INTRODUCTION 

Visual impairment is a very common disability that takes many people away from the working force and active life. All around the world millions of people suffer not only from the blindness but the obstacles that the social conditions create. Globally, in 2002 more than 161 million people were visually impaired, of whom 124 million people had low vision and 37 million were blind. (World Health Organization reports, November, 2004 \http://www.who.int/mediacentre/  factsheets/fs282/en/print.html.) The number of the blind is nearly 400.000 in Turkey.(Türkiye Özürlüler Araştırması November,2002\ http://www.ozida.gov.tr/ arastirma/ oztemelgosterge.htm)

            They may not attend universities because of technological lacks of universities; as a result, job owners because of their lack of education and computer using ability may not prefer them. This is not a deficiency only for the blind but also for the progress of Turkey both in economical and scientific sphere. (Dr.Thomas Rhodes Armitage, The Education and Employment of the Blind, 1871, p. 37 et seq)

  It is also important to consider that the real problem is sourced from a misunderstanding that takes the blind into a position of incapable of education. If a blind person has convenient training, blindness can be reduced to only a physical suffering other than an emotional suffering. 

Especially up to recent years, they have been highly dependent on other people for their education. They might need some to even read a book. Then, some instruments for their were invented.

One of the instruments for visually impaired is Braille. By using braille, blind people can review and study the written word.It is a system of touch reading and writing in which raised dots represents the letters of the alphabet. The average reading speed with Braille  is about 125 words per minute, but greater speeds of up to 200 words per minute are possible.In addition to its decreasing reading speed , it also makes people with visual disabilites again dependent on to others because there is  a need for voluntaries who are not blind  to produce braille materials. (National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS),Fact Sheet,May2006, http://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/factsheets/braille.html )

There are also some other insturments ,but almost all of them make the visualy impaired students dependent on others for their education.Thanks to technological innovations, today there are several opportunities that make possible the education of the visually impaired students more independent  and they achievement can increase , as a result of this increasing achievement, they are hired by firms.

 One of the technological inventions for the visually impaired people  is a computer program which is called JAWS. It is the shortened form of “Job Access With Speech”.  It is a screen reader program for windows that makes the blind capable of hearing what is written on the monitor. (JAWS screen reader, February 2007,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAWS_ %28screen_reader%29)

   The availability of JAWS is supported by GETEM in Bogazici University. GETEM is a shortened form for “The Technology and Education Laboratory for People with visual disabilities” (Görme Engeliller Teknoloji ve Eğitim Laboratuarı) in Turkish. It is a laboratory connected to Boğaziçi University, which aims to education life easier for the students with visual disabilities with technological supports it provides. By using the computers the computers with JAWS in GETEM, the visually impaired students can have an opportunity to be more independent for their educational purposes. (Report by GETEM, 2006 http://www.getem.boun.edu.tr/aboutGETEM.asp)

With their workings, GETEM tries to support the blind to use this program but the number of people who can use this program is limited. The basic need of visually blind students was determined with a needs assessment by Dr. Hande Sart. She is one of the advisors of the students with disabilities in Boğaziçi University. The results revealed that those students having a difficulty in using computer which in return increase their academic performance.  Through this project, we want to reach our purpose that the whole 15 students with visually disability can use computer sufficiently with JAWS. To achieve this, we apply to voluntary participants consist of blind and nonblind students who want to teach this computer program to other Bogazici University students with visual disability.

LITERATURE REVIEW    

VISUAL IMPAIRMENT

People who do not have normal vision even with eye glasses or contact lenses are called visual impaired peoples.( what is visual disability and impairment, what is legal blindness?. What visual impairment?. [ online ]. Available: http://www.northshoreeye.com.au). There are a lot of reasons that causes visual impairement.some of them are:

1)                 Inborn visual impairment because of absence of basic eye tissues. And also, because of  disorders in Retina.

2)                 Heredity, some illnesses of mother during her pregnancy and marriages among relatives.

3)                 Another reason is Diabetes. This illness causes bleeding in Retina due to the  irregular level of blood sugar level.

4)                 High arm tension and Arteriosclerosis (damar sertliği) affect all of the body vessels and also eye vessels. They cause visual disorders.

5)                 Dejenerative and inflamed illnesses that affect visual layers and nerves are another cause.

6)                 Glokom is an important reason of visual impairment.

7)                 Cataract  and Behçet illness are sometimes causes visual disability.

