{"id":2878,"date":"2009-01-04T17:40:49","date_gmt":"2009-01-04T17:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agenciainclusive.wordpress.com\/?p=2878"},"modified":"2009-01-04T17:40:49","modified_gmt":"2009-01-04T17:40:49","slug":"para-os-cegos-a-tecnologia-faz-o-que-o-cao-nao-pode-fazer-em-ingles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inclusivenews.com.br\/?p=2878","title":{"rendered":"Para os cegos, a tecnologia faz o que o c\u00e3o-guia n\u00e3o pode fazer"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\"minilogoinclusive211\"<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Descri\u00e7\u00e3o do Logotipo – Palavra inclusive escrita \u00e0 m\u00e3o, em verde, entre par\u00eanteses laranja, com os pingos dos \u201cis\u201d laranja<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

4\/1\/2009<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Por MIGUEL HELFT <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif\u00f3rnia <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

T. V. Raman era uma crian\u00e7a que gostava de livros e adorava matem\u00e1tica e quebra-cabe\u00e7as desde muito cedo. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Essa paix\u00e3o n\u00e3o mudou depois de ter ficado cego por causa de um glaucoma aos 14 anos. O que mudou foi o papel que a tecnologia – e suas pr\u00f3prias inova\u00e7\u00f5es – teve em ajud\u00e1-lo a ir atr\u00e1s do que gosta. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nascido na \u00cdndia, Raman deixou de depender de volunt\u00e1rios que liam livros em uma universidade t\u00e9cnica no pa\u00eds natal para viver uma vida independente no Vale do Sil\u00edcio, na Calif\u00f3rnia, Estados Unidos, onde \u00e9 um respeitado cientista da computa\u00e7\u00e3o e engenheiro no Google. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Em sua jornada, Raman criou uma s\u00e9rie de ferramentas que lhe ajudam a aproveitar objetos e tecnologias que n\u00e3o foram pensados para usu\u00e1rios cegos. Elas v\u00e3o de um Cubo M\u00e1gico com inscri\u00e7\u00f5es em braile, at\u00e9 um software que l\u00ea em voz alta f\u00f3rmulas matem\u00e1ticas complexas, que foi o tema de sua disserta\u00e7\u00e3o para de Ph.D. na Universidade de Cornell. Ele tamb\u00e9m criou uma vers\u00e3o do servi\u00e7o de buscas do Google voltado para usu\u00e1rios cegos. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Raman, de 43 anos, agora trabalha para modificar o mais recente gadget tecnol\u00f3gico que, segundo ele, poderia facilitar a vida dos cegos: um telefone com tela sens\u00edvel a toque (touch-screen). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“O que Raman faz \u00e9 fant\u00e1stico”, disse Paul Schroeder, vice-presidente para programas e pol\u00edticas na American Foundation for the Blind (Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Americana para os Cegos), que realiza pesquisas em tecnologia que podem ajudar pessoas com defici\u00eancia visual. “Ele \u00e9 uma das maiores mentes na quest\u00e3o da acessibilidade e sua capacidade de criar e modificar tecnologia para atender a suas necessidades \u00e9 sem igual”. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Algumas das inova\u00e7\u00f5es de Raman podem auxiliar na cria\u00e7\u00e3o de gadgets eletr\u00f4nicos e servi\u00e7os via Web mais amig\u00e1veis para todos usu\u00e1rios. Em vez de perguntar como algo deveria funcionar para algu\u00e9m que n\u00e3o enxerga, ele diz que prefere perguntar: “como essa coisa deve funcionar quando o usu\u00e1rio n\u00e3o est\u00e1 olhando para a tela?” <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Esses sistemas podem ser \u00fateis para motoristas, ou qualquer pessoa que pode se beneficiar de acesso ao telefone sem usar os olhos. Eles poderiam tamb\u00e9m ser atrativos para a gera\u00e7\u00e3o \u201cbaby boomers\u201d (pessoas nascidas entre meados da d\u00e9cada de 40 at\u00e9 meados dos anos 60), que est\u00e3o envelhecendo e ficando com a vis\u00e3o fraca, mas querem continuar fazendo uso da teconologia da qual\u00a0 <\/span>dependem. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A abordagem de Raman reflete o reconhecimento de que muitas inova\u00e7\u00f5es criadas inicialmente para pessoas com defici\u00eancia acabaram beneficiando a popula\u00e7\u00e3o em geral, segundo Larry Goldberg, que supervisiona o National Center for Accessible Media (Centro Nacional de M\u00eddia Acess\u00edvel) na WGBH, emissora p\u00fablica de Boston. Elas incluem rampas para cadeiras de rodas, legendas em transmiss\u00f5es de TV e tecnologia \u00f3ptica de reconhecimento de caracteres, que foi aperfei\u00e7oada para criar softwares que podem ler livros impressos em voz alta e \u00e9 utilizada agora em diversas aplica\u00e7\u00f5es em computadores, ele disse. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sem bot\u00f5es para guiar os dedos na superf\u00edcie lisa, a tela sens\u00edvel de celulares parece ser um desafio assustador. Mas Raman disse que com as adapta\u00e7\u00f5es certas, telefones com telas sens\u00edveis \u2014 muitos dos quais j\u00e1 v\u00eam com tecnologia de GPS e guia embutidos \u2014 poderiam ajudar os cegos a se orientarem pelo mundo. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“N\u00e3o \u00e9 preciso se esfor\u00e7ar muito para acreditar que seu telefone poderia dizer ‘Ande reto e em 60 metros voc\u00ea chegar\u00e1 no cruzamento de X com Y'”, Raman disse. “Isto \u00e9 perfeitamente poss\u00edvel”. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

