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Consumer Guide on Toll-Free Numbers for Video Relay Service (VRS) & IP Relay Service

On August 4, 2011, the FCC adopted new rules to promote the use of geographically appropriate local telephone numbers, while ensuring that the deaf and hard-of-hearing community has access to toll-free telephone numbers that is equivalent to the access enjoyed by the hearing community. These rules went into effect on November 22, 2011, and allow for a one year transition period that will end on November 21, 2012.

This video in American Sign Language describes new Federal Communication Commission (FCC) rules on the use of local telephone numbers for VRS and IP Relay.

Use of Toll-Free Numbers for Video and IP Relay Service

Innovative Ideas Braillie App and Dyslexie

The power of technological innovation is sometimes astounding.

BraillieTouch

Mario Romero a post-doctoral researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology has co-developed an app, called BrailleTouch, that could help blind people send text messages and type e-mails on touch-screen smartphones. The free app, which is being developed for Apple iOS and Google Android devices, should be available in a matter of weeks.

Dyslexie

A Dutch graphic designer and dyslexic, Christian Boer, developed a font specifically for dyslexic readers. The Dyslexie font works by tweaking the appearance of certain letters of the alphabet that dyslexics commonly misconstrue, such as “p”, “b” and “d,” to make them more distinct from each other and to keep them “tied down,” so that the reader is less likely to flip them in their minds. The letters in the font are also spaced wide apart to make reading them easier.

The font is  available for purchase, in either English or Dutch, from Boer’s website in English or Dutch.  The font can be used on either the Mac or Windows operating system, but not on devices such as iPads. However, a software company called LingApps says it will soon offer an assistive reading and writing application for iPad that uses Dyslexie.

Some  U.S. schools are now using the font ,but there’s not yet been any major study by a educational system or government to gauge the font’s value in teaching young dyslexics how to read.  Boer does not tout the font as a “cure” for dyslexia but as a tool that can help individuals with dyslexia.

Check out Scientific American’s deeper dive into the project, which includes a link to a Dyslexie version of the article, so you can compare it to the magazine website’s font.

For details on how Boer created the font, check out this video.

The Campus ICT Accessibility Conversation

Technology and the Internet have revolutionized the way we teach at the postsecondary level as well as the way students learn. As Ben McNeely points out in Educating the Net Generation, (2005), today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. Today’s students, K through college, represent the first generations to grow up with their entire lives surrounded by, and using, computers, video games, digital music players, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. In this ubiquitous environment, given the sheer volume of their interaction with technology, today’s students think and process information much differently than their counterparts from earlier generations.

ICT Accessibility in Higher Education Network

Not long ago, I joined a LinkedIn group, ICT Accessibility in Higher Education Network which was created to bring together faculty, staff, instructional technologists, college and university IT decision-makers, students with disabilities, educational publishers/vendors, and all others in the higher education community who are actively involved or have an interest in ensuring that information and communication technology (ICT) being used or being considered for adoption is accessible to everyone, especially people with disabilities. (In this group, ICT includes the full range of technology used for in-class or remote delivery of instruction, online course registration systems/learning management systems, campus websites/portals, library technology, career center software, and social media used to engage existing or attract new students.)

ICT Goal

The goal of this group is to broaden the campus ICT accessibility conversation to include everyone who has a role in the selection, purchase, implementation, support/training on, and use of technology in the college and university setting, in and out of the classroom. Group moderator, Jennison Asuncion, initiated discussion by asking members to, “identify key information and communication technology accessibility challenge(s) facing people with disabilities on your campus.

Common Themes and Issues

The comments and related discussion have been thoughtful and several familiar themes and issues have emerged, including:

  • Convincing leadership at higher levels in our organization that technology accessibility is a priority. Creating accessible technology and web sites allows persons with disabilities equal participation and benefits everyone with better overall design.
  • Effectively integrating the technologies used by students with other technologies available on campus to support teaching and learning.
  • Inaccessible materials, especially third-party materials (e.g. content management and e-mail systems, textbooks, videos etc.)

I believe that this group will be a valuable resource for all participants for we can learn from one another and little by little, perhaps get the message out that accessibility isn’t just for students with disabilities. As assistive technologies are becoming part of the mainstream (e.g. the text to speech and speech to text on the iPad) universities are going to need to respond with accessible content so that the general student body can access materials on multi-modal devices.