Main description:

Equal accessibility to public places and services is now required by law in many countries. In the case of the vision-impaired, it is often the use of specialised technology which can provide them with a fuller enjoyment of all the facilities of society from large scale meetings and public entertainments to the more personal level of reading a book or making music. In this volume the engineering and design principles and techniques used in assistive technology for blind and vision-impaired people are explained.

Features:

• instruction in the physiology of the human visual system and methods of measuring visual ability;

• explanation of many devices designed for every-day living in terms of generic electrical engineering principles;

• sections of practical projects and investigations which will give the reader ideas for student work and for self teaching;

• contributions by authors of international repute from divers fields which co-operate under the banner of assistive technology, among them: artificial vision systems; psychology, haptics, electrical engineering, design and visual physiology.

Assistive Technology for Vision-impaired and Blind People is an an effective means of maintaining the currency of knowledge for engineers and health workers working to provide devices and/or services for people with sight loss and an excellent source of reference for students working in assistive technology and rehabilitation.

Feature:

The practitioner reader will learn how to apply the latest electrical engineering in designing optical and visual aids for the real world and will be made aware of the factors required in making the routine of 21st-century life accessible to the partially sighted and blind

Provision of large numbers of suggestions for further investigation and research will help the reader in project design and give him more in-depth insight into the likely pitfalls and opportunities of making generic solutions fit individual cases

The student reader will learn to combine the requirements of the physiology of visual-impairment with the capabilities of man-made remedial technology to produce realistic and practicable solutions to the needs of people with loss of sight

Back cover:

Equal access to services and public places is now required by law in many countries. In the case of the visually impaired, it is often the use of assistive technology that facilitates their full participation in many societal activities ranging from meetings and entertainment to the more personal activities of reading books or making music. In this volume, the engineering techniques and design principles used in many solutions for vision-impaired and blind people are described and explained.

Features:

• a new comprehensive assistive technology model structures the volume into groups of chapters on vision fundamentals, mobility, communications and access to information, daily living, education and employment, and finally recreational activities;

• contributions by international authors from the diverse engineering and scientific disciplines needed to describe and develop the necessary assistive technology solutions;

• systematic coverage of the many different types of assistive technology devices, applications and solutions used by visually impaired and blind people;

• chapters open with learning objectives and close with sets of test questions and details of practical projects that can be used for student investigative work and self-study.

Assistive Technology for Vision-impaired and Blind People is an excellent self-study and reference textbook for assistive technology and rehabilitation engineering students and professionals. The comprehensive presentation also allows engineers and health professionals to update their knowledge of recent assistive technology developments for people with sight impairment and loss.

Contents:

Disability and Assistive Technology Systems.- Perception, the Eye and Assistive Technology Issues.- Sight Measurement.- Haptics as a Substitute for Vision.- Mobility: An Overview.- Mobility AT: The Batcane (UltraCane).- Navigation AT: Context-aware Computing.- Accessible Global Positioning System (GPS) and Related Orientation Technologies.- Electronic Travel Aids: An Assessment.- Accessible Environments.- Accessible Bus System: A Bluetooth Application.- Accessible Information: An Overview.- Screen Readers and Screen Magnifiers.- Speech, Text and Braille Conversion Technology.- Accessing Books and Documents.- Designing Accessible Music Software for Print Impaired People.- Assistive Technology for Daily Living.- Assistive Technology for Education, Employment and Recreation.