MILITANTES dos direitos dos cegos h\u00e1 muito tempo reclamam que as empresas de tecnologia geralmente pecam quando se trata da acessibilidade em seus produtos. A Internet, ao mesmo tempo em que abre diversas oportunidades para os cegos, ainda \u00e9 recheada de obst\u00e1culos. E softwares de leitura de tela sofisticados, que l\u00eaem documentos e p\u00e1ginas da Web em uma voz sintetizada, podem custar mais de US$ 1.000 (R$ 2.300). Mesmo com o leitor de tela, alguns sites s\u00e3o dif\u00edceis de navegar. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

No ano passado, a National Federation of the Blind (Federa\u00e7\u00e3o Nacional dos Cegos) chegou a um acordo importante em um processo contra uma empresa cujo site os militantes declararam sem condi\u00e7\u00f5es de uso, a Target (grande magazine, equivalente \u00e0s Lojas Americanas no Brasil). No acordo, a varejista concordou em tornar seu site acess\u00edvel para pessoas cegas. A federa\u00e7\u00e3o avalia a usabilidade de sites e certifica apenas alguns como sendo totalmente acess\u00edveis. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Um desafio enfrentado \u00e9 que a tecnologia geralmente evolui muito mais rapidamente do que as diretrizes que garantem que os sites funcionem corretamente com leitores de tela. Em dezembro, o Cons\u00f3rcio World Wide Web, grupo que define os padr\u00f5es para a Internet, disponibilizou a vers\u00e3o 2.0 de suas diretrizes para acessibilidade em websites. A vers\u00e3o anterior era de 1999, quando a Internet s\u00f3 tinha basicamente p\u00e1ginas est\u00e1ticas, sem aplica\u00e7\u00f5es interativas. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

