Assistive Technology

Where to Find Assistive Technologies?

The European Assistive Technology Information Network (EASTIN) provides a European search engine on Assistive Technology, working in all languages of the European Union.

The Unified Listing provided by the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) allows you to search twelve databases of assistive technologies and other accessibility solutions.

The page ATDatabases in the GPII wiki contains a list of databases of assistive technologies. The page was last updated in April 2015.

AsTeRICS

AsTeRICS stands for “Assistive Technology Rapid Integration & Construction Set”. It is a free and Open-Source construction set for assistive technologies (AT). It allows the creation of flexible solutions for people with disabilities using a large set of sensors and actuators. The project's source code is available on GitHub (licences: LGPL for some libraries, MIT or GPL with CLASSPATH exception for some other parts).

ACAT

ACAT stands for “Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit”. It is an open source platform developed at Intel Labs to enable people with motor neuron diseases and other disabilities to have full access to the capabilities and applications of their computers through very constrained interfaces suitable for their condition. The ACAT installer and the source code were first released on 23 April 2015 and can be donwloaded from the ACAT releases list on GitHub. The project also has a GitHub repository (licence: Apache 2.0).

ACAT was originally developed for the English physicist Stephen Hawking, who has ALS. For articles about this, see the following links:

• Collins, Katie: Stephen Hawking's new speech system is free and open-source, Wired, 2 December 2014.
• Sewell, Anne: Stephen Hawking’s Speech Software Now Available Open Source & Free Online, The Inquisitr News, 21 August 2015.
• Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit: ACAT, n0where.net, (no date; 2015).

Dyslexia

• Calmly Writer: online tool (strictly speaking not primarily for people with dyslexia).
• Read & Write: commercial product for Windows, macOS and a few other platforms by the British company Texthelp. To get an idea of what the software can do, see also the company's YouTube channel, e.g. the videos about Using Read&Write at University.
• Kurzweil 3000.
• Taylor, Julia: How technology can help dyslexic learners help themselves, JISC blog, 05.11.2015.
• Dyslexia Help at the University of Michigan: Apps for Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities.

Screen Readers

• Screen Reader Keyboard Shortcuts, Deque University.
• Alles über Screenreader: Blind am Computer arbeiten, IONOS, 13.04.2018.
• A Comparison of Three Screen Readers: JAWS, NVDA, and Voiceover (Challenge Solutions on YouTube, 16 minutes, 21.09.2020).
• Eren, Ilknur: A Brief Introduction to JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver, CSS-Tricks, 01.09.2022, updated on 07.09.2022.
• Raghavendra Satish Peri: Screen Readers & Browsers! Which is the Best Combination for Accessibility Testing?, DigitalA11Y, 18.01.2022.
• How A Screen Reader User Surfs The Web (Smashing Magazine on YouTube, 1:12:48 minutes, 18.02.2019).
  From the description below the video: In this webinar you’ll learn how and why semantic HTML helps screen reader users browse your website, whilst being mostly transparent to people who do not use an Assistive Technology (AT). Join Léonie Watson, a blind screen reader user, as she explores the web, and find out about some unexpected properties of HTML elements that not only have a huge impact on accessibility, but also turn out to be pretty good for performance too.

Orca

• Orca: free and open-source screen reader for built into the GNOME desktop environment. See also Orca Screen Reader and Controlling and Learning to Use Orca on the GNOME Help site and Orca Screen Reader and Magnifier in Oracle's Solaris 11 Accessibility Guide for the GNOME Desktop.
• Speech Settings Commands, GNOME Hekp (no date; accessed on 17.03.2023).

NVDA

• NVDA: free and open-source screen reader for Microsoft Windows. See also the NVDA User Guide.
• Keyboard Shortcuts for NVDA, WebAIM, 25.09.2020.
• NVDA Commands, Accessibility at Penn State, 07.10.2014, updated on 11.12.2018.
• Lockwood, Sue: Using NVDA Screen Reader on Windows, Bocoup, 21.03.2017.
• de Oliveira, Domingos: Online-Kurs: Screenreader NVDA für Entwickler und Sehende (www.netz-barrierefrei.de on YouTube, 85 minutes, 21.11.2020).
• NVDA command key quick reference, NVDA issue tracker (no date; accessed on 16.03.2023).
• NVDA Community Add-ons website.
  Example add-ons: TesseractOCR: An OCR add-on, Zoom Accessibility Enhancements, Notepad++.

