advertorial
helping the blind ‘see’
By Kelly Schulz, Telstra’s
Accessibility & Inclusion
Senior Advisor
O
new technology found her pondering
the potential of browsing the internet.
Inspired by the information resources
n the timeline of
innovation, the modern
paperback sits back
with the evolution of the printing
press – closer to the 1880s than
the 1980s. But imagine for a
moment that you weren’t able to
casually pick up and enjoy new
releases. This was the reality of
the 1980s world for Dr Chieko
Asakawa, living completely blind. available and the aspiration for
While compact discs were first
vision-impaired people to access the
world digitally, she set about building
a synthesised voice browser. Winning
much praise, the browser enabled
the independence of people who are
blind or vision impaired to access
information previously unavailable
to them. And it’s those fundamental good sense of direction it’s not an
life-altering ambitions that led Dr easy place to navigate, let alone for
Asakawa to build on her success and someone with a vision impairment.
delve into cognitive computing. The test combined multiple data
hitting stores and the Sony Walkman became the ‘must have’ accessory, someone who is blind when exploring centre information and achieved a
people unable to read the printed the world while sitting at their one to two metre location accuracy.
word were still being excluded from computer keyboard, but navigation While a largely successful test, much
easy access to the most basic books in “real life” can be significantly more research is needed to bring
and printed information. The only more challenging. Dr Asakawa’s about accessibility to the disparate
way to create braille books was dream is that cognitive computing spectrum of environments a person
manually on a braille machine that will overcome the lack of visual encounters on a daily basis.
had changed little in the 100+ years information by giving audio details
since its development. on timely and relevant information – do alone.
such as where the bananas are
when I joined IBM back in the located in the market or if my friend than people getting together to
1980s. It made me believe that one Jenny is smiling or looks sad. overcome challenges that we are
day, I may be able to make one of my dreams come true through technology needed to bring Dr we can make the impossible possible
technology innovation,” she recalls. Asakawa’s dream to life is forging through collaboration,” she says.
“My innovation journey began
And then a thought: What if
There is relative safety for
Still in development, the
sources including maps and shopping
And it’s not a job Dr Asakawa can
“There is nothing more powerful
facing today. We must believe that
Identifying and addressing the
ahead rapidly. Sensors, localisation,
Braille was digitized? video and speech recognition needs of people is and has always
She developed a Braille word- technologies are all elements that been the nexus to innovation.
processor allowing books to be typed need to come together accurately Fostering accessibility and inclusion
on a standard keyboard, edited, and almost instantly to create the of people with a disability through
and printed in Braille – improving overall augmented reality experience. technology is an opportunity that
accuracy and speed to market, and ultimately spawning library networks saw 220 Bluetooth beacons situated afford to neglect.
of Braille reading material in Japan. throughout a shopping precinct of
the Tokyo underground. Dr Asakawa com.au/cognitive-computing-can-
says that even with a map and a help-blind-see
By the 90s and having been
assuredly bitten by the innovation
60
bug, Dr Asakawa’s innate curiosity for
telstra
Field testing in February 2017
businesses and communities cannot
Read more: exchange.telstra.
linkonline.com.au