      8) Eye  tumours firstly ruin the eye then lead to visual impairment.(  Görme Engellilerin Eğitimi Şube Müdürlüğü. Görme Engelinin nedenleri Ve Görme Engellilerin Özellikleri. [ online ]. Available: http://hastarehberi.com/goz/goz5/korlugunnedenlerivekorunma.htm)

These are some reasons of visual impairment. Besides this reasons, there are some kinds of it: visual disability, visual acuity, side vision, legal blindness and visual impairment.

a)                 Visual disability:  people are usually disabled if they are unable to perform certain tasks of their visual impairment. Visual disability is expressed in percentage and therefore an exact rating or qualification of the disability  is necessary to receive certain benefits or  compensations.

b)                 Lower Visual Acuity:  visual acuity is the ability to see objects clearly. It is measured using an eye chart. There are two numbers in results. First number shows distances measured in metres and the second number displays distance from  which a normal eye should see the letter clearly. For instance, I have a visual acuity  of 5/9. This shows that I can only see 5 metres  letters which a normal eye can identify at 9 metres.

c)                 Side Vision: Normal eyes can recognize objects over an area  measuring at least  140 degrees. A person who has a narrower range of side vision may have trouble in recognizing objects coming from the side, even though the central vision is excellent. An ophthalmologist  can understand the side vision disorder by performing some tests.

d)                 Legal Blindness: a legal blindness is not total blindness. It is a certain level of visual impairment. You are considered a legally blind if your best corrected central visual acuity in your better eye is 6/60 or worse, or your side vision is 20 degrees or less in your better eye.

e)                 Visual impairment: It is the ‘ blindness’ that all people know. Visual impaired people cannot see well and have not a normal vision, although they use eye glasses or eye contact.(  North Shore Eye Centre. What visual Disability and Impairment, What Is Legal Blindness?. [online] . Available: http://www.northshoreeye.com.au)

Visual Impairment and Technology

Visual impaired people can read and write by a embossed writing system composing to points.  This writing system was found by Luis Braille in 1825 and  named as ‘Breyl Writing’. This writting is read by blinds with their finger tips.( Görme Özürlüler Nasıl Okuyup Yazmaktadır?. [ online]. Available:  http://korler.bilkent.edu.tr/korler/gorkim.htm). But, technology is quickly improving. Physically impaired people have experience a lot of difficulties by using technological things such as computers. Yet, recently new technological programs are improved to make easier for them to use computer and some other things. One and important of them is Assistive Technology. Assistive Technology (AT) is a generic term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices and the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. Assistive Technology for people with a disability who find operating a computer difficult, maybe even impossible. AT promotes greater independence for people with disabilities by enabling them to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to or changed methods of interacting with the technology needed to accomplish such tasks. According to disability advocates, technology is often created without regard to people with disabilities, creating unnecessary barriers to hundreds of mill Assistive technology products.

( Assistive Technology. [online].Available:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_technology)

Assistive Technology Services support people with disabilities or their caregivers to help them select, acquire, or use adaptive devices. Such services include functional evaluations, training on devices, product demonstration, and equipment purchasing or leasing.

Assistive Technology Catagories

Communication Aids

    Speech and Augmentative Communication Aids

    Writing and Typing Aids

Computer Access Aids                               

Alternative Input Devices

Alternative Output Devices

Accessible Software

Universal Design

Daily Living Aids

Clothing and Dressing Aids

Eating and Cooking Aids

Home Maintenance Aids

Toileting and Bathing Aids

Education and Learning Aids

Cognitive Aids

Early Intervention Aids

Environmental Aids

Environmental Controls and Switches

Home-Workplace Adaptations

Ergonomic Equipment

Hearing and Listening Aids

Mobility and Transportation Aids

Ambulation Aids

 Scooters and Power Chairs

 Wheelchairs

 Vehicle Conversions

Prosthetics and Orthotics

Recreation and Leisure Aids

Sports Aids

 Toys and Games

Travel Aids

Seating and Positioning Aids

Vision and Reading Aids

All of these catogories are important. Yet, those which are about visual impairment will be explained. For example, Hardware and software products that enables persons with disabilities to access, interact with, and use computers at home, work or school. Includes modified or alternate keyboards, switches activated by pressure, touch screens, special software, voice to text software, etc. Another example is ‘ another output devices’. Computer-based output devices that generally enable Blind and Vision impaired persons to use or interact with a computer. Includes Braille display/output devices, Braille embosser/printers, screen reading software, screen magnification/enlargement software and large print monitor, the other example is that vision and reading aids. In this, Products designed to assist the Blind and Visually impaired. Includes auditory and speech output devices, reading machines, scanning/document reading systems, OCR systems, electronic book readers, talking equipment (clocks/watches, calculators, etc.), Braille devices, Braille transcription and translation devices, screen magnifier/enlarger, closed circuit television (CCTV) for magnifying documents, book holders, manual and electric page turners, large button phones, speaker phones, large print books, taped/audio books, etc. Does not generally include products intended to facilitate computer access and usage.( Assistive Technology. [ online]. Avaliable: http://www.rehabtool.com/at.html )

Visual impairment is the most important disabilitiy that  is affected by computer use. If you cannot see, how do you use a computer?