JAWS

• JAWS: a commercial product by Freedom Scientific; possibly the most widely used screen reader for Windows.
• JAWS Web Verbosity, Freedom Scientific (no date; accessed on 17.03.2023).
• Watson, Léonie: How to configure Jaws voice settings, Nomensa blog (no date; accessed on 17.03.2023).
• Documentation, Freedom Scientific (no date; accessed on 04.10.2024).
• Introduction (Scripting Manual), Freedom Scientific, July 2011. (Accessed on 04.10.2024.)

VoiceOver

• Mac: Vision Accessibility: this page introduces VoiceOver, the only screen reader for macOS.
• Nicholas: A Complete List of VoiceOver Keyboard Shortcuts Available on macOS, AppleVis, 02.01.2021.
• VoiceOver Keyboard Shortcuts on a Mac, Deque University (no date; accessed on 04.10.2024).
• VoiceOver general commands on Mac, Apple Support (accessed on 04.12.2024).

Other Screen Readers

• Dolphin ScreenReader: another screen reader for Windows.
• Dolphin SuperNova: a screen reader and magnifier for Windows. See for example, SuperNova Magnifier Features.
• ZoomText Fusion, ZoomText (no date). Fusion combines JAWS and ZoomText.
• GW Micro used to offer a screen reade named Window-Eyes, but development was discontinued in 2017: Breaking: Window-eyes discontinued, in the hands of the VFO Group (03.05.2017).
• Word and NVDA screen reader demonstration, eLaHub on YouTube, 8 minutes, 06.02.2019.
  This video shows how screen reader short cuts can be used to navigate a document's headings, how alternative text can be added to images and tables, how NVDA reads these text alternatives and finally shows how text-to-speech software such as Read Aloud does not recognise headers and ignores the text alternatives for images and tables.
• Tseng, David; Allen, Laura: The new, improved ChromeVox screen reader, Google Blog, 09.02.2017.
• Getting Started with ChromeVox, Perkins School for the Blind (no date; accessed on 16.04.2023).
• ChromeVox: From Basics to Mastery in 6 weeks!, Perkins School for the Blind (video tutorial; no date; accessed on 16.04.2023).
• How A Screen Reader User Surfs The Web (Smashing Magazine on YouTube, 73 minutes, 18.02.2019).
  Bruce Lawson host a session in which Léonie Watson, a blind screen reader user, shows how a blind person surfs the web.

Screen Magnification

• Screen Magnification, AbilityNet, last updated in April 2022 (accessed on 08.12.2022).
• Use Magnifier to make things on the screen easier to see, Microsoft Support (no date; accessed on08.12.2022).

Motor Impairments

• eViacam (Enable Viacam): open source mouse replacement software that allows you to use head movements as a replacement for mouse movements. The software requires a standard webcam (or other camera) to register head movements. Three versions are available: for Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux and Android. (Licence: GNU General Public License version 3.)

Mobile Apps

• Seeing AI: Making the visual world more accessible (Microsoft on YouTube, 3 minutes, 03.12.2019).

