So Apple did flip the switch at last and today's window is ready for all of you to try out.
Zuzanka is an app made by Zatoichi, a Warsaw-based startup with one of my blind friends as a tester and head consultant. It reads out the expiry dates on products so it's perfect to run through everything in your fridge before Christmas to see whether your supplies are still safe to be consumed. Once you start it, it will beep continuously to tell you it is ready. Then, once something that it may consider to be a date is found in the camera, it will start beeping faster until it finally recognizes and speaks the date outloud. There is a handy tutorial added telling you where expiry dates are commonly found on different products. The app gives you a 24-hour trial period and a handful of subscription options which I believe should be affordable. There is a lifetime license option too capped at around 30 €.
The AI models for this app have been predominantly trained on products found in Polish supermarkets and I was successful using it on a pack of German Balsen chocolate biscuits so it is interesting to see whether this could work in other countries.
apps.apple.com/pl/app/zuzanka/…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Poland #Mobile #Startup #Shopping

I did not manage to post the window for yesterday, so it's double act time today.
All good things come in threes and as it happens, one of the things I did yesterday was taking part in the Clubhouse meeting of the Czech blind community where 2022 was summed up and different good things that happened in terms of assistive technology were named.
One of the solutions somebody pointed out was the ability to operate an ATM using the banking app of Ceska Sporitelna, one of the leading Czech banks.
Developed with the Covid pandemic in mind, the feature happened to also benefit blind users. The way it works is, every ATM supporting the feature displays a QR code on its screen by default. The user scans it using the dedicated feature in the Sporitelna app, confirms whether the ATM number detected is the same as the one written on the machine itself and once the connection is made, all of the operation: defining the amount of money to be withdrawn, confirmation, authorization etc. is being handled using the app. The money comes out, the operation is successful and everyone is happy.
The number of the machine can be verified either through the list of nearby machines in the app or via an accessible spreadsheet that either the bank or the community have put together, I'm not sure.
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #CzechRepublic #Banking

Today let's go to Spain where a system allowing the blind to control elevators using a smartphone app has been developed.
The way it works is by detecting a Bluetooth beacon near a supported elevator using the dedicated app and calling the elevator almost as if we pressed the physical button. We can then choose the floor where we want to go and, once we board the elevator, notify the app about it and wait until we reach the destination. We will be notified about the arrival through a notification in the app. The developers have even thought of Siri support so you can set shortcuts for favourite elevator +floor combinations. The solution is presented within the following session of the Zeroconf conference in Vienna:
youtube.com/watch?v=_PcPk3BcUL…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #BuildEnvironment #Spain

And so we arrived in the last week of advent so this calendar has only six windows left. To finish it off nicely, from now on I'll try to post some smaller projects that nevertheless have an impact on the quality of life for the blind and partially sighted people somewhere. Let's start with another Polish invention:
Totupoint is an in-door navigation system created by Jan Szuster, a blind engineer from Warsaw. It revolves around Bluetooth beacons placed at key points in a building or at a points of interests such as bus stops, administrative buildings or other venues that are key infrastructure. Those can be discovered through the Totupoint mobile app or an additional module attached to the user's white cane. As soon as you find yourself within the range of a beacon, it is triggered and plays the assigned recording so that you exactly know where it is located. You can repeat the message as many times as you need to locate the point you're looking for or in case of the mobile app read the attached information such as opening hours or address and phone number of the place you're at.
The system also supports tiny interactive HTML apps that can be operated from within the app so it can be adapted to turn on the traffic lights or request line number on public transport. Many successful installations happen at an increasing number of venues in Poland. You can learn more and see the complete list of active locations at:
totupoint.pl/
In other news: as soon as Apple flicks the verification switch, I will have something to share that potentially all of you might find useful so watch this space.
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Poland #UrbanEnvironment

