CBC: Mobile app empowers people with disabilities

Image from curiouslee on Fotopedia

Here's another reason why protecting our digital future is so important: accessibility. Since we started out, we've been getting a lot of email from people with disabilities and elderly people who rely on the Internet, apps, and emerging technologies to improve their quality of life. They (many of you, really) remind us how important it is to ensure we have an open and affordable Internet and to fight for a vibrant digital future.

Article by By Maureen Brosnahan for CBC News:

Tyler Austin is one of thousands of Canadians who can now speak, thanks to MyVoice, a new technology developed by two University of Toronto students.

Tyler, 18, is from Toronto and has cerebral palsy, which affects his muscle control and makes it difficult for him to speak. Until now, he had to depend on pointing to a few words on a board on his wheelchair to express himself. It was frustrating for everyone.

“He would throw things on the ground, he would get upset because he could not communicate what he wanted to say,” his father, Eric Austin says.

But now a state-of-the-art application on his new iPad has opened up a whole new world, allowing him to independently express his own thoughts and feelings verbally and do things for himself.

Tyler taps the tablet, which highlights the words and sentences. Then he's talking through MyVoice.

“I will go to camp this summer,” the synthetic voice says. “I will be able to use my iPad to communicate with my mom and I will mount my iPad on my chair so I will be able to use it comfortably.” Read more »

--
Read more at cbc.ca