Luke Scriven

“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.” ~Helen Keller, The Story of My Life One of the main areas in which people who are blind or have a visual impairment suffer, particularly if they have lost their vision at a later age, is the loss of their ability to read. Suddenly being unable to read mail, books, magazines, restaurant menus and product labels, to name just a few areas, means a loss of independence […]

In the previous article, we examined optical and electronic magnification aids that can help a person with low vision to read, enhancing their independence and quality of life. We now move on to devices that can also benefit people who are blind and then discuss how to choose the most appropriate device. Devices That Read-Aloud For people who are blind or severely visually impaired, electronic magnification is not appropriate and different avenues must be pursued. In this case, optical character recognition (OCR) is one possible solution. OCR is a process whereby a device can photograph a page and recognize the […]