Student Kenneth Spector and professor Sethuraman Panchanathan test the iCare system. The computerized "seeing" assistant will help blind people read books, access Web pages, recognize faces and ...

When he was in school, Michael Hingson created a Braille computer terminal so he could study like all the other students. Fresh out of college, he worked on the development of the Kurzweil Reading ...

Jim Dickson is a smart man. He graduated from Brown University, has a job as a vice president for a national organization and considers himself a quick study. But when a report arrived recently that ...

Inventors have developed free, open-source software to enable blind people to use computers. For many blind people, computers are inaccessible. It can cost upwards of $1000 to purchase "screen reader" ...

Sit down in front of your computer, but don't turn it on yet. Cover your eyes so you can't see anything; don't cheat, and don't peek! Now, turn on your computer, if you can find the switch, which, ...

University of Florida researchers have wedded speech recognition software, wearable computers, satellite positioning technology and other emerging technologies in a 21st-century navigational aid for ...

Helping blind and visually-impaired people navigate their world has been a passion for Eelke Folmer. Guide dogs and canes are important and valuable tools, but he takes a different perspective: he ...

People with sight seem fixated on the mouse as an aid to blind computer users. But Richard Ring and Curtis Chong say those who can see are looking in the wrong direction. “We get a lot farther with ...

Andreas Stefik never really considered himself an agent for change. He simply saw a need in the blind community — which didn't have the resources to work in computer science because of the lack of ...

Gayle Yarnall of Amesbury, Mass., is blind. Consequently, photography is not a skill she ever anticipated mastering. “But the iPhone will tell you if the face in the viewfinder is centered, or if [the ...