Other Links

• Sethfors, Hampus: Videos of people with disabilities using tech, axess lab, 08.11.2019.
• Han, Sheon: The hidden history of screen readers, The Verge, 14.07.2022.
  Subtitle: For decades, blind programmers have been creating the tools their community needs.
• Cole, Elliot: Patient-Centered Design of Cognitive Assistive Technology for Traumatic Brain Injury Telerehabilitation. Synthesis Lectures on Assistive, Rehabilitative, and Health-Preserving Technologies. Morgan & Claypool, March 2013. (159 pages)
• Carmien, Stefan: Assistive Technology Design for Intelligence Augmentation. Synthesis Lectures on Assistive, Rehabilitative, and Health-Preserving Technologies. Morgan & Claypool, April 2016. (171 pages)
• Rebola, Claudia B.: Designed Technologies for Healthy Aging. Synthesis Lectures on Assistive, Rehabilitative, and Health-Preserving Technologies. Morgan & Claypool, January 2015. (186 pages)
• Henke, Anika: Assistive technology tools you can test with at no cost, Accessibility in government (blog), 27.09.2018.
• Visolve: software that transforms colors of the computer display into the discriminable colors for various people including people with color vision deficiency, commonly called color blindness. The software is available in versions for Microsoft Windows and MacOS and is free of charge for personal and non-commercial use.
• Hilfsmittel für Menschen mit Behinderung, MyHandicap.de.
• Hilfsmittel.
• Computer Hilfsmittel, Weißenstein.
• Kommunikations- und Computerhilfen — Dr. Elisabeth Seveke e.K..
• Große, Michael: An Orca screen reader tutorial, WM:TECHBLOG, 02.07.2020.
• Kunert, Heiko: Gadgets lassen Blinde nicht wieder sehen, Leidmedien, 21.11.2017.
• Stanberry, Kristin; Raskind, Marshall H.: Assistive Technology for Kids with Learning Disabilities: An Overview, Reading Rockets, 28.12.2009, updated on 26.09.2019.
• Technology Guide for People with Disabilities, CollegeStats.org, 16.12.2016.
• Westphal, Dennis: Windows screen readers: JAWS vs. NVDA, Gesellschaft zur Entwicklung von Dingen, 04.04.2018.
• Sprachcomputer und Augensteuerungen, Hilfsmittelnetzwerk (no date; accessed on 11.11.2023).
• Goldenbaum, Bailey: Choosing the Right Screen Reader: A Comparison of JAWS, NVDA, and Narrator, A2J Tech, 22.05.2023.
• Flament, David: JAWS vs. NVDA: Hearing Another Voice, Second Sense blog, 15.07.2017.
• Hoogerwerf, Evert-Jan; Mavrou, Katerina; Traina, Ivan (editors): The Role of Assistive Technology in Fostering Inclusive Education: Strategies and Tools to Support Change. Routledge Research in Special Educational Needs. Routledge, 2020. (166 pages) ISBN 9781138370081.
• Amin, Nida; Saeed, Ayesha; Khalid, Arooj; Usman, Muhammad; Akram, Fatima: Comparative study between JAWS® And NVDA® in academic performance of students with visual impairment, British Journal of Visual Impairment, published online on 03.06.2024 (abstract only).
• Breaking Bad - Tio Hector and the D.E.A. Scene (S4E13) (Rotten Tomatoes TV on YouTube, 2:32 minutes, 19.06.2021).
  In this scene, Hector Salamanca is paralysed and communicates with a bell mounted on his wheelchair. He communicates by using it as input for the scanning of a letterboard that an assistant holds up.
• An introduction to screen readers, AbilityNet, last updated in May 2023 (accessed on 01.11.2024).
• Introduction to Screen Readers, Accessibility Sprints (on Open Library Publishing Platform, Ontario) (no date; accessed on 01.11.2024).
• An Introduction to Screen Readers, Deque Webinars (no date; accessed on 01.11.2024).
  In the first video embedded in this page, a blind person explains what screen readers are and demonstrates NVDA on Windows and VoiceOver on a tablet. On the tablet, he also demonstrates the Braile input method.
  The next part of the video explains the basics of screen reader testing, gives links to relevant resources and lists contact information for Deque.
  The last part of the video is devoted to questions and answers. A few minutes before the end of the video, Steve demonstrates the speed he normally uses (70 in NVDA's scale). He adds that it took years to learn to work at this speed, starting at a slow speed and gradually increasing the speed every few months. He also says that PowerPoint works quite well with a screen reader, but you need to be familiar with it. Familiarity with PowerPoint is a usability issue rather than an accessibility issue.
• Not all screen reader users are blind, tempertemper, 30.11.2023.