Global Disability Inclusion is Awarded $100,000 Grant to Enhance Delivery of Disability Competitiveness Solutions
Global Disability Inclusion, a leading consultancy firm that designs and develops comprehensive disability employment and inclusion strategies for Fortune 500 companies and U.S. Federal contractors, announced it is a 2015 recipient of a Mission Main Street Grants award from Chase. Global Disability Inclusion was chosen from a field of 30,000 applicants to be one of 20 small businesses to receive a $100,000 grant, and a trip to Premier Sponsor LinkedIn's California headquarters to receive insights and expertise to help the company continue growing its disability inclusion business.
Created by Chase to celebrate National Small Business Week, the Mission Main Street Grants program helps worthy and successful small businesses grow and improve. After a period of public voting, businesses who receive at least 250 votes are judged by a panel of experts from a diverse group of companies supporting small businesses.
Global Disability Inclusion, led by two of the nation's top disability employment experts, Meg O'Connell and Deb Russell, focuses strategy and programming on three key areas — the workplace, the workforce, and the marketplace — to help companies realize the advantages of disability inclusion across their business.
"Employees with disabilities have 48 percent greater tenure than all other colleagues, and 40 percent less absenteeism," said Deb Russell, Managing Partner at Global Disability Inclusion. "These statistics can affect companies' efficiency and profitability, and are just one of many reasons why we believe it pays to think of disability inclusion not as charity, but as valuable workplace diversity."
Calling for Applications for the Touch of Genius Award
The Louis Braille Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation is calling individuals, groups, or companies who have developed an innovative and accessible product in one of the following categories:
- Professional or educational software & apps
- Gaming software or apps that promote tactile & braille learning
- Braille or tactile-related hardware
Projects must demonstrate some aspect of tactile literacy for blind people and promote braille literacy or access to information. The deadline is February 1, 2016. Winnings up to $20,000.
IBM Research and Carnegie Mellon Create Open Platform to Help the Blind Navigate Surroundings
Scientists from IBM Research and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) announced the first of a kind open platform designed to support the creation of smartphone apps that can enable people who are blind to better navigate their surroundings.
The IBM and CMU researchers used the platform to create a pilot app, called NavCog, that draws on existing sensors and cognitive technologies to inform people who are blind on the CMU campus about their surroundings by "whispering" into their ears through earbuds or by creating vibrations on smartphones. The app analyzes signals from Bluetooth beacons located along walkways and from smartphone sensors to help enable users to move without human assistance, whether inside campus buildings or outdoors. Researchers are exploring additional capabilities for future versions of the app to detect who is approaching and what is their mood. NavCog app will soon be available at no cost on the App Store.
The first set of cognitive assistance tools for developers is now available via the cloud through IBM Bluemix at Mybluemix.net. The open toolkit consists of an app for navigation, a map editing tool and localization algorithms that can help people who are blind identify in near real time where they are, which direction they are facing and additional surrounding environmental information. The computer vision navigation application tool turns smartphone images of the surrounding environment into a 3-D space model to help improve localization and navigation for the visually impaired.
"While visually impaired people like me have become independent online, we are still challenged in the real world. To gain further independence and help improve the quality of life, ubiquitous connectivity across indoor and outdoor environments is necessary," said IBM Fellow Chieko Asakawa, visiting faculty member at Carnegie Mellon. "I'm excited that this open platform will help accelerate the advancement of cognitive assistance research by giving developers opportunities to build various accessibility applications and test non-traditional technologies such as ultrasonic and advanced inertial sensors to assist navigation."
The combination of these multiple technologies is known as "cognitive assistance," an accessibility research field dedicated to helping people who are blind regain information by augmenting missing or weakened abilities. Researchers plan to add various localization technologies, including sensor fusion, which integrates data from multiple environmental sensors for highly sophisticated cognitive functioning, such as facial recognition in public places. Researchers also are exploring the use of computer vision to characterize the activities of people in the vicinity and ultrasonic technology to help identify locations more accurately.
IBM has been committed to technology innovation and accessibility for people with disabilities for more than 100 years, helping to ensure that employees, customers and citizens have equal access to information they need for work and life. Some early innovations for the blind include a Braille printer, a talking typewriter, and the first commercially viable screen reader.