H\u00e1 diversos tipos de obst\u00e1culos na Internet. Um dos mais comuns \u00e9 o Captcha, uma ferramenta de seguran\u00e7a que consiste em uma sequ\u00eancia de letras e n\u00fameros distorcidos que usu\u00e1rios devem ler e digitar antes de assinarem algum novo servi\u00e7o ou enviar um e-mail. S\u00e3o poucos os sites que oferecem Captchas com suporte auditivo. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Algumas p\u00e1ginas s\u00e3o apenas mal desenvolvidas, como sites de com\u00e9rcio eletr\u00f4nico, onde o bot\u00e3o de finaliza\u00e7\u00e3o da compra \u00e9 uma imagem sem informa\u00e7\u00e3o que possa ser compreendida pelos leitores de tela. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Grande parte do setor n\u00e3o progrediu realmente para oferecer \u00e0 comunidade cega acesso igualit\u00e1rio a seus produtos”, segundo Eric Bridges, diretor de defesa e assuntos governamentais no American Council of the Blind (Conselho Americano dos Cegos). Bridges e outros militantes argumentam que a acessibilidade deveria ser criada junto com as novas tecnologias e n\u00e3o pensada posteriormente. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pessoas com outras defici\u00eancias enfrentam problemas similares na Internet. “Do lado dos surdos, a decep\u00e7\u00e3o \u00e9 enorme, por conta de todos o v\u00eddeos dispon\u00edveis sem legendas”, de acordo com Goldberg. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

RAMAN, que antes de come\u00e7ar a trabalhar no Google em 2005 trabalhou na Adobe Systems e como pesquisador na I.B.M., est\u00e1 acostumado com problemas de acessibilidade, tanto pessoal quanto profissionalmente. Em 2006, ele desenvolveu uma vers\u00e3o da ferramenta de busca do Google que prioriza sites que funcionam bem com leitores de tela. O sistema precisou testar milh\u00f5es de p\u00e1ginas. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“\u00c9 imposs\u00edvel encontrar uma \u00fanica p\u00e1gina que cumpre todos par\u00e2metros de acessibilidade”, de acordo com Raman. Ainda assim, o sistema foi capaz de encontrar quais p\u00e1ginas funcionavam melhor com leitores de tela. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Este servi\u00e7o n\u00e3o \u00e9 utilizado tanto quanto ele gostaria. Mesmo assim, surtiu efeito. Diversas operadoras de sites, cujas p\u00e1ginas n\u00e3o apareciam em destaque nas buscas do Google perguntaram a Raman o que poderiam fazer para resolver os problemas e ter sites com maior destaque. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

O servi\u00e7o inclui um ampliador de tela que aumenta resultados de buscas individuais. Raman diz que a ferramenta serve para usu\u00e1rios com baixa vis\u00e3o, mas poderia ser usado por uma parcela maior da popula\u00e7\u00e3o, especialmente em telefones celulares e outros equipamentos com telas pequenas. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Para<\/span> uso pessoal, ele construiu um sistema personalizado que lhe permite acesso eficiente a muito do que ele precisa em seu PC e na Internet, eliminando qualquer coisa que poderia diminuir sua velocidade. Por exemplo, o sistema acessa diretamente os artigos em sites de not\u00edcias que ele l\u00ea regularmente, evitando links de navega\u00e7\u00e3o e outras fun\u00e7\u00f5es encontradas na maioria dos sites. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Alguns dias atr\u00e1s, Raman estava trabalhando numa pesquisa sobre a estrutura da Internet no futuro. Um monitor estava pendurado sobre sua mesa. Ele geralmente fica desligado, a n\u00e3o ser que ele queira mostrar no que est\u00e1 trabalhando para algum colega ou visitante. Ele digitou em seu teclado, sua cabe\u00e7a se moveu de leve para o lado, escutando o leitor de tela por meio de fones de ouvido sem fio. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

