Assignment 1, Phase 3

I'd like to share phase 3 of my first assignment. Please feel free to offer you input and constructive criticism.

New in Blue
Bluetooth technology now transmits to a niche market.
By Janet Lenzer

Annabelle Costanzo is ten years old and attends Holy Trinity Elementary School in Des Moines, Iowa. She’s like any other ordinary little girl. She loves to jump on the trampoline with her friends, play the piano, and read. She even taught herself to knit a year ago. What really makes Annabelle extraordinary is her ability to excel at all the things that girls her age do, and she does them in the dark. Annabelle is blind.

Annabelle is an avid reader, and she’s been reading Braille since she was three years old. She recently won first place in the freshman level (grades 3-4) of the 2007 National Braille Challenge. Along with numerous accolades she was awarded a PAC Mate – a revolutionary pocket PC that makes a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) accessible to blind and low vision users. Annabelle’s PAC Mate is complete with a Braille display that makes it easy for her to read.

Seeing is Believing
Now there is innovative software available for Annabelle’s PAC Mate that will help her to see her surroundings in great detail. With Bluetooth enabled Global Positioning System (GPS) software, called StreetTalk, she can read maps and get anywhere she wants to go. StreetTalk tells her exactly where she is and how to get to her favorite shopping center or how to find the nearest Dairy Queen. Through voice-synthesized instructions, StreetTalk announces the names and locations of points of interest along the route, in addition to providing cross streets and turn-by-turn directions and distances for its user. It’s the same technology used in navigational systems for cars, but PAC Mate also offers a Braille interface.

The PAC Mate-StreetTalk system is meant only to supplement the skills that Annabelle has already assimilated into her everyday life. It won’t help her to find a curb or avoid an obstacle. Her cane still provides awareness of objects around her. “What a GPS system does for a blind person is not what people expect. It’s not guiding them so much as it is an orientation aid…. What GPS does is (let) you read a map.” (“Bluetooth Technology,” SIGnature magazine, page 16)

Technology en Route
The PAC Mate is a lightweight, portable, pocket PC that brings mainstream technology to the blind and visually impaired. It is affordable and easy to use, and with software like StreetTalk, the PAC Mate makes a significant difference in the lives of its users.

Why is this technology so important? It’s common even for a sighted person to get turned around in an unfamiliar place. This technology works in a person’s neighborhood and city, but also anywhere on earth. Sighted people take for granted the ability to pick up a printed map when they visit a new city or even an unfamiliar part of their own city. Now blind and visually impaired people can also navigate in places completely unfamiliar to them. StreetTalk knows exactly where on earth a person is at any given moment and how to get them to where they want to go. Annabelle is fascinated by the possibilities. “I think it would be cool to be in another city, or even another country, and know how to get to places.” Annabelle might also become a welcomed “back seat driver” on the next family vacation; she could provide the most efficient navigation, and the driver would not need to reference a printed map while trying to drive.

Moving Forward
According to the National Federation for the Blind, Annabelle is among the 93,600 blind or visually impaired school age children in the U.S. “Nonvisual access to computer technology is an ever-increasing challenge for the blind. Most educational … opportunities are now and will continue to be dependent on the blind individual’s ability to access and use a full range of computer and Internet technology.” Accessibility is key to Annabelle’s success, and her PAC Mate has given her a strong start.

Annabelle is elated with the possibilities available to her. StreetTalk would allow her to get wherever she needs and wants to go with an all-new level of confidence. Her passion for learning now includes a desire to read maps and become more independent. Annabelle remarks, “That would be so fun. How do I get that thing?”

Blind and visually impaired people all over the world share Annabelle’s enthusiasm. The PAC Mate-StreetTalk system provides the perfect synergy to bring a mainstream technology to a niche market at a reasonable price. Today’s technology provides myriad possibilities for an ever-brighter future.