Double Braille Display Internet Chat System for Deaf-Blind

At the 10th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP), University of Linz, Austria, the staff of Tsukuba University of Technology presented a paper on an innovative communication system for blind and deaf-blind people.

Assistive technology makes chatting on a personal computer easier for people with special needs. M.C. Su developed a support device for disabled people with a focus on one-to-one communication between the target person and the care-giver. Support devices using tactile information are also available commercially.

Deaf-blind people usually utilize a personal computer with refreshable Braille display to chat on the Internet. An Internet chat program with a screen reader that drives the Braille display enables them to chat with their care-giver, regardless of the physical location. The problem with this communication tool is that the user is unaware of the message if the other person participating in the chat says something and the user inputs words simultaneously. Since the deaf-blind user can only input text information, the user has to move the operating focus from the sending text box to the receiving text box to know about the message. Another difficulty that the user can encounter is that they may send inappropriate messages when the topic is over. The person on the other end may also hesitate to send a continuous message before receiving a reply from the user. This prevents smooth communication between the deaf-blind user and the care-giver.

The doubled Braille display terminal for the deaf-blind person (DB4DB) is a special terminal for Internet chat and can effectively solve this problem. This can be done by preparing a pair of Braille display arrays for one deaf-blind user where one of the Braille display arrays checks sent messages and the display array displays received messages at all times. The terminal is equipped with two-lined refreshable Braille displays and the software is based on an Internet chat program. The one line of the display confirms inputted sentence by the user. The other is for reading all received messages.

The Braille displays are driven by an individual operating system. Two operating systems are installed to one computer using Microsoft’s Virtual PC program. The software determines the function of the display in checking sent messages or reading received messages. Virtual PC emulates a standard personal computer allowing use of several operating systems in one computer system. Two chat programs were developed to install on the main operating system and on the other operating system in the Virtual PC. One is for sending and the other is for receiving. The first one displays editing message to be sent and the other displays messages that are received.

The two programs work individually and simultaneously on different operating systems. This assistive technology solution is also available for the blind user as well. Support devices using tactile information are also available commercially.