Acta Informatica Pragensia (Jul 2019)
Automatic Assistance for Blind People in Electrical Engineering and Informatics
Abstract
The visual impairment of a completely blind person encourages them to develop their abilities in other areas. This concerns mainly a significant improvement in the use of touch, hearing and memory. Blind people can use these skills with the help of assistance technologies when looking for employment. The aim of the article is to show how the presented solution - an ambient system - assists a blind person in their work in the area of electrical engineering and informatics. The article thus contributes to the knowledge base of solution design in the area of active support of visually impaired persons' employment. This article describes an assistance technology capable of using the increased skills of blind people for work in informatics and electrical engineering. The assistance technology is part of an ambient system prototype in an intelligent building. The automatic assistance extends to practical electrical engineering, helping a blind person to connect complex circuits and construct hardware with the use of standard electrotechnical components, with no need for specially manufactured components that would compensate for the visual impairment. The assistance for specialized work in informatics includes a special environment HANIBAL focused on creating source code. It uses context free languages to work with graphics related information and also for modifying the user interface. The ambient system prototype for assisted living and occupational assistance enables the use of standard electrotechnical equipment, e.g. multimeter or oscilloscope, made available to a blind person in the environment of an intelligent building by means of touch or synthesized speech. The article thus outlines a new possibility for visually impaired people to find employment in academic environment and participate in informatics and electrical engineering development.
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