Creating Accessibility For Others

This is a picture of those that have disabilities of all sorts that I took the time to learn about.

Learning about Culture

Culture is a way of life and living in any way shape or form. There are hundreds of cultures out there in this wonderful world we live in, and so many of us have little time to explore it. Sometimes we may not see eye to eye or understand our differences and how we are to accept them. But if you are given a chance to learn and educate yourself of the different ways of life and why they do things the way that they do, you may gain a better appreciation for their country and culture. Learning about culture is much more than just opening a textbook and reading and studying the history of one’s nationality. If you can learn to take a step back and look around you, even the United States has many cultural differences. There are many different religions in this country and our nation was built to protect those rights to worship freely upon this land to those who choose to do so.

However, there is another culture that is often overlooked. Did you know that having a disability is also an acceptable culture of its own? Normal workers deal with them daily, some have charge to take care of them, while others simply and sadly avoid them. Some are born with a disability when others gain it later in their lives. Also, there are others who suddenly and strikingly get hurt and have cause to learn with a disability for the rest of their lives. There are rules and laws in place in the United States to help these kinds of people fit in to our society. There are ways that they can be able to feel like a normal human being with the technology we have today. For an example of this, science has provided a way to help those with missing or broken parts of the body to heal or be able to use an attachment of some sort to work with. Such as a prosthetic arm or leg, or hearing aids for the hearing impaired or technical eye wear for the blind. Technology is increasingly improving and advancing to help these people. But there is one thing that is slowing down and needs to be brought to our attention. Is the internet and the apps on our phones as accessible as it should be?

Our phones have the capability to give accessibility to everyone that needs it. But are there Apps that can help others communicate and or are there websites that can help those who are disabled? The answer I have found is a propounding YES! Having a disability does not mean that you should ever be treated as an outcast or even as a person with a permanent problem that others should avoid. Why should our technology be any different in doing the same to others? The disabled culture is something that we need to learn to adapt our websites and App features to help them be a part of something great. To help them read and learn just as we do. To help them to also be educated as we continue to share our information. This is for the greater good of our country and perhaps the world, if we could help others learn that having a disability does not mean that they are any better then you and I. They just need or require something more to help them be normal. Something to help them communicate and to be able to be a part of us in our society. Something to help them feel accepted just as much as we want to and feel the same way.

This picture is about finding a culture through making technology accessible for others.

Accessibility Apps

What are accessibility apps? On our phones through the device settings, you can turn your best usable everyday device into something more functional when you have a disability. I am referring to those who have disabilities such as being blind, or deaf, or color blind, or hard of hearing, or have a learning disability. As I have been doing, my research to see what is out there. I found that google and their team has thought up about almost everything. They have provided access for everyone in all situations and circumstances that can help the viewer and user across all devices. That is except for windows devices. The Apple company has also created some in a similar way to give access to those who need it. I have also found that there are other devices to help those who can’t speak or use other parts of their body to help express themselves and live freely about their lives with the limited use of technology.

What are the apps that I found called? It depends on your disability and what you need? For my iPhone there are a few apps that I can talk about that help with disabled people. These apps that I was able to work with are… WCAGA Accessibility app, Google Assistant app, IFTTT app, Live Transcript app, Grammy, Transcriber, Hearing Aid App, Envision, Petralex, P3Mobile, Inspector app, Dragon Anywhere app, Avaz, Be my eyes app, Seeing Ai, Olelo app, apple translator app, and Roger voice app. I will now go over these the best I can in detail.

An iPhone screen shot of the web accessibility app and what it looks like.

WCAGA is a web checker accommodating for good quality of accessibilities for other for interaction and emerging digital power to others who can benefit from it. This checks the codes and all other things for accessible usage. Depending on the areas that the websites offer some may fail the test if it was not done right and therefore unusable for those with certain disabilities.

An iPhone screen shot of the app

The Google Assistant is a great tool to help for quick researching when you know you would be spending minutes and hours trying to find just one topic or person or place you want to know about. This can also help with other things like smart gadgets around the house. As to own your smart phone to do things inside your home with out even being there. It can help give insightful information, or to help you create a list, or calendar event, or send a message, make a call, and so much more depending on what you have that is connected to a smart device or through your home WIFI. This is a really, neat tool and I have used it some for even ordering a food item or something off of Amazon.

This IFTTT app is also google assistant compatible if you know how to work with it.

The next one is IFTTT app. This stands for if this, then that! It is a way to create a coded program that if something happens then this is what I want as a result, of the next action. For Example, say someone who is deaf is in a home with company coming over to visit. Normally someone would knock or ring the doorbell, but the deaf person would not be able to hear it. Therefore, they would text or call the person by phone instead. What if the doorbell could make a light go off or flicker to make it known that someone is at the door? This IFTTT app will help to make it happen if you have the right usage and technical gadgets to do that with. Once the code and the programming is set then the action of the door bell would do just that. Someone presses a button, and the lights would blink for a few seconds to indicate that someone is at the door. Even if it is just a light on the doorbell itself to fulfill the required actions. These two apps are free but may take subscriptions to use the fully advanced features.