Back to the Czech Republic we go, where remote assistance of blind and partially sighted people was in operation years before AIRA was founded.
The navigational center of the Czech Union of the Blind assists their customers in many ways:
- by delivering help through the user's smartphone's camera via Skype;
- by looking up information on public transport routes and general information on places of interest;
- best of all: by researching routes that the user would like to take bearing in mind everything that is of importance when travelling independently with a white cane or/and a guide dog, including possible hazards or characteristic waypoints and landmarks.
It comes as no surprise that the service is available throughout the entire country. Pricewise, it works in two models: it is possible to buy packages of single uses of the service starting at less than six dollars for ten single uses; or a periodic subscribtion starting at around 13 dollars for three months.
portal-pelion.cz/aplikace-a-sl…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #CzechRepublic #Mobility #PublicTransport

Today's highlight is not strictly accessibility-related but it is in itself accessible and definitely makes electronic payments in Poland quick and painless for everyone.
Blik is a Polish payment system that is based on six-digit codes entered as a confirmation of payment on the website where you want to make a transaction. The way this is used is the following:
1. You open the app of your bank on your phone and press the Blik button. Sometimes banks will place this feature under the app's shortcuts so starting straight from the homescreen or through a shortcut you yourself created is definitely possible.
2. A six-digit code is generated and it is read out to you. You can remember or copy it and from that moment you've got 120 seconds to finish the transaction.
3. You enter the code on the website or in the app where you're trying to complete a transaction.
4. You return to your banking app to confirm the amount to be paid through the biometric authorization method of your choice or a PIN code. In my banking app the time limit is counted down with each second being marked with a chaptic feedback of my iPhone.
Note: meanwhile regular payment terminals already support Blik and more and more shop assistants know how to activate it so the phrase "Poproszę Blikiem" ("By Blik, please") is more commonly heard.
Another component of the system are the P2P micropayments to a mobile phone where it is enough to enter the other party's phone number to make or request a payment straight from the banking app.
I believe similar systems function in other countries but are mostly QR-code based and require a separate app. I find this way much handier. Also, it is universal across all major Polish banks.
blik.com/en/how-to-use-blik
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Shopping #Banking #Mobile #Poland

Staying in the spirit of ticket machines accessibility, France is doing it right, at least in the city of Metz, not sure about other places.
Have a recording of a ticket machine that speaks three languages: French, English and German. Upon pressing a dedicated button above the card read we activate the speech component. Everything that is displayed on screen is read back to us. On starting, the machine greets us in the language of our choice, tells us to insert our travel pass if we have one and reads the minimum and maximum amounts for card and cash payments. The upper part of the touchscreen acts as a navi pad with the left corner taking us to the previous option and the right one to the next. In the lower part, the left corner is "Cancel", while the right is "Confirm". This way we can choose our desired ticket, the preferred payment method and complete our transaction.
The recording is a montage of different clips from the machine indicating a chosen ticket in English, through its welcome message in French and German with the latter going through some ticket options, coming back to the full welcome message in English. The recording is peppered with occasional Polish from me as it was originally recorded for our Polish podcast. It was taken using the built-in mikes of my Motorola One smartphone. Now that I listen back, it sounds kinda condensed.
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #France #Metz #PublicTransport #Audio #recording #FieldRecording

Welcome to Innsbruck, Austria again. This time we go to the main train station where I spent a part of my mobility training. Through this training I have learnt that there is a semi-independent way for blind passengers to operate the on-site ticket machine. How come semi, you might ask?
Well, on the front of the machine, there is a dedicated customer service number embossed in Braille where you can call and tell the representative where you would like to go. They are able to remotely operate the machine, find your connection, choose the right ticket options for you and bring you to the payment screen. Once the payment is complete, the ticket comes out as usual. Kind of makes me wonder: if the railway staff are able to access these machines remotely, why isn't this possibility open to those who might need it for accessibility reasons?
I am not sure whether this works in other Austrian cities, I haven't also heard of this implementation in any other place.
Unfortunately, I have never had a chance to use this so no recordings or first-hand experiences this time.
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Railway #Transport #Trains #Austria #Innsbruck

