How ICT Affects a Person With Special Needs

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How ICT Affects a Person With Special Needs

        There is a vast number of ways ICT can be used to help people who have disabilities ranging from visual impairments to learning difficulties.

Visual Impairments

        People who have visual impairments may find it difficult to read small text and this can easily be solved by using screen enlargers or increasing the text size, however there is a much greater problem for people who are partially or entirely blind. People who are blind require more specialist equipment such as refreshable Braille displays, or speech synthesizers.

  • Screen enlargers (or screen magnifiers) work like a magnifying glass. They enlarge a portion of the screen as the user moves the focus—increasing legibility for some users. Some screen enlargers allow a user to zoom in and out on a particular area of the screen.
  • Screen readers are software programs that present graphics and text as speech. A screen reader is used to verbalize, or "speak," everything on the screen including names and descriptions of control buttons, menus, text, and punctuation.
  • Speech recognition systems, also called voice recognition programs, allow people to give commands and enter data using their voices rather than a mouse or keyboard.
  • Speech synthesizers (often referred to as text-to-speech (TTS) systems) receive information going to the screen in the form of letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, and then "speak" it out loud. Using speech synthesizers allows blind users to review their input as they type.
  • Refreshable Braille displays provide tactile output of information represented on the computer screen. The user reads the Braille letters with his or her fingers, and then, after a line is read, refreshes the display to read the next line.
  • Braille embossers transfer computer generated text into embossed Braille output. Braille translation programs convert text scanned in or generated via standard word processing programs into Braille, which can be printed on the embosser.
  • Talking word processors are software programs that use speech synthesizers to provide auditory feedback of what is typed.
  • Large-print word processors allow the user to view everything in large text without added screen enlargement.
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Hearing Impairments

Hearing impairments encompass a range of conditions—from slight hearing loss to deafness. People who have hearing impairments might be able to hear some sound, but might not be able to distinguish words. People with this type of hearing impairment can use an amplifying device to provide functional hearing. Other people might not be able to hear sound at all.

There are no specific assistive technology products for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing because they can easily interact with computers as long as they can choose to receive information visually or adjust sounds and volume to meet ...

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