where mouse is important, they must rely heavily in the keyboard corresponding shortcut.

One main problem for blind people is when most of what’s available in computer is just image based. It’s mean where the icon is created just image, and doesn’t have any caption or tooltip in it!!. Another problem is faced when the shortcut available is so few, making their work will be much slower. And one of the last biggest challenge is when a website giving a captcha challenge without any voice assisted support. And believe me, this type of soundless captcha is still adopted by many website.

SUPPORTED OPERATING SYSTEM FOR BLIND PEOPLE

Fortunately, Our three most popular operating system does have some tools which help blind people to work in their environment. It might be not the default software by the operatng system, but they can run on it. Choose wisely, and configure it to match your need.

SPECIAL PURPOSED OPERATING SYSTEM FOR BLIND PEOPLE

Although there are many great software which help’s the Blind, but unfortunately there’s no MS Windows which is specially purposed for the blind. But it is good to say that some Linux developer create Linux which runs in Computer for the Blind.

One of the most popular, and had been available for around ten years, is Blinux. You can read more of it, in

http://leb.net/blinux/.

That’s what I can discuss to you about blind computers, computer for the blind, and about how blind people use computer. If you have blind people around you, it is good if you teach them on how to use one. Hope this will be useful. If you have any comment or idea, please tell me.  CMIIW

FURTHER REFERENCE

1.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/business/04blind.html
2. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/118984/how-can-you-program-if-youre-blind
3. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9149058/14_tech_tools_that_enhance_computing_for_the_disabled