Accessibility

The golden triangle and beyond

by Pranav · Feb 4, 2017

Golden Triangle and beyond from a trip I co-lead. We were a mixed group of blind and sighted tourists; the bulk of whom were from Germany. Yes, it is possible to be a tourist in your own country by association and the experience is novel.
Our tour began with the Delhi flower market at Ghazipur. Ghazipur otherwise is better known for its slotterhouse.
The flower market is a whole sale market therefore no organized shops. There are stalls with baskets of flowers and everyone is out to sell.

A man standing in front of the market and looking_ angrily_at something. Orchid_garlands_ inthe_background hanging_from_ceiling — A_seller_ looking_ angrily_at something. Orchid_garlands_ inthe_background hanging_from_ceiling

A group of people standing in front of a crowd — We become the exhibits- A_favorite_ hobby of people: staring_at_foreigners.

A seller_wondering_what_will_happen_if_his flowers don't sell — Travails of the independent trader: A seller_wondering_what_will_happen_if_his flowers don’t sell

Time for some play: A vendor taking a break for breakfast

more flowers in boxes and buckets: check: out the smell

Garlands hanging from the_top. Lighting up_the_marketplace not to_ miss_the_soft_fragrance

Huge piles of fresh marigold garlands. The festive or rather wedding season commences

A box filled with different types of food — Newspaper (the universal packing material) and more flowers in baskets carnations chrysanthemums and more

A flower arrangement consisting of Rose and Rajnigandha garlands for the groom and bride — Rose and Rajnigandha garlands for the groom and bride

A seller wondering whether this foreigner will buy

The sellers their assistants and flowers everywhere

We then moved to Agra.

Exquisite Mughal architecture probably consisting of geometrical shapes — Exquisite Mughal architecture consisting of geometrical shapes

An ornate pillar witha latticed work window in the background

Another view of the same sunny courtyard

In case you are wondering, yes we did visit the Taj but it was my seventh visit to it and I did not take many photographs.

The more interesting bits with respect to the Taj lie outside it. These are the art and craft shops that sell you replicas of the taj and show you how they are made and do other marble related work. Most of the designs involve complex geometrical patterns. The carving is done by hand using a chisel. I did ask about 3d-printing and other machines. I am told that the marble is very soft and machines will break the stone. The designers are also very experienced. There is no cadcam software. The people have been doing it from generations and the skill is passed from father to son as far as I could tell.

A decorated elephant, made of marble on a table — marble inlay work probably in the form of an elephant

We then moved to Jaipur.

An Artisan's abode with clothes hung on the wall — An Artisan’s abode with clothes hung on the wall

I did try using the vOICe to determine how much of the cloth I have colored and have printed on. It is a non-trivial task because the paint / ink is very light when you apply it. It does darken after drying but this is going to take a lot of work. Moreover, because of the poor contrast, it was difficult to make out what patterns I had printed.

A closeup shot of coloured stones in a box

One of the most interesting things we did in Jaipur was to visit shops selling gems and Jewry and see how they are made. They had a little setup outside the shop where one could see the workers polishing gems etc. You need to be careful with the cutting wheel and the polishing is intricate work best done during the day because it needs natural light for the colors to stand out. Again, I tried looking at the setup. It may be possible to determine how much of a stone is polished using vision but the hand appeared to be a better tool for the job at least for now. In addition, the process cannot be completely automated because of the soft stones in use and how will a machine create a design? Heuristics of some kind coupled with a neural net with massive amounts of data are perhaps options but until that happens, it is up to human ingenuity to create designs. Again, this trade is based on generations.

It may be possible to tell semiprecious stones apart by their texture but I am uncertain if this is a reliable means of identification.

A weavers loom, probably electrically powered — A weavers loom

The Hawa mahal palace of windows or the palace of the wind, the windows cause the wind — The Hawa mahal palace of windows or the palace of the wind

Be warned, you do not sense the wind if you are outside the palace. The monument is on a busy street and is a quick photo stop unless you want to go inside and climb the several stairs. I did not have an opportunity to do this.
We had a chance to visit fort Amer. The drive up to the fort is a lot of fun if you take the elephant. In addition, forget the term “camera shy” because there an inordinate number of photographers seeking your custom.

Closeup of the mirrored ceiling in the hall of mirrors. For the curious, I believe these are convex mirrors. — Closeup of the mirrored ceiling in the hall of mirrors

Elephants standing in line waiting to be ridden

the hair on an elephant's trunk — the hair on an elephant’s trunk

A wooden door pannel faided with time — Door panel fading with time

The Sheesh mahal or the palace of mirrors

We then moved to Jodhpur.

