Disabled waiting for brave new tech world

While new technology promises a lot for deaf and visually-impaired users, the services it provides needs a lot of improvement, writes John Cradden.

Making modern everyday technologies accessible to people with disabilities is rarely the first thing to tax the brains of today's electronics designers when faced with a design brief, but awareness of the needs of disabled users appears to be filtering slowly into engineering consciousness.

National Irish Bank (NIB) this week launched the first ATM in the Republic to feature assistive technology for use by people who are blind or visually impaired.

Located in the NIB branch in Baggot Street in Dublin, the ATM uses a simple text-to-speech software application that cranks up when the user plugs in a set of walkman headphones.

The user then lets the machine guide them to the exact location of items such as the key pad numbers and the cash dispenser.

"It's simple and intuitive to use, but one of the things they've done quite well is that they thought about a blind person standing at a screen and of course, you don't want a big message up on the screen saying: 'This is a blind person using the ATM, and they're using speech'," said Gerry Ellis, a member of the Visually Impaired Computer Society.

"So what they do is put out the same information as for everyone else, so it doesn't make the blind person vulnerable to attack."

One obvious snag appears to be that this particular ATM is inside the bank rather than outside in a hole in the wall.

This effectively restricts blind or visually impaired customers to using this service only during the limited bank branch opening hours, according to Ellis.

A spokesman for NIB said that the bank decided to keep the first speaking ATM inside in order to give blind and visually-impaired users time to get comfortable with using it.

Ellis, who regularly engages with corporations and the public sector to promote accessible designs for visually-impaired computer users, says some progress is beginning to take place in Ireland to make technology easier to use, but more awareness and sometimes political pressure is still badly needed to force the pace.

Speaking ATMs are already commonplace in the US , he says, where disability legislation has made them almost mandatory.

In some cases, however, it is clear that enabling more disabled users to access modern technologies is more a case of simple awareness than political pressure.

Videophone technology has been eagerly awaited for many years by deaf people as a way of enabling telephone communication using sign language.

The recent launch of 3G services from Vodafone Ireland and 3 Ireland and the availability of cheap handsets means that good quality and affordable video calls are now a reality.

Many existing deaf mobile phone users are likely to welcome the capacity to communicate in sign language as well as SMS messaging, on which they already rely very heavily.

However, according to deaf 3G users Steven Smith and his friend John Fennell, few members of the Irish deaf community have invested in 3G handsets despite their obvious potential.

But he thinks that it's only a matter of time before more deaf people buy the devices.

"So far, very few deaf people have them, but it's growing," says Smith. "Because many people don't know about 3G phones, they're not clear about what 3G phones can actually do."

Extra help is on the way from Vodafone Ireland. Regional & community relations executive Elaine Hurley says the firm is preparing to engage more closely with organisations such as the Irish Deaf Society and the National Association for Deaf People in order to best gauge how its products, particularly video mobile, could best be used by customers who are deaf or hearing-impaired.

"The strongest message we've got so far is for parity of service," said Hurley.

"So we don't want to go down the road of offering discounts for deaf people just because they are deaf. It's about providing the best service for everyone."

Vodafone is hoping to use a recent project in association with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland that resulted in the launch of the Vodafone "speaking phone" as a precedent.

The speaking phone is screen-reading software made available free of charge on two popular handsets.

The software, which normally costs €199, allows users to navigate their mobile phone menus and access key information via an audio display. In order to build up a typical profile of a deaf user, Hurley says that Vodafone is considering a trial scheme run in association with the association and the society, where volunteers can test a 3G handset in return for detailed feedback on their usage.

Hurley stresses that it's too early to say what developments might emerge for deaf users of 3G services as a result of this consultation, but one obvious possibility is that the company may offer a range of tariffs that suit a heavy user of both video mobile and texting.

Graeme Slattery, a spokesman for 3 Ireland, which launched its 3G services here only a month ago, reports that 3 Sweden's service already has a very high proportion of users from the country's deaf population.

There, deaf customers pay a flat rate fee that includes the handset and free video and voice calls within the 3 network.

In Ireland, with or without Vodafone's initiative, it's not hard to imagine video mobile technology quickly gaining a strong social value in the highly visual world of Irish sign language users.

In the meantime, Smith, who uses Irish sign language, is already evangelising about 3G video mobile to any one who'll talk to him.

"The first time that you use it, it will take longer, but after a while you get used to it and learn to keep Irish sign language communication in the right place. In other words, don't use big gestures and keep your signing tight," says Smith.