ATMac

For users who have no useful hearing ability.

The Mac Video Tutorial Subtitles Project captions Apple’s tutorial vdeos in multiple languages, including English. They want to make this great resource available to non-English speaking users, and to those with hearing impairments or language processing problems.

What would you do if you lost all your files because your computer’s hard drive failed? For less than $100 and with no technical knowledge you can have a backup of all the files on your computer, and you’ll never need to worry about hard drives failing and losing all your files.

The National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH has written guidelines for content providers who would like to create iTunes U media and general podcast media which is accessible for those people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired.

This is the first post in a series about assistive technology. I want to show you why accessibility, adaptive technology, assistive technology, and other disability-friendly practices matter more than you think.

The RIDBC Auslan Tutor is a portable video-based teaching resource for Auslan - Australian Sign Language. It’s been developed by Australia’s Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children specifically for use with the iPhone and iPod touch.

Sign Smith ASL is a tutorial and phrase book for American Sign Languane (ASL) from VDCom3D. The program is available in three versions, containing animated phrase books of between 20 and 1200 signs.

Power’s what assistive technology gives us, really. The power to communicate, to read, to type, to plan, to play, to control things. The power to achieve things that we couldn’t otherwise achieve. Here are some ideas for gifts to empower assistive technology users.

iSign is a tutorial and reference program for American Sign Language (ASL) from iDev2. It was designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The program contains an animated phrase book of 800 signs.

The Laboratory for Understanding Collaborative Technology at Northwestern University is working on a project to build and evaluate new original technologies for users with disabilities. They are currently recruiting subjects with a variety of impairments (cognitive, sensory or motor) from the Chicago area.

A round-up of bits and pieces we haven’t had time for, including Apple’s own accessibility website being updated, new guides for VoiceOver users mastering GarageBand, and some old Apple advertisements featuring American sign language.