A cellular phone tower / mast in the midst of the wilderness — A cellphone tower in the midst of the wilderness

Aerial shot of the city with a cannon in the background

Fountain at the entrance of a haveli(a very old house)

Walking up the steps of the same haveli as shown in the previous image

We then moved to Pushkar for sun and sand but found much more.

Entrance_to the pushkar resort with A large tree in the foreground — Entrance_to the pushkar resort

Pushkar resorts: palm_trees_and a pool with a bench in the foreground — Pushkar resorts: palm_trees_and a pool

benches and a_lone_palm_tree in the Pushkar resort

The Pushkar lake: note the clear water — Clear water of The Pushkar lake

a cable car on a mountain — A cable car on a mountain: watch out for the monkeys at the top

a headless-shadow in the swimming pool — a headless-shadow in the Pushkar resort swimming pool: Don’t worry, I am not the executioner

Sand dunes in the backdrop of the setting sun

This trip was special in many ways. For one, I had a multilingual group and our conversations were conducted in English, Hindi and German. I was mistaken for a foreign tourist which was intriguing and most of all, I had not seen my country through the eyes of a foreigner before. It showed me how much I took for granted.

Acknowledgements

Aparna Mathur leadership consultant / art, history and food lover for the image descriptions
Girdhari Singh Shekhawat
our fearless guide and leader and one of the fastest learners I have ever had the chance to meet
Anil Dhyani Shrooti Sharma, June and the other staff of Sita Travels for giving me the opportunity of co-leading the tour and for fantastic organization
Laura Kutter, CEO of Tour de sens for some fantastic conversation and brilliant organization and group management
Marcel and Raphaela Franke for being who you are and for breaking the ice
Barbara Krug for fantastic conversations and navigation in tricky places
Sigrid Gleser for breaking the ice and stimulating technical conversation
Rita Gleser for intriguing teaching opportunities and food
Claudia for the laughs
Teena, Christina, Gregor and everyone else for the fun.

Clay infinitum

by Pranav · May 2, 2016

I was a part of the clay modeling workshop conducted by Planet Abled and The Clay Company.

I have vague memories of modeling with clay in grade 1 but I had not touched clay after that.

The interesting thing about clay modeling is that you work in 3 dimensions. I thought it would be easy to produce what I imagined but that was not the case. For example, I was instructed to make a mask. How do I make a nose? I should have put clay around my own nose and but I thought of that trick once the mask was complete.

We used ceramic clay instead of terracotta clay.

My biggest challenge came in shaping the clay. I would damage the slab when I tried engraving. The answer was to use cooky cutters to get the shape I wanted.

My biggest surprise was the shape of the sphere. For the shapes I made, the first thing that I was instructed to do was to form a sphere with the clay. I then took a rolling pin and flattened the ball. Once that was done, I could begin shaping. I mentioned this to my father who pointed out that the sphere is the symbol for infinity.

Another thing to be aware of was the pressure. If I put too much, the clay would begin to disintegrate. If it was too little, the clay would stay as is.

My thanks to Aparna Choudhrie, founder of the Clay Company for her incite on design. I had asked her how should I decide what shape I want in a design. Her answer was that “each shape should tell a story.” This was just the right starting point for my writer self. I can now begin to think of creating shapes that have meaning without my brain freezing on fractals, perspective, solid geometry etc.

As always, special thanks to the volunteers from The Clay Company and from Planet Abled. The class would not have been the same without you.

The FootLoose Vibe: universal design at its bbest

by Pranav · Nov 22, 2015

Universal design is not something one would usually associate with dating events. However, the event (The VIBE – Delhi) conducted by Footloose No More was a superb example of how things can be made inclusive for everyone. I am not going to go into the challenges of online dating and the extreme focus on pixels on many dating websites. Footloose is different since the website is an adjunct to their offline events. Most of the Footloose events are unstructured where you walk up to the person of choice and start talking. If you are blind, then there are some unique problems with this format.

Finding someone to talk to. Yes, you do get introduced like everyone else but people drift in and detecting them is almost impossible.
Finding the next person to talk to. So, you finish talking to one woman but how do you identify the next one? The objective is to meet as many new people as possible. People cluster into groups so yes, you can look for chattering groups but many participants sit in a quiet corner so no audio. Yes, you can ask the organizer but the organizer does not know who all you have spoken too.
Irrespective of disability, people complain that they did not meet everyone.