Since some time I have been drawn to research Minitel, a French Videotex-based system for accessing information that predates the Internet. It was a revolution in terms of digitalization which made activities such as buying train and plane tickets, signing up for classes and reading newspapers digitalized as early as the 80's. You can read more about it in the following Wikipedia article:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel
There were many devices invented to make Minitel accessible to the blind, although the system itself wasn't designed with this target group in mind. Mostly, they were external speech synthesizers like in the case of Lectel:
lemonde.fr/archives/article/19…
or the Valentine text-to-speech card for the Apple II:
blog.atalan.fr/valentine-carte…
The history of the Eurobraille company, the makers of the popular Esys, Esytime and B.Note Braille displays, starts also with a speech synthesizer for the Minitel terminals.
eurobraille.fr/notre-histoire/
As I found out, however, most of France's blind community at that time did not have access to this kind of technology and Minitel only became accessible on a global scale in the 90's when regular PC's did but then it was almost the time of the Internet so it never gained the same momentum as it did with the society at large. Pity as this could have been an opportunity to push the inclusion of blind and partially sighted people to whole new levels.
Always design with accessibility from the start!
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #France #Internet #Minitel #Videotex #RetroTech

Today's one might be familiar to some of you as this has received a bit of media attention bacccccccccccccccccback in 2016 when Sweden hosted the Eurovision Song Contest.
To celebrate another win, for the time of the contest's duration, the audible traffic lights at some of Stockholm's locations have been revamped to play Loreen with "Euphoria" (winner of the 2012 ESC) when the lights are red, then when they turn green, they ticked to the beat of Mans Zelmerlow's "Heroes", the song that brought the contest back to Sweden in 2015. What a fun twist on an accessibility feature!
youtube.com/watch?v=pj3V06Thvo…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Sweden #Eurovision #ESC #UrbanEnvironment #Music #SoundDesign

Somehow we made it through the first half of this calendar. Thank you for all of your interactions and encouragement. It's very motivating to see how far these little posts can reach.
So I realized that all the time I have been doing this calendar, I haven't mentioned Poland, where I come from, once. Shame on me! Let's try to make it right.
Inpost is the pioneer as the provider of parcel locker technology in Poland. It's quite common to order something and, instead of requesting that the package is delivered directly to your door, have it dropped at one of the lockers which are often located quite centrally, at a post office or another place of significance in a given city, town or village.
Inpost have come up with quite a clever way of allowing blind people to open these lockers and find the right door. Not only is the app itself accessible so you can track your delivery all the way through but once your order arrives, all you have to do is go to the place where your locker is located, open the door for your parcel from within the app and read the instruction telling you which door is yours E.G. third up, sixth to the left of the touch screen. The system has become so useful for the general public that in order to become more sustainable, Inpost have begun installing screenless lockers so that everything has to be done with the app. This way, it is also possible to send a package somewhere without the need to stick a physical label on it. Other accessibility accommodations include the "easy access zone" as per the link below.
inpost.pl/en/help-easy-access-…
What are you ordering this Christmas and how is it delivered to you?
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Poland #Shopping

As the app that is the star of today's window has updated on my phone today, let me introduce you to Greta, the German app for audiodescription, closed captions and other forms of accessibility in movies.
It works by first downloading an encrypted, I believe, copy of the movie's audio and then when we want to watch it described or subtitled, we just start the app, let it listen to the sound around us and it will tune in at the right spot in time with the accessibility accommodations we need. Should you forget your headphones to hear the audiodescription in, you can still listen to it over the earpiece. The system is not context-aware so it can tune into the movie at a cinema or at home when watching on the Internet or on TV which gives universal access to all the accommodations. The only wish I would have is more independent cinema productions and the ability to combine multiple adjustments so that I could watch that movie with a lot of Austrian dialect in it with both audiodescription and subtitles.
Today's update brings sound amplification. If I understand correctly, you can also have the actual audio track of the movie played through your phone in sync with the original.
I believe the concept was replicated in other countries already so you might know it under another name.
gretaundstarks.de
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Germany #Culture #Movies #Audiodescription #Cinema #TV #Subtitling