O leitor de tela est\u00e1 configurado para falar a aproximadamente tr\u00eas vezes a velocidade normal da fala. Para um ouvido sem treino, a informa\u00e7\u00e3o \u00e9 incompreens\u00edvel, mas permite a Raman “ler” na mesma velocidade de uma pessoa sem defici\u00eancia visual. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Processar informa\u00e7\u00e3o rapidamente \u00e9 uma habilidade que ele desenvolveu com os anos: um v\u00eddeo no YouTube mostra-o resolvendo um Cubo M\u00e1gico em braile em 23 segundos. Quando n\u00e3o est\u00e1 digitando, Raman, que usa grandes \u00f3culos escuros, frequentemente dobra e desdobra peda\u00e7os de papel em pequenas formas geom\u00e9tricas, como origamis, em uma velocidade extraordin\u00e1ria. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ele divide uma \u00e1rea de trabalho no Google com Charles Chen, um engenheiro de 25 anos, e Hubbell, c\u00e3o-guia de Raman. (Hubbell possui seu pr\u00f3prio site). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Chen, que enxerga, desenvolveu um leitor de tela gratuito que funciona com o navegador Firefox. Trabalhando juntos, os dois recentemente adicionaram atalhos de teclado que ajudam usu\u00e1rios cegos e com baixa vis\u00e3o a navegar rapidamente pelos resultados de busca do Google. Eles tamb\u00e9m desenvolveram ferramentas que tornam aplicativos sofisticados da Internet, como e-mail e leitores de blogs, adequado para softwares de leitura de tela. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Agora eles concentram seus esfor\u00e7os em ceulares com telas sens\u00edveis ao toque. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“O que mais me interessa \u00e9 tudo que est\u00e1 migrando para o mundo m\u00f3vel, porque isso pode mudar vidas”, disse Raman. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Para<\/span> mostrar o progresso, Raman pegou seu T-Mobile G1, um telefone com tela sens\u00edvel com o software Android do Google, do bolso de seus jeans. Ele e Chen j\u00e1 o equiparam com um software que fala de modo semelhante ao leitor de telas no PC. Agora eles est\u00e3o trabalhando em maneiras que permitam que cegos ou qualquer pessoa que n\u00e3o esteja olhando para a tela digitem textos, n\u00fameros ou forne\u00e7am comandos. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

O desenvolvimento desse recurso complementaria sistemas de reconhecimento de voz, que nem sempre s\u00e3o confi\u00e1veis e n\u00e3o funcionam direito em ambientes com muito barulho. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Como<\/span> n\u00e3o consegue tocar com precis\u00e3o um bot\u00e3o na tela sens\u00edvel, Raman criou um discador que se baseia em posi\u00e7\u00f5es relativas. O discador interpreta qualquer local tocado pela primeira vez como o 5, que se localiza no meio de um teclado de telefone comum. Para discar qualquer outro n\u00famero, ele simplesmente escorrega o dedo na dire\u00e7\u00e3o – para cima e esquerda para 1, para baixo e direita para o 9 e assim por diante. Se ele comete algum erro, ele pode apagar o \u00faltimo n\u00famero balan\u00e7ando o telefone, que pode detectar movimentos. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ele e Chen est\u00e3o testando diversos outros m\u00e9todos de inserir informa\u00e7\u00f5es. Nenhuma dessas tecnologias foram apresentadas ao p\u00fablico, mas Raman, que j\u00e1 usa o G1 como seu celular principal, espera v\u00ea-las dispon\u00edveis em breve. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(H\u00e1 poucos leitores de tela dispon\u00edveis para smartphones e eles podem custar tanto quanto o pr\u00f3prio telefone). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As tecnologias em celulares que podem fazer uma grande diferen\u00e7a \u2014 um telefone que reconhece e l\u00ea placas atrav\u00e9s da c\u00e2mera \u2014 ainda podem estar alguns anos distantes, segundo Raman. Alguns equipamentos j\u00e1 podem ler textos desta maneira. Mas como os usu\u00e1rios cegos n\u00e3o sabem onde est\u00e3o as placas, eles n\u00e3o podem apontar a c\u00e2mera ou fazer um alinhamento apropriado, de acordo com Raman. Quando os chips forem potentes o suficiente, eles poder\u00e3o detectar a localiza\u00e7\u00e3o de uma placa e ler letras pequenas ou tortas, por exemplo, ele disse. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Isso ir\u00e1 acontecer”, concluiu. E quando acontecer, usu\u00e1rios com vis\u00e3o tamb\u00e9m se beneficiar\u00e3o. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Se existisse uma tecnologia que pudesse reconhecer placas na rua conforme se passa por elas, isso auxiliaria a todos”, declarou. “Em um pa\u00eds estrangeiro, ela poderia fazer a tradu\u00e7\u00e3o”. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As inova\u00e7\u00f5es de Raman j\u00e1 est\u00e3o presentes em milh\u00f5es de PCs. Na Adobe, nos anos 90, ele ajudou a adaptar o formato PDF para poder ser lido por leitores de tela. Isso foi requisito para que o formato PDF pudesse ser utilizado pelo governo federal e levou a tecnologia a ser adotada como um padr\u00e3o mundial em documentos eletr\u00f4nicos. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Foi de grande import\u00e2ncia para n\u00f3s, como um neg\u00f3cio, e para os cegos”, disse John Warnock, dirigente e fundador da Adobe. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Raman diz acreditar que tem mais influ\u00eancia quando convence outros engenheiros a fazer seus produtos acess\u00edveis \u2014 ou, melhor ainda, quando os faz acreditar que h\u00e1 problemas interessantes a serem resolvidos nessa \u00e1rea. “Se eu conseguir mais 10 engenheiros motivados a trabalhar em acessibilidade”, diz, “ser\u00e1 uma enorme vit\u00f3ria”.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tradu\u00e7\u00e3o: Gustavo Pugliese Sachs, para Ag\u00eancia Inclusive<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/04\/business\/04blind.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=blind&st=cse<\/a><\/p>\n

