Assistive Devices: Low Vision & Blindness

Assistive Devices: Low Vision & Blindness

How many blind or visually impaired adults in the United States use computers?

The total number of people ages 15 and older with any "limitation in seeing", who report they have access to the Internet is just over 1.5 million (1,549,000). The number of people ages 15 and older, with a limitation in seeing, who use a computer regularly is a bit under 1 million (979,000). Of those, about 196,000 people with a "severe" limitation in seeing have access to the Internet, and about 102,000 persons with a severe limitation in seeing use a computer on a regular basis.
-Data Source: The U.S. Bureau of the Census (1999) "Survey of Income and Program Participation" (SIPP). For further information, see "Who's Surfing? Internet Access and Computer Use by Visually Impaired Youth and Adults" by Elaine Gerber and Corinne Kirchner. (2001). Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 95 (3), 176-181.

See also: www.magnifiers.org for current listings and reviews of both hardware and software magnification solutions

How it works? Magnifies/Enlarges screen from 2x - 60x with some synthetic speech support
Manufacturer: www.aisquared.com/

How it works: uses synthetic speech to read everything aloud (menu options, dialog boxes, as well as document information)
Compatible with Windows 95/98/2000/NT applications
Manufacturer: http://www.hj.com/

How it works: in conjunction with a flatbed scanner and synthetic speech converts printed word to large print and then converts text to speech
Manufacturer: http://www.kurzweiledu.com/
Available for Macintosh and PC

Note: Many of these companies provide free downloadable demo versions of many of their software solutions.

Note: There are 3rd party solutions also available at http://www.apple.com/disability/vision/

Key Legislation
| IDEA | Section 504 | ADA | Section 508