The Footloose solution is elegant. The women are seated while the men get five minutes with each woman. They move from person-to-person. There is a whistle after every 5 minutes. Once everyone has met everyone else, the event returns to its original unstructured format. You talk to everyone, get a chance to exchange contact information if desired and then are free.

Tips

Exchange contact information in the fourth minute of the interaction else you will have to scramble to enter it once the whistle has blown. You do not want to keep your fellow men waiting.
Stay relaxed. Do not look at your watch. Time keeping is the organizer’s responsibility.

Handling erroneous data in foursquare while using blindsquare

by Pranav · Nov 6, 2015

I use a combination of blindsquare and Google maps and or Navigon for navigation. My work flow is to search for a place in blindsquare and then launch Google Maps and or Navigon for routing. The trouble is that there have been times when I have not found a place on blindsquare or the place has been wrongly marked. This is not blindsquare’s fault because it uses foursquare. Yes I know, croud sourced navigation but it works well in most cases. The operative word is most. My last experience converted a 20 minute journey to a 2 hour ordeal because of an error on foursquare. I wrote to blindsquare support and asked for help.
The following solution has been given by Mr.. Ilkka Pirttimaa

Use the
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Sensory substitution as a universal accessibility agent for museums

by Pranav · Apr 28, 2015

I recently participated in a workshop relating to accessibility of arts and culture with reference to museums. This was conducted at the National Museum under the auspices of UNESCO. The idea behind the workshop was to explore what could be done to make art accessible to the blind. The museum had taken a number of steps to make objects accessible. A number of presenters also covered how Museum accessibility is being handled globally. The primary ways it is being done appear to be as follows.

The use of audio descriptions along with associated broadcast technology.
The creation of 3-D models of objects that are on display.
The use of tactile graphics to display paintings.

All the above methods are time and labor intensive. Moreover, there are significant constraints in the application of these methods. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of space. There is insufficient space to store the 3-D representation of the models. Moreover, many of the 3-d models that have been created are not durable. Museums change their displays frequently which involves changing the audio descriptions of models as well.

Several solutions were proposed to handle these problems. For example, it was suggested that curators decide which models best tell the story of the collection and only translate those into tactile representations. The issue of durability could be addressed by using better material to make the 3-D representations.

The other set of challenges that museums have to face relate to logistics. In most cases, disabled visitors need to book an appointment in advance before visiting a museum. This allows museum staff to get things organized and to ensure the best possible experience for their disabled patrons.

As a disabled consumer, I foresee several issues with these accommodations. Do not get me wrong, they are nice and the intentions behind them are good. They even work. However, the problems I have are as follows.

I want the right to be disorganized. Every disabled person is not a good planner. Moreover, the disabled person should have the ability to walk into the museum and enjoy its exhibits without the additional step of planning.
There are very few audio described items and even fewer tactile representations.
These facilities are available only at certain museums.

Enter the vOICe

The vOICe is a generic solution that converts images to sound. All it needs is a camera and some kind of computing device to run. It can be run as a mobile phone application or as a program running on a laptop or desktop computer. It is image agnostic and can translate images of any complexity and at any resolution. The interpretation of these images is left to the user.

As I’ve stated in other posts on this blog, the vOICe gives the user a direct sensation of shape without any interpretation.
To summarize, the vOICe combines audio and tactile representations into a single modality. There is no manual effort required in the preparation of audio descriptions or tactile representations. This also solves the problem of space. There is no need to maintain multiple representations of an item.

One of the criticisms that has been often levelled at the vOICe is its steep learning curve. There is no denying that interpreting soundscape’s needs to be learnt. It does take time and effort to be able to do this effectively. However, in a museum, there are textual labels that already exist explaining what items are in a given display. These usually contain enough information for the blind patron to get a good idea of what he or she is looking at.

The vOICe facilitates true universal accessibility. All it needs to function effectively is good lighting, clearly printed text labels (that is more a user requirement) and clean displays. These incidentally are requirements for all patrons irrespective of their level of ability.

It is possible to record the sound skips from the vOICe and incorporate them into digital media presentations. This would allow people who are unable to access the museum physically to still enjoy the exhibits. Lastly, this will allow curators to sleep easier because no one will have to “touch” their precious collections!

Acknowledgements

To the Blind with Camera foundation for giving me the opportunity to present about the vOICe and to participate in the workshop
To the National Museum and UNESCO for being fantastic hosts.
To Saksham for making the Santhal collection accessible.

