When you live with any kind of chronic condition or disability, a few things have to work differently than they do for other people – and until you’re there, you might have no idea what someone does to get through the average day or task that’s a lot easier for everyone else.
Computer systems are one of the things that changes, and a lot of time and effort has been put in by thousands of developers, volunteers and users to find out how to make computers more practical for various disabilities and impairments.
Here are a few software sugggestions for how you can set up your PC to accommodate various impairments. Most of them can even make life on Bridge Base Online easier – and you can feel free to share the piece with anyone who might be in need of it and not know of the great software options that are out there to help.
Screen Readers
Screen readers are one of the first software adaptations for anyone with visual impairments, whether full or partial. These are text-to-speech software programs that read out whatever is displayed on the screen, sometimes including image captions, and it makes finding your way around a PC a lot easier. Many of them can also read Flash applications or be set to read the text of a PDF document.
There are plenty of screen readers avialable out there, but not all of them are good or effective – and some of them involve a little bit of coding to figure out. When you want something a lot simpler, check out NVDA. It doesn’t slow down your system and it can keep up with most things that you need to have read.
JAWS is short for Job Access with Speech. It’s another screen reader option if you’re looking for something that’s easy to use and has a decent interface – and something that’s a few steps better than the default screen reader that comes with Windows operating systems.
Magnifiers and More
Magnifiers are software programs that increase the size of what you’re looking at, sometimes for the entire screen and other times just for the specific window that you need blown up to a larger proportion. For partial sight and several different visual impairments and conditions, this is immensely useful – and it might even help editors with 20/20 vision get through a hard night of reading or editing.
Magnifier is a great option for anyone who prefers their software open source, and it does a good job without any loss, distortion or pixellation.
Glass Brick is a toned-down version of your average magnifier, and still does the job just as well.
Built-In Accessibilty
Some operating systems – including a handful of Linux distributions and most flavors of Windows – have an Accessibility section that comes with a few pre-loaded programs that serve some of the same purposes as the ones on this list (like text-to-speech and a basic magnifier).
If you’ve just received a new PC and you’re having trouble installing any of the software on the list, you might have to resort to built-in accessibility options to find your way around.
Be My Eyes is an accessibility software option available for Android and Apple systems. It gives you the option to connect with sighted users, and sighted users perform minor tasks like identification on behalf of the person on the other end. It’s hugely useful software for anyone who finds themselves in a tight spot where there might not be anyone within range to help you out.
Speech-to-Text
Speech-to-text software converts the spoken word into the written one. It could be called the opposite of screen readers in the sense that it’s reading what you say instead. Voice recognition has a lot to do with this one – as does accents and languages – and software has vastly improved in the past few decades. It’s even useful for anyone who doesn’t feel like typing.
Kaldi is one of the first speech-to-text systems that you’ll hear of, and it’s one of the best ones. It also happens to be a hugely collaborative project that gets better over time.
Sphinx and PocketSphinx – CMU Sphinx
Not happy with what Kaldi has to offer? Check out Sphinx. Let’s not discount the use of software for mobile. PocketSphinx is the mobile equivalent of Sphinx software and it keeps up well.
If you’re still not satisfied with your software options, take a look at the open source speech-to-text software Project DeepSpeech. It’s got a massive contributor database, but it’s also a little bit harder to use and implement.
Hearing
There are plenty of apps and programs out there to come to your assistance if you live with any kind of hearing impairment. Hearing aids have also evolved to the point where they are now able to connect directly to your smartphone for easier operation: Find out from your hearing aid company whether they have an accompanying app.
Mishear things often? It might be the beginning stages of hearing impairment – and it’s one of the first ways to recognize it. Luckily there are a few apps that can make your life easier in simple ways, including Hearing Helper.
Mobile Ears is an app that amplifies sound near your device’s microphone and plays it back to you. It’s another bit of software that becomes pretty useful if you notice that you’re experiencing hearing loss. It can make the world a pretty disorientating place.
RogerVoice iss a handy little app that converts anything said around you into text. It’s great if you find yourself in a situation where you have absolutely no idea what anyone is saying – and it can save you the awkwardness of having to “smile and nod” or ask someone to repeat it. The app has some flaws, but speech-to-text conversion isn’t always 100% on target in busy environments.
Emergency services can be hard to access and navigate through if you live with certain disabilities: TapSOS allows anyone who might not be able to a smartphone to click their way through calling emergency services – and it allows you to select which service you need and what your emergency is.
Of course, this is also useful for anyone who doesn’t have a disability: Many life-threatening emergencies might mean that someone can’t – for safety or health – speak out loud. These apps also pull useful information for responders.
TapSOS is for anyone based in the UK, but there are an increasing amount of equivalent apps elsewhere in the world; check with the relevant providers in your country to find out if they have an accompanying app.