Accessibility First Innovation

Editor's Notes

• #3: Understanding Accessibility First innovation first requires some historical context. This is especially relevant for the Bay Area, as Ed Roberts started the independent living movement as a UC Berkeley student. This 1973 Rehabilitation Act and 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act have enabled accessibility-first innovation Thursday, January 23 is Ed Roberts Day in California https://news.berkeley.edu/2010/07/27/roberts/
• #5: Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Fueling the Creation of New Electronic Curbcuts http://www.accessiblesociety.org/topics/technology/eleccurbcut.htm 1808:The first typewriter is built by Pellegrino Turri. He built it for his blind friend Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzono. He wanted to help her write legibly. See: http://xavier.xu.edu:8000/~polt/tw-history.html Electronic Curbcuts: Universal Access for everyone: http://www.icdri.org/CynthiaW/electronic_curbcuts.htm 1982: Noise-Canceling Microphone History: A circuit for suppressing background noise of a continuous nature while enhancing speech signals, or signals having the transient temporal qualities of speech, includes a signal multiplier which, in the preferred embodiment, receives the composite audio signal along with a control signal present only when the speech component of the audio signal is present. The control signal may be derived from an AGC circuit having a slow attack, fast decay characteristic to establish a quiescent output level from the AGC amplifier in the absence of speech. An envelope detector is biased to provide a zero output amplitude in response to the quiescent amplifier output level. Speech components appearing in the amplifier output signal are then envelope-detected and filtered to provide the control signal. Alternatively, the control signal can be derived by envelope-detecting the audio signal, filtering the detected signal to remove its d.c. component representing the continuous noise, and then detecting and filtering again. In still another embodiment, the control signal acts upon a constant amplitude instead of the audio input signal in order to provide a speech-responsive tactile vibration for the deaf. Patent Number 4461025.   http://www.ideal-group.org/ecc/
• #7: iGlasses, released in 2012 were sunglasses with a centrally mounted sensor that alerted the wearer to low-hanging branches and other eye-level obstacles. https://www.afb.org/aw/13/9/15771 The Sunu band includes a sonar sensor on the wrist, this works in conjunction with a white cane and maps the 3 dimensional space as the person walks. It identifies obstacles and uses vibration to identify location and proximity https://www.sunu.com/en/index.html Google’s Soli project uses radar to create a touchless gesture recognition system. This was included in the Pixel 4 and allows the user to control their phone without touching it. https://atap.google.com/soli/
• #8: GPS has revolutionized the ability to navigate an external space. But it doesn’t work inside buildings. There has been significant research and work to create indoor mapping and guidance. While there hasn’t been a single solution, the efforts have led to greater insights into the components that will eventually lead to everyone being able to navigate internal and external spaces. Wifi triangulation has been used to provide good location detection. This analyzes the strength of wifi networks to determine where a person is standing between hotspots. It’s still used and part of mobile phone navigation, but it requires mapping a space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_positioning_system Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics department has led the research on indoor navigation. Early experiments worked with robotic assistants. https://youtu.be/1EO6Ssc0Oj8 Low power Bluetooth beacons have allowed researchers and developers to create robust indoor navigation systems. They are affordable and maintenance free. Each beacon can be identified by a device and provide relevant information, such as the location of an elevator. https://www.indoornavigation.com/knowledge/how-are-beacons-used-for-indoor-navigation Beacons are typically located at key locations and distributed between the space to provide additional accuracy. One study used the device’s motion detection to determine a person’s gait to estimate their location between beacons. This concept is also used for firefighter systems to monitor movements within smoke-filled buildings. Photo: 1990s-Fabulous: CambridgeSide Galleria, Cambridge MA by Joe Wolf on Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/6oSvYA
• #9: Raising the floor seeks solutions that give everyone the best experience for their abilities. This could mean an ATM automatically increases font size and contrast when a person logs in, the same happens in an airplane entertainment center, or sales terminal. TOM is an international organization that connects people with makers to develop open source solutions for very specific problems. http://kadimadynamics.com/researchgroups/tom/ AAC applciations and devices require personalization as everyone has a different vocabulary, language capability, and mobility. These products allow users to customize every aspect. Many apps were created by parents and rehabilitation groups when the iPad was released. https://www.lifewire.com/top-alternative-and-augmentative-communication-198828 AAC apps http://www.janefarrall.com/aac-apps-lists/ 3D printed exoskeleton adapts larger version for a child. https://livingwithdisability.info/3d-printing-disabled-people/ Medical 3D Printing https://www.disabled-world.com/news/research/3d-printing/ ThisAble and Ikea: https://thisables.com/en/new-developments/
• #10: Be My Eyes: Crowd-sourced, free app for remote sighted assistance. https://www.bemyeyes.com/ Aira: Aira is a paid service that provides secure, private and well trained agents. Aira can be used for free within sponsored locations, such as Walgreens, Target, Bank of America, San Jose Airport and more, You can also use Aira for up to five minutes for free. https://aira.io/free-access Hearing AI: virtual assistant for people that are hard of hearing or deaf: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/profiles/hearing-ai/ Seeing AI: Virtual assistant for blind and low-vision https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/wall-of-fame/seeing-ai/ OnStar: remote agents assist General Motors vehicle owners. Was an inspiration for Aira to be the OnStar for blind people https://www.onstar.com/us/en/home/ Google Duplex: https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html and https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/technology/personaltech/ai-google-duplex.html