Five things to like about J-Say 13

by Pranav · Feb 4, 2015

The J-Say product has undergone a significant face lift. It is now owned by Hartgen Consultency, a company founded and headed by the developer Brian Hartgen. J-Say is middleware technology that interfaces Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional with the Jaws for Windows screen reader. It allows users to control Jaws for Windows using their voice, and allows them to get full control of their computer. J-Say version 13 has just been released. There are five features I really like about this upgrade.

The “forget it” command which deletes whatever was dictated in the last utterance and speaks what has been left. This allows me, as a user to retain the context of my dictation.
The new correction feature using the “select” command. If the corrected phrase is in the choices, it improves the speed of editing significantly. No need to redictate or to open the spell box and re-enter the text.
This is probably the fastest version of J-Say so far. I can feel this specially in Microsoft Outlook when I have to get through a large number of messages quickly. I prefer using the keyboard for this but now, speech recognition has become an acceptable option.
J-Say tags allow the user, to mark files across folders and drives and then to delete, move or copy them. This beats holding down the shift key and moving around with arrow keys or, holding down the control key and marking files using the arrow keys.
You can stay current with Jaws for Windows versions. J-Say no longer restricts you to a specific build of jaws.

Finally, for those of you contemplating buying this technology, the price has been reduced significantly. Please see the J-Say website for more information.

Learn, Enable, Advance, So Easy!

by Pranav · Oct 18, 2014

I have been beta testing a new offering from Brian Hartgen and the people at Astec called Leasey which stands for Learn, Enable, Advance, and So Easy! Yes, these are the same people who produced J-Say and J-Tools.

Leasey is a successor to J-Tools. Mr. Hartgen has surpassed himself in terms of catering to multiple audiences in this program. The primary focus of Leasey is on users who do not want or need to face the complexity of the computer. Leasey presents a simple menu system which facilitates the doing of common tasks such as writing letters, e-mail, spell checking documents, setting appointments, downloading and reading books etc.

The user has help at each stage of the process. For example, when the user is focused on a link, she can ask for help and will be told how to execute that link. The help however is not intrusive. Every action requires the user to press a key. This way, there are no surprises for the user. How many times have you heard people exclaim “Oh, that thing just came up?” Anyone remember the paper clip in earlier versions of Microsoft Word? In addition, Leasey does not completely mask the user interface of the computer. The user still has to use the common open file dialogue box etc. However, the introduction to these concepts is gradual.

As regards advanced users, Leasey has several features such as the ability to tag files for selection and movement. The tagging extends across folders and drives. The program can also store shortcuts to documents and webpages. Yes, you can have stacks of links on your desktop but those will slow down your computer. Here, the shortcuts are in a simple list box which supports first letter navigation.

These features make Leasey a tremendous efficiency booster. Take the example of navigating to your bank’s website. If you did not use Leasey, you would do something like this.

Launch your browser or if your browser was open, open a new tab.
Expand your bookmarks / favorites and find the site.
Hit the enter key to go to the site.
Find the place to enter your credentials.

If you have Leasey, you can do the following.

Open a list of Leasey shortcuts.
Navigate to the shortcut belonging to your bank and activate it.
Use a Leasey point to get to where you have to enter your credentials.

See the difference in steps? I leave it to your imagination to compute the reduction in keystrokes.

>This point about reduced keystrokes allows me to Segway into a significant health related benefit of Leasey; namely, the mitigation of repetitive stress injury also known as RSI. I am not saying that Leasey is a cure all for RSI but the lesser you type, the lesser the chances of RSI. This is more significant for blind people because the computer is an integral part of their work and life.

As of this writing, Leasey supports the Jaws for Windows screen reader. Yes, it does require you to use popular applications like foobar 2000 for playing media but many of its features such as Leasey notes work in any application.
You can read more about Leasey at its website. If you are in the UK, you can see it being demonstrated at the Sight Village exhibition. Do check it out!

Leasey presentations of interest

Leasey at TechTalk on Accessible World
All about Leasey Advanced

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Accessibility

The golden triangle and beyond

Acknowledgements

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Clay infinitum

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The FootLoose Vibe: universal design at its bbest

Tips

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Handling erroneous data in foursquare while using blindsquare

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Sensory substitution as a universal accessibility agent for museums

Enter the vOICe

Acknowledgements

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Five things to like about J-Say 13

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Learn, Enable, Advance, So Easy!

Leasey presentations of interest

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Enter the vOICe

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