New York Times, January 4, 2009<\/div>\n

For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can\u2019t<\/h1>\n
By MIGUEL HELFT<\/a><\/div>\n

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.<\/p>\n

T. V. RAMAN was a bookish child who developed a love of math and puzzles at an early age.<\/p>\n

That passion didn\u2019t change after glaucoma took his eyesight at the age of 14. What changed is the role that technology \u2014 and his own innovations \u2014 played in helping him pursue his interests.<\/p>\n

A native of India, Mr. Raman went from relying on volunteers to read him textbooks at a top technical university there to leading a largely autonomous life in Silicon Valley, where he is a highly respected computer scientist and an engineer at Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Mr. Raman built a series of tools to help him take advantage of objects or technologies that were not designed with blind users in mind. They ranged from a Rubik\u2019s Cube covered in Braille to a software program that can take complex mathematical formulas and read them aloud, which became the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation at Cornell. He also built a version of Google\u2019s search service tailored for blind users.<\/p>\n

Mr. Raman, 43, is now working to modify the latest technological gadget that he says could make life easier for blind people: a touch-screen phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Raman does is amazing,\u201d said Paul Schroeder, vice president for programs and policy at the American Foundation for the Blind, which conducts research on technology that can help visually impaired people. \u201cHe is a leading thinker on accessibility issues, and his capacity to design and alter technology to meet his needs is unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Mr. Raman\u2019s innovations may help make electronic gadgets and Web services more user-friendly for everyone. Instead of asking how something should work if a person cannot see, he says he prefers to ask, \u201cHow should something work when the user is not looking at the screen?\u201d<\/p>\n

Such systems could prove useful for drivers or anyone else who could benefit from eyes-free access to a phone. They could also appeal to aging baby boomers with fading vision who want to keep using technology they\u2019ve come to depend on.<\/p>\n

