Pace - IT Adaptive Tech Reviews
Saturday, July 22, 2006
  Walgreens Sets New Standard in Accessibility
This is an excellent example in several ways of accessibility offered to the public, not just in an accessible website, but also in how they seek employees with disabilities. I love how they show the actual workplace, explain the jobs that are available, and even have videos of the work required. This is certainly an example that could encourage other major employers to follow their lead.

Walgreens Recruits Employees With Disabilities Through New, Highly Accessible Web Site

WalgreenOutreach.com
 
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
  Windows Macros FAQ
This site has a nice introduction to Windows Macros and Global Hotkeys and how they can help accessibility. They also have another FAQ on using Windows applications without a mouse, by keyboard only and why.

Cantor Access Inc. - Windows Macros FAQ 2.0
 
  Paralyzed man moves computer cursor through thought | Reuters.com
Interesting article about bio control of computers. It required an implanted electrode for this test. I've seen others that just used scalp sensors. If they had used Dr. Stephen Hawking for this test would he be at level 12 of Doom by now?

Reuters.com
 
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
  IBM shows 500 gigahertz chip
This super fast chip that runs at 350 gigahertz at regular room temperatures could be a boon to many assistive technologies. Voice recognition quality could improve tremendously with this kind of horsepower.
Artificial intelligence assistants would also benefit from two orders of magnitude in speed increases. They could provide a lot of aid in a variety of ways to all people but could most benefit people with learning disabilities in helping organize their lives. Anyone with difficulties might feel more comfortable asking a computer questions that won't lose patience with them, criticize, gossip, or mock them. Wouldn't lots of people like that?
Text to speech could improve enough to understand context and even read with natural emphasis and changing tone.
Despite the fact that this is a hardware advancement, the software will be the final measure in these advancements.

Techworld.com - IBM shows 500 gigahertz chip
 
Monday, July 03, 2006
  Open Source Speech Recognition
This Carnegie Mellon University project is working on opening up DARPA funded speech recognition research to the general public. Their description of the project is sufficient:

"The packages that the CMU Sphinx Group is releasing are a set of reasonably mature, world-class speech components that provide a basic level of technology to anyone interested in creating speech-using applications without the once-prohibitive initial investment cost in research and development; the same components are open to peer review by all researchers in the field, and are used for linguistic research as well.

Note however that Sphinx is not a final product. Those with a certain level of expertise can achieve great results with the versions of Sphinx available here, but a naive user will certainly need further help. In other words, the software available here is not meant for users with no experience in speech, but for expert users."

CMUSphinx: The Carnegie Mellon Sphinx Project
 
PACE IT--Preparing Avenues for Competitive Employment in Information Technology (& Related Fields)

Technology evaluations for PACE-IT
What are the best products on the market to help you maximize your education and work experience? This blog will identify some of the strengths and weaknesses of various hardware and software items and combinations. If you have experience with some products mentioned, or questions, then please comment.

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