Today's is more of a handy implementation rather than best practice example per se. Still, I haven't seen it anywhere else and I find it a socially mindful design.
You know the talking info boards at public transport stops, right? The ones that you press a button on and it reads the next few lines that will depart even when all you really need is the next one? I'm pleased to tell you that Luxembourg is doing it differently:
The spoken information is given only as long as you hold down the button that activates it so it is a kind of walkie-talkie that does the talkie part instead of you. This way, you can hold it down, listen to the next train or two arriving then release the button and be done with it. Not a perfect design as it excludes those with limited dexterity but it is a start.
Sadly, the information is given only in French which goes to show that accessibility should also include those who can't speak the country's language. This is in Luxembourg which boasts three official ones so most of the native population has grown multilingual from the start. Unfortunately, I have seen these info boards only at some train stations in the Luxembourg city - would be amazing to see the availability expand.
Again, no links and also sadly no recordings so have some more interesting facts instead:
1. Luxembourg is the first European country to make the public transport completely free of charge to everyone. Bear this in mind if you ever come to visit.
2. The city of Luxembourg has been awarded the European Commission's Accessible City Award of 2021.
#Accessibility #Blind #Adventcalendar #Luxembourg #PublicTransport

Back in 2018 I spent a month in Brussels. It was the first time I lived in a capital city so it was quite a stressful experience: not much time, a couple of routes to learn, pretty loud and congested streets and trash bags put directly on the pavements - an easy target to hit with a white cane. I enjoyed it though and one takeaway I've got is how easy to read the tactile plans at the Brussels central station are.
Normally, I have difficulties relating what I touch on a tactile plan of a building to the real world. That station made a heavily simplified version of the experience by placing a pole at each crossroad of the tactile floor marking, with a simplified tactile plan at the top telling you where each of the forks of the floorline would take you. It looked a lot like the four navigation keys and the confirmation key on a classic mobile. Each of the arrows ended with a Braille description of the destination in both French and Dutch. This was a great help.
Also QDos to the sound designers who created the jingle for the Brussels public transport company. It's a pretty dancey beat of five notes played on a synthesizer which would make a nice text tone. Find it at the end of the company's promo video below:
youtube.com/watch?v=kmNBW0jdms…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Belgium #PublicTransport

As there were no links today, have a binaural audio postcard from Amras, a village that became a part of Innsbruck itself some hundret years ago. The recording was taken in the lovely park near the Schloss Amras castle which is located somewhat uphill and makes for a good basic hike for starters. Recording made using the Ambeo Smart headset hooked up to an iPod touch 7th Gen.
The recording is a 1:26 long collage of several clips taken in the park.
Clip 1: Birds chirping with some cars driving past in the background (the park was located directly over a highway);
Clip 2: The call of a group of peacocks mixed with footsteps and somewhat strong wind blowing into the mikes;
Clip 3: A waterfall flowing to my right and footsteps over a wooden bridge;
Clip 4: Moving further past the waterfall so that it's moving in the stereo spectrum and a white cane hitting the wooden bridge;
Clip 5: Another perspective of the waterfall;
Clip 6: Clearly can't get enough of waterfalls;
Clip 7: The last sounds of a waterfall, peacocks and the white cane;
I recommend listening in headphones for the best spacial experience.
#Accessibility #Blind #Austria #AudioRecording #BinauralRecording #FieldRecording #Nature #AdventCalendar

For almost one year and a half I had the pleasure of living in Innsbruck, the charming Austrian city which is the capital of the Alpine region of Tirol which is very popular with tourists. While my stay there was heavily marked by the Covid situation, lockdowns and a really difficult start to building a stable social life, it presented me with some highlights of interest to us so here are they:
- A tiny version of the Czech remotes system, at that time capable of triggering the audible traffic lights, currently also the talking public transport info boards;
- an exceptional training of the public transport drivers who always stopped the bus right in front of you as long as you stood at the designated, tactile spot; opened the door and told you the bus/tram line they were driving;
- a tactile line going across what seemed to be all of the city's market square which made for a nice walk through the city center;
- the general feeling of safety that encouraged me to take long walks and explore the city by myself;
- the amazing community around my former workplace, Freirad, the social, community-driven radio station that focused on giving voice to those who wouldn't find it in the mainstream media. This meant tons of content from marginalized groups, a wealth of diverse cultural, music and linguistic spectrum and plenty of social initiatives on air. Of course, blind and partially sighted radio hosts were more than welcome and I was happy to be a part of this journey, organizing workshops for prospective hosts with visual impairments, including a really fun group of kids and spreading the word about the importance of accessibility which was always well-received. My former show on Freirad aired for the last time today so it's a bit of a chapter closing.
#Accessibility #Blind #Austria #BuildEnvironment #PublicTransport #Radio #AdventCalendar