Mr. Raman\u2019s approach reflects a recognition that many innovations designed primarily for people with disabilities have benefited the broader public, said Larry Goldberg, who oversees the National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH, the public broadcasting station in Boston. They include curb cuts for wheelchairs, captions for television broadcasts and optical character-recognition technology, which was fine-tuned to create software that could read printed books aloud and is now used in many computer applications, he said.<\/p>\n

With no buttons to guide the fingers on its glassy surface, the touch-screen cellphone may seem a particularly daunting challenge. But Mr. Raman said that with the right tweaks, touch-screen phones \u2014 many of which already come equipped with GPS technology and a compass \u2014 could help blind people navigate the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much of a leap of faith does it take for you to realize that your phone could say, \u2018Walk straight and within 200 feet you\u2019ll get to the intersection of X and Y,\u2019\u00a0\u201d Mr. Raman said. \u201cThis is entirely doable.\u201d<\/p>\n

ADVOCATES for the blind have long complained that technology companies have done a generally poor job of making their products accessible. The Web, while opening many opportunities for blind people, is still riddled with obstacles. And sophisticated screen-reader software, which turns documents and Web pages into synthesized speech, can cost more than $1,000. Even with a screen reader, many sites are hard to navigate.<\/p>\n

Last year, the National Federation of the Blind reached a settlement of a landmark class-action lawsuit against one company whose site advocates found unusable, Target. In the settlement, the retailer agreed to make its Web site accessible to blind people. The federation assesses the usability of Web sites and currently certifies only a handful as being fully accessible.<\/p>\n

One challenge is that technology often evolves much faster than the guidelines that ensure Web sites work well with screen readers. In December, the World Wide Web Consortium, an Internet standards group, released Version 2.0 of its accessibility guidelines for Web sites. The previous version dated back to 1999, when the Web consisted largely of static Web pages rather than interactive applications.<\/p>\n

Obstacles on the Web take many forms. A common one is the Captcha, a security feature consisting of a string of distorted letters and numbers that users are supposed to read and retype before they register for a new service or send e-mail. Few Web sites offer audio Captchas.<\/p>\n

Some pages are just poorly designed, like e-commerce sites where the \u201ccheckout\u201d button is an image that isn\u2019t labeled so screen readers can find it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overwhelming percentage of the industry really hasn\u2019t stepped up to the plate to provide the blindness community with equal access to their products,\u201d said Eric Bridges, director of advocacy and governmental affairs at the American Council of the Blind. Mr. Bridges and other advocates argue that accessibility should be built into new technologies, not added as an afterthought.<\/p>\n

People with other disabilities face similar challenges on the Internet. \u201cOn the deafness side, the frustration is huge because of all of the video out there without captions,\u201d Mr. Goldberg said.<\/p>\n

MR. RAMAN, who before joining Google in 2005 worked at Adobe Systems<\/a> and as a researcher at I.B.M.<\/a>, is intimately familiar with accessibility problems, both personally and professionally. In 2006, he developed a version<\/a> of Google\u2019s search engine that gives a slight preference to Web sites that work well with screen readers. The system had to test millions of Web pages.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t have found a single page that fully complied with the accessibility guidelines,\u201d Mr. Raman said. Still, the system could detect which pages worked reasonably well with screen readers.<\/p>\n

The service is not being used as widely as he had hoped. Still, it has had an impact. Several Web site operators whose sites weren\u2019t showing up prominently in Google search results asked Mr. Raman how they could fix their sites so they would rank better.<\/p>\n

The service includes a screen magnifier that enlarges individual search results. Mr. Raman says the feature is intended to help low-vision users, but it could also prove useful to a much larger population, especially on cellphones and other devices with small screens.<\/p>\n

For his own use, he has built a highly customized system that allows him efficient access to much of what he needs on his PC and on the Web, stripping out anything that could slow him down. For instance, the system goes directly to the article text on the news sites he reads regularly, bypassing navigational links and other features found on most Web pages.<\/p>\n