An image of what another transcriber app looks like, for speech to text reading.

There are a few speech to text apps out there, Live Transcript app, Transcriber, Dragon Anywhere app, apple translator app, and Roger voice app. All though these do different things, Live Transcribe and transcriber are apps that help give those who have a hard time hearing to understand what is being said in real time to be seen and written as someone is talking. It is much like reading captions on TV but to be used on those around you and near you. It can be really, good to help those who just have a hard time hearing or understanding but can read text towards what is being said and what is going on. The Dragon app is best however to write speeches and thoughts down on paper and to edit with the words that are being written so that you do not have to use the computer like I do to write everything down. However, Samsung is having this transcribe thing as a built-in feature for even the older folks that need a phone to stay in touch or to communicate with others, call for help or to ask for someone one to be there for them. The unfortunate thing of these apps is that they give you a short trial then it is a paid subscription to keep using the app. For the Dragon Anywhere app, it has a payment plan in order, to even get in and use its features.

These four pictures are screen shots of three apps that help with those who are hearing impaired.

The Hearing Aid app is a way to help others amplify their hearing through their Bluetooth head sets and headphones or other hearing aid devices that go into the ear. It is loud and very annoying with the way that it has a ring or hum to it. It is very sensitive to picking up sounds in real time as they happen and there is no delay into it. This app is another way to play with your devices to see what they can do to help others hear better. It is free and there is a prescription for this as well after the trial runs. The subscription helps to gain further access into the features of this app. Speaking of hearing aids…, there is an app to help you know and understand how to correct it or make the adjustments on it. This app is the Petralex app that helps you know how good your hearing is and how to adjust your hearing aids accordingly. This is a prescribed app, so you must pay to use it.

The next apps I did some research on are Envision, the Inspector app, be my eyes app, and Seeing Ai app. These help the visually impaired who have lost their sight or were born blind. I have found that these apps help the person identify what things are through their smart phone device to help them understand what they are, or where they are. Some help with identifying what colors are around them. Other parts help with object in a room or to identify what part of the house they are at. These things are known through the camera lens of the phone as the person looks around with it and makes it talk back to them of these things. The last thing that I want to mention is the Avaz app. This is a very, unique app and it is a subscriber only app. However, this app has a keyboard that displays pictures with words, and it is used for those who have a hard time speaking or saying things out loud. This can be great for those who have less motor skills than others. And/or has a hard time communicating words. The pictures are said by the computer as the buttons get pressed on the screen.

Ideal App Scenario.

After talking to friends and family about ideas that I could do with this project more throughout the summer. One of them had an idea and talked in depth with me about what airports could do to help those who are deaf. So, I created a short app that would help with this idea. I call it the Airport app for the deaf and hard of hearing. The idea is of the hardest thing no one has been able to do in order to communicate with that who can not have the ability to hear or understand what is going on. My hope is that this app would connect to the airport system and give alerts to those who are deaf so that they can know if or when their flight is being delayed, or cancelled, or about to depart and they are late. This is the Idea for the project. Also, to help them navigate their way through the airport, there would be a map involved with the app so that they do not get lost at an airport.

Here is how this idea would work. After downloading and opening the app on to your phone, you press the start button to begin. Then with the ticket information that you are handed you load up the information that the app is asking for. Such as, your city airport that you’re in, the flight company, and the flight boarding number. Then by pressing on the register button the idea is that you would be directed to the information that you need to know, if your flight will be on time, or late, or delayed, or cancelled. This will also give you the correct map of the airport that you are in so that you can navigate through without getting lost. The hope of this scenario is that your app will be able to have some sort of algorithm to log into the airport computer system so that you do not have to rely on tv screens or help desks for this information. Assuming that they would be willing to allow their travelers this information very easily as they coordinate it with the computer system effectively. As time goes on the airport app will be able to give you alerts of when the plane is there or departing too. At the bottom of one page there is a settings menu to help with getting notified of your flight as you are there and while you are using the app. This feature can help with letting the person who is deaf known and understand what is going on around them, even through the computer system.

Please go to this link for The Airport App to demonstrate what I am talking about. If this app were to help the blind with navigation and all, I think that the airports would have to have more of a system that beams or reflects with your phone some how like a beacon or something to interact with your device so that they can find their way around more effectively and efficiently as to gain better independence to walk around in the airport.

Overall Conclusion

I have learned through this project and from others in this subject that we all must be acquainted and be able to use things that include everyone even those who have different backgrounds, cultures, and specific needs, as well as those who have disabilities. If it is there, then use it to help with the inclusion so that your site can be even getter rather than something that could get ignored by the user or viewer. If the ability to be user friendly is not there in the site or app, then it should be created in a way that it can and then interpreted as such so that everything around us can be used by those who are different than the rest of us. We all have needs of some kind in one way, shape, or form. It is our job and responsibility to come together to learn more of this and see in what ways we can make the world work a little better for all people. We also need to know other cultures and their ways of living and lifestyle so that we can accommodate our abilities and adjust accordingly to help them feel included as well as ourselves to be included and educated. The more we learn of each other the better our understanding can be for one another.