A lot of countries employ voting templates to allow blind votees to cast a ballot in local or state elections. It's the same in Poland and in my experience it has been pretty much prone to mistakes such as the ballot paper slipping a fraction underneath the template. This is why I was happy to learn that Australia and New Zealand employed the "voting by phone" system. Blind citizens of these countries are one of the groups elligible to vote by phone. In order to do that, one calls the central voting committee to register, is assigned unique credentials that allow the person taking the vote to identify the elligibility in an anonymous way. On the day of voting, the elligible person calls another number where only the previously agreed credentials are taken from them, the ballot paper is read and the vote is cast by telling the committee representative. Sounds simple and flawless but perhaps there are some security flaws I am not aware of that made it not a more globally adopted solution. Thoughts?
ecq.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/p…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Australia #NewZealand #Voting #Phone

The 6th of December is traditionally the day when Santa comes and brings small gifts to children in Poland and several other countries (not to be confused with the 24th of December which is also when gifts, bigger ones, are distributed). Obviously somebody's got to pay for all these nice things so how to do it in an accessible way?
I thought of including Handsome, a French fintech dedicated to serving customers with visual impairments, as a part of this calendar, as it offers an accessible voice payment card; a dedicated concierge service, insurance in case of damage to assistive devices or stranding with no immediate mobility options. They can be found at:
howtobehandsome.fr/
Imagine my shock this morning when I discovered that through cooperation with the Tales Group, Handsome's voice card has become global so it's a matter of time before banks start introducing it.
The card is equipped with a Bluetooth LE chip, connects to the customer's smartphone either through their banking app or a specially designed one; then, once its inserted into the terminal, it delivers all of the status messages to the app E.G. the amount to be paid or the current state of the payment process. This way it is possible to avoid being scammed on the amount and we can make sure all is well with our transaction.
I'm curious if any banks are going to introduce this any time soon.
thalesgroup.com/en/markets/dig…
#Accessibility #Blind #France #Banking #AdventCalendar

Is it possible to have audiodescription on TV if the broadcasting mode is analogue and the ability to employ several language audio tracks does not exist yet? Italy has had the solution, at least a decade ago still, where audiodescription for the movies aired by RAI, the Italian national broadcaster, would have the descriptive track delivered on a designated FM radio frequency. A blind person wishing to watch such a movie would turn on their TV to the right channel and then tune a radio receiver to the right frequency to enjoy both the original movie track and the audiodescription in sync. As it turns out from the paper below, keeping both in sync is difficult.
By the device of anecdotal evidence I know that a similar system existed in Slovenia.
Another thing that was available in Italy, and I haven't heard of it anywhere else before, are accessible audio menus on DVD's.
openstarts.units.it/bitstream/…
#Accessibility #Blind #Audiodescription #Italy #Slovenia #Radio #AdventCalendar

Today's window comes a little later than usual but as there's still the 4th of December somewhere in the world, I hope it's forgiven.
Inspired by a conversation I had with @adela, I decided to dedicate this one to the central purchase receipts storage system in Slovakia.
The Slovak government runs a central point where all of the receipts issued by merchands and service providers are registered. Upon issuing, a receipt is assigned a unique number in that system which then is printed onto the slip of paper given to the customer. What you can then do is, using a dedicated app for this purpose, load that receipt onto your phone by entering that number or scanning the QR code printed onto your receipt in order to have all the details of your purchase presented on your smartphone. This is a great way for blind individuals to check whether their transaction has been dutyfully conducted or to help in obtaining the necessary data to maintain your spending tracking record, so even though this solution was not conceived with blind people in mind, it is a valuable enhancement towards a more independent life.
technologiebezzraku.sk/2022/07…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Slovakia #Shopping

To mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, today's window opens up to one of my favourite treasure troves of good practices regarding accessibility for the blind - the Czech Republic which I am currently only one hour of a car drive away from.
Did you know that by 2004 Czech Republic was the second European country right behind Sweden with the widest network of audible traffic lights? Not only that but they already started installing tactile floor markings and my favourite invention, the remote controls for the build environment.
The Czech remote control is a tiny box with six buttons that each blind individual can purchase. Using this aid, a blind person navigating through a Czech city can check any public transport schedule available at any stop, confirm the line of the bus or tram that just came, alert the driver to their presence so that they can let them in or out of the vehicle, navigate around the Prague underground, trigger audible traffic lights to be switched on and locate some of the key buildings such as the Blind Union's HQ's.
Although many cities of Europe have meanwhile tried to implement a similar system, the Czech Republic is the only country I know of that offers such a wide range of services in the entire country this way. I was very impressed the first time I tested this and I love coming back to our southern neighbours. Ahoj a zdravim vas s Polska!
Below, an article of the Czech radio broadcaster back from 2004 explaining the accommodations along with audio samples in Real Audio, if you can still play that.
english.radio.cz/czech-blind-u…
#Accessibility #Blind #UrbanEnvironment #BuildEnvironment #CzechRepublic #AdventCalendar

As an extra creative exercise, a question: how would you imagine the services you enjoy every day thanks to the Internet if our ultimate mode of accessing data was audio over the telephone? How would Mastodon sound like? What about internet shopping, spam, viruses, all that lovely stuff? Sound effect examples are welcome as are vague descriptions. #AdventCalendar #Accessibility #Blind #Sound #SoundDesign

When I was 9 or so, I discovered that one of the cineplex complexes in Poland operated a phone line with an IVR system that would let you explore the entire schedule of currently running movies. This was my first means of accessing information independently and on-demand. I was the movies expert in our house at that time and with movies like "Shrek", "Matrix", "Starwars" and "Harry Potter" coming out this was the time to be alive. I dreamt then that we will be able to access all of the info we want through a telephone. Turns out that's what #Switzerland is doing right now.
Voicenet is the service of the Swiss Union of the Blind, where you can call in and receive all the information you need to access culture, shopping, receive advice, benefit from the organization's services etc.
Some things you can find there:
- the current supermarket prospects with all of the weekly discounts and special offers read by volunteers;
- TV and radio schedule, including information on movies with audiodescription aired throughout the week;
- traffic and construction works;
- rail schedules;
- signing up for the Union's events;
- a voice forum where users can ask for advice and exchange information;
All of that provided by volunteers and an editorial team in three languages: German, French and Italian with the ability to navigate through content E.G. jumping from beverages to dairy products with the phone's keypad.
I realize that things like the NFB Newsline exist but it seems that, as Switzerland is a much smaller country, it is easier to offer much more local information.
sbv-bvas.ch/voicenet-2/
#Accessibility #Blind #Phone #languages #Switzerland #German #French #Italian #AdventCalendar

In #Japan, the concept of accessible phones has been known since the early 00's and has its own term, "Raku Raku Phones" and means simplified phones. Those are adapted for the needs of elderly users and those who don't feel as familiar with modern technology so a lot of concepts are, well, simplified. This is especially important given that the 00's saw the emergence of Japanese mobile phones with capacities comparable to today's smartphones. Sending emails, taking photos, mobile payments, music recognition and downloads; even TV watched on a phone were all there by 2005 and formed an important part of how the Japanese society accessed information. This is why the Raku Raku phones manufactured jointly by Fujitsu and NTT Docomo, the leading Japanese mobile carrier, were so important. Fujitsu called to the corporate social responsibility of other companies to follow suit and also formed the basis for accessibility guidelines for I-Mode, the gateway to all of Japan's mobile internet services. Apparently, 80% of Japan's blind population used these phones as they were equipped with a screen reader and allowed accessing I-Mode this way. fujitsu.com/global/documents/a…
#accessibility #blind #Japan #adventcalendar #mobile #phones