Apples Updates iWork
Apple has updated its iWork suite of productivity apps! The latest update to iWork for iOS and Mac now include some accessibility improvements for VoiceOver users. In Pages, Numbers and Keynote, VoiceOver users can now read relevant text formatting details including font name and font size while editing. It is now easier for VoiceOver users to add, remove, rearrange rows, columns, add and review comments, edit chart data and chart elements, get table header information, and more. Also in Keynote, VoiceOver users can now edit and read presenter notes.
With this update, Pages, Numbers and Keynote take full advantage of the great features recently introduced in iOS 9, including Split View, 3D Touch, Slide View, and Picture in Picture. iWork for iCloud is now out of beta. A host of new features have been added like commenting and version history that make the collaboration experience on the web more powerful.
For more a full list of updates to iWork (new and existing), please visit:
NoteStream™ App Debuts VoiceOver Accessibility Feature
NoteStream™, the mobile learning app designed to enable users to find, enjoy and follow long-form articles and content on their mobile devices, has announced it is now compatible with Apple's VoiceOver accessibility feature. According to the American Foundation for the Blind, nearly 10 percent of all adult Americans have some form of vision loss or impairment. With the new VoiceOver feature, NoteStream users are able to use hand gestures to access the content in the app. VoiceOver also includes a braille keyboard and braille displays, offering additional accessibility for individuals with vision impairments.
Part of the NoteStream business model is to provide a voice for nonprofits looking to spread awareness of their missions, research and causes to a widespread audience on mobile. The inclusion of the VoiceOver feature in the app furthers the missions of NoteStream's nonprofit partners by allowing them to share their activities and accomplishments with a growing audience of mobile users, including those with visual impairments.
To learn more about NoteStream, visit www.notestream.com and download the NoteStream app at www.notestream.com/app.
Release of O&M for Independent Living: Strategies for Teaching Orientation and Mobility to Older Adults
AFB Press is pleased to announce the recent publication of O&M for Independent Living: Strategies for Teaching Orientation and Mobility to Older Adults, Nora Griffin-Shirley, Ph.D., and Laura Bozeman, Ph.D., Editors.
O&M for Independent Living is a resource guide that provides information for practitioners on orientation and mobility skills and strategies that represent best practice and evidence-based practices for older adults who are blind or have low vision. It also provides insights essential for helping these individuals remain independent and self-reliant This book is 286 pages long and is now available in paperback for $39.95; The electronic formats: e-books for $27.95; and online subscription for $23.95 , will be available shortly.
Computers for the Blind to provide Talking Typing Teacher for Windows
Computers for the Blind (CFTB) and MarvelSoft have formed a special agreement to provide Talking Typing Teacher for Windows (TTT) to CFTB Consumers, agencies, and schools for $50 to be used on CFTB computers by persons who are blind or have low vision. CFTB, a non-profit 501 (c) (3) agency is pleased to announce a special agreement between CFTB & MarvelSoft Enterprises Inc. A license key for MarvelSoft's product, Talking Typing Teacher (TTT) can be purchased from MarvelSoft for $50 on CFTB computers from this date going forward, not only for consumers who purchase CFTB computers but for agencies, schools, and lighthouses who purchase it to be used by a person who is blind or has low vision on a CFTB computer.
Agencies and schools who wish to obtain a CFTB computer for a consumer can do so with a purchase order. Once the computer is obtained they can activate a license key for the TTT which has already been installed on a CFTB computer by contacting MarvelSoft at 1-800-987-1231. Once payment of $50 is authorized through a purchase order or credit card, a 6-digit key will be provided which can be passed along to the consumer to activate the key. No physical media will be sent.
Consumers may likewise purchase a computer from CFTB by calling 214-340-6328. After they receive their computer they can call MarvelSoft at 1-800-987-1231 and state they have received a computer from CFTB and that they wish to activate the copy of TTT that has already been installed. They will be asked for a money order or credit card to collect the $50. Once payment has been received a 6-digit key will be provided to the customer over the phone and they can activate and start using the software immediately. No physical media will be sent. Please note, this software cannot be installed at this price on previously purchased CFTB computers. Consumers & agencies who wish to purchase TTT at the retail price from MarvelSoft on a previously purchased CFTB computer may do so my contacting MarvelSoft.
CFTB is committed to providing fully accessible refurbished computers to persons who could not otherwise afford a new computer and the expensive software that makes them accessible. We are very pleased with this generous agreement with MarvelSoft which we feel will help open up the world of information technology to persons who are blind or have low vision.
