Introduction

Assistive technology can assist people with a variety of disabilities. Since the amount of available technology is vast, my article will focus on 3 disability categories: vision, communication and hearing.

Assistive Technology to Help People who are Visually Impaired or Blind

In this blog post, my use of the word “vision” refers to people who have some vision or are blind. Please note: having some vision and none are not the same. SightPlus from

GiveVision

can, per the link above, help people with some vision see more clearly. According to

this article from The Times (UK)

SightPlus projects images to the user through goggles using a built-in camera. For people with no vision, a screen reader may be of benefit. Such software converts text on the screen into computerized speech. Screen reader examples for the Windows operating system include

Job Access With Speech (JAWS)

and

Non Visual Desktop Access (NVDA).

I will discuss screen readers in detail in a future article. My second topic is assistive technology for people who need help communicating.

Assistive Technology to Help People Communicate

People with disabilities whose speech can be difficult to understand or are nonverbal can also benefit from assistive technology. For example, the Android app

Speechify

can convert copied text into speech. Apple users of IPhones or IPads might want to try an app from the Apple store such as

Text 2 Speech.

For individuals who need communication technology which is more advanced, I suggest checking out products available from

Smartbox.

My final topic for this article is assistive technology to assist people who have hearing difficulties.

Assistive Technology to Help People Who Have Hearing-Related Disabilities

One option for people who experience hearing difficulty might be hearing aids. Since there are a variety of hearing aid manufacturers, this

list and explanation of various hearing aid brands

could help narrow down hearing aid options. There are also other hearing assistive technology possibilities. According to

this article from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association,

such options include infrared systems, FM systems, one-to-one communicators and induction loop systems. The article makes clear that most of these options do not require hearing aids in order to function. A final option could be a cochlear implant. For more information, I suggest reviewing this

YouTube video entitled: “10 Step Guide to Getting a Cochlear Implant”.

I hope the assistive technology options discussed in my blog post are helpful for some readers.

Next month’s Blog topic

The topic I plan to discuss in March is virtual assistants.