On a recent day, Mr. Raman was working on a research paper about the future structure of the Web. A monitor hung above the desk. It is usually turned off, unless he wants to show a colleague or visitor what he is working on. He typed at his keyboard, his head slightly tilted to one side, listening to his screen reader through a pair of wireless headphones.<\/p>\n

The screen reader is calibrated to speak at roughly triple the speed of a normal voice. To the untrained ear, the output is incomprehensible, but it allows Mr. Raman to \u201cread\u201d at roughly the same speed as a sighted person.<\/p>\n

Processing information quickly is a skill he has developed over the years: a video on YouTube<\/a> shows him solving his Braille Rubik\u2019s Cube in 23 seconds. When he is not typing, Mr. Raman, who wears large sunglasses, is often folding and unfolding pieces of paper into tiny, origami-like geometrical shapes at prodigious speed.<\/p>\n

He shares a work area at Google with Charles Chen, a 25-year-old engineer, and Hubbell, Mr. Raman\u2019s guide dog. (Hubbell has his own Web site<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Mr. Chen, who is sighted, developed a free screen reader for Web pages that works with the Firefox browser. Working together, the two recently added keyboard shortcuts that help blind and low-vision users navigate quickly through Google\u2019s search results. They\u2019ve also developed tools to make sophisticated Web applications, like e-mail and blog readers, suitable for screen-reading software.<\/p>\n

Now, much of their effort is focused on touch-screen phones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I am most interested in is all of the stuff moving to the mobile world, because it is a big life-changer,\u201d Mr. Raman said.<\/p>\n

To show their progress, Mr. Raman pulled his T-Mobile G1, a touch-screen phone with Google\u2019s Android software, from a pocket of his jeans. He and Mr. Chen have already outfitted it with software that speaks much like a screen reader on a PC. Now they are working on ways to allow blind people, or anyone who is not looking at the screen, to enter text, numbers and commands.<\/p>\n

That development would complement voice-recognition systems, which are not always reliable and don\u2019t work well in noisy environments.<\/p>\n

Since he cannot precisely hit a button on a touch screen, Mr. Raman created a dialer that works based on relative positions. It interprets any place where he first touches the screen as a 5, the center of a regular telephone dial pad. To dial any other number, he simply slides his finger in its direction \u2014 up and to the left for 1, down and to the right for 9, and so on. If he makes a mistake, he can erase a digit simply by shaking the phone, which can detect motion.<\/p>\n

He and Mr. Chen are testing several other input methods. None of these technologies have been rolled out, but Mr. Raman, who is already using the G1 as his primary cellphone, hopes to make them freely available soon.<\/p>\n

(Few screen readers are available for smartphones today, and they can often cost as much as a phone itself.)<\/p>\n

What may become the most life-changing mobile technology \u2014 a phone that can recognize and read signs through its camera \u2014 may still be a few years away, Mr. Raman said. Already, some devices can read text this way. But because blind users don\u2019t know where signs are, they can\u2019t point the camera at them or align it properly, Mr. Raman said. Once chips become powerful enough, they will be able to detect a sign\u2019s location and read skewed type, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose things will happen,\u201d he said. When they do, sighted users will benefit, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have the technology that can recognize a street sign as you drive by it, that is helpful for everyone,\u201d he said. \u201cIn a foreign country, it will translate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Raman\u2019s innovations have already made their way onto millions of PCs. At Adobe in the 1990s, he helped to adapt the PDF format so it could be read by screen readers. That was required for PDF to be used by the federal government, and it eventually led to the technology\u2019s being embraced as a global standard for electronic documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredibly important to us as a business, and to the blind,\u201d said John Warnock, the chairman and founder of Adobe.<\/p>\n

Mr. Raman says he thinks he has the largest impact when he can persuade other engineers to make their products accessible \u2014 or, better yet, when he can convince them that there are interesting problems to be solved in this area. \u201cIf I can get another 10 engineers motivated to work on accessibility,\u201d he said, \u201cit is a huge win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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