Well, if you have a relatively modest visual impairment, all you may need is screen magnification. You can blow up the size of text, menubars, icons, and everything else to any necessary size. (That really means everything else. Your whole system, including menubars, has to be made accessible, not just the text in a single window in a browser.) Software designed just for this purpose can also scroll text horizontally for you within a window of fixed position, alter foreground and background colours, and turn the mouse cursor into a moving magnifying glass. In addition, many visually-impaired people find dark text on a brilliant white background difficult.

Furthermore, if you are such a blind that you cannot see the monitor, you need a screen reader( a program that reads aloud onscreen text, menus, icons, and the like). Screen readers don’t simply spit out a monotonous sequential verbal itemization of a Web page.  Screen reader was developed in the late 1970s on character-mode platforms like Apple II and MS-DOS, it has evolved out of view of the rest of the computer industry. Screen readers are sophisticated enough to use multiple voices and (limited) sound effects to interpret Web sites. It’s quite commonplace to listen to screen-reader speech at speeds no human being could produce. At 300 words a minute (twice the speed of a vibrant human conversation), you can zip through even a verbose Web page pretty efficiently, though that is no excuse for you to produce verbose Web pages.

One important thing about screen reader is that they’re run from the keyboard. The mouse is still usable but in practice is not used. A mouse requires hand-eye coordination, but a blind person cannot do this. Accordingly, anything you design that seems to require a mouse also has to work without one.

A deaf-blind person will rely exclusively on a Braille display: Nylon or metal pins controlled by software protrude upward through a grid, forming the cells used in Braille writing. Characters are replaced (“refreshed”) either automatically at intervals or after you press a switch. Typical Braille displays reveal two to four lines of text, but truly gigantic displays, almost equivalent to the 80-character-by-24-row screens of MS-DOS, can also be found, at prices rivaling the equivalent weight in platinum.

Finally, screen readers are important for visually impaired people. It provides them with use computers easily and effectively. ( Visual Impairment. [online]. Available: http://joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/Chapter03.html )

JAWS

Jaws is a screen reader  and software program for visually impaired people to use computer easily. It was produced by the Blind and Low Vision Group at Freedom Scientific of St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. Moreover, it was designed to work with a speech synthesizer and makes computers accesible for blind users with Microsoft Windows. Jaws program provides blinds with  access to the information showed on the screen by  text-to-speech or by means of a braille display and allows for more comprehensive keyboard interaction with the computer. Also, it allows users to create custom scripts that change the amount and the type of information. Yet, it does not be forgotten that JAWS program need a trainer who is not blind. Since, this program offers both visual and audible flexibility.

When we come to JAWS history, it was released in 1989 by Ted Henter, firstly. It originally created for  MS-DOS operating system and is one of the screen readers that give blind users access to tes- mode MS-DOS application. Yet, the characteristic of JAWS that is different from others is its use of cascading menus, in the style of the popular Lotus 1-2-3 application and macros that allowed users to customize the user interface and work better with various applications. Ted Henter and Rex Skipper add a lot of new features to JAWS program. In 1990 a 2.0 version is released. Freedom Scientific now offers JAWS for MS-DOS as a freeware download from their web site. In 1992, Charles Oppermann began to  work on the new version of JAWS. A principle design goal was not to interfere with the natural user interface of Windows and to continue to provide a strong macro facility. Test and beta versions of JAWS for Windows (JFW) were shown at conferences throughout 1993 and 1994. During this time, developer Glen Gordon started working on the code, ultimately taking over its development when Oppermann was hired by Microsoft in November of 1994. Shortly afterwards, in January 1995, JAWS for Windows 1.0 was released. The latest version is 8.0, released in November 2006. ( Jaws Program. [online]. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAWS_for_Windows  and  Jaws Training.[online]. Avaliable: http://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/JAWS_training_hq.asp )

PROBLEM DEFINITION

Visually impaired students in Boğaziçi University  can not use  computer effectively for educational purposes.

1. REAL STATE:  

   i.                              The visually impaired students in Boğaziçi University do not have proficiency in using computer with JAWS. 

 ii.                              Those blind students are dependent to other people when they need to do something on computer.

iii.                              Many people do not have any information about how visually impaired students can use computer. This situation may be the reason of why almost nobody tries to help them in usage of computer.

iv.                              There are not enough instructors of JAWS. Furthermore it is difficult for a visually impaired student to teach JAWS others in need.

 v.                              They are also reluctant to build up their existing JAWS knowledge, because the only way to be proficient in JAWS on one’s own is to read the help documents of all programs and it is a process which may take a lot of time.

vi.                              Their incapability of using computer by all means is one of the causes of their low achievement( reference: Hande Sart’s Needs Assessment)

vii.                              Concerning access to written materials, non blind students are one step forward compared to the students with visual disability.