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Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
Show Notes:
Tushar Gupta and Mudita Sisodia – CoFounders of Augmenta11y
Website: www.augmenta11y.com
Play Store: http://bit.ly/2lC4AsI
App Store: https://apple.co/2lD3pcw
Ohio Signage Story: http://bit.ly/2lyYU2C
Cinemas in India Story: http://bit.ly/2lC14yw Scottish Parliament Story: http://bit.ly/2lC1BAw
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Mudita Sisodia:
Hi, this is Mudita Sisodia.
Tushar Gupta:
Hi, this is Tushar Gupta.
Mudita Sisodia:
And they’re the co-creators of Augmenta11y.
Tushar Gupta:
The augmented reality reading app. And this-
Mudita Sisodia:
Is your Assistive Technology Update.
Josh Anderson:
Hello, and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology, designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson with the INDATA project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 426 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on July 26th, 2019.
Josh Anderson:
On today’s show, we’re very excited to have Mudita Sisodia and Tushar Gupta on. They’re the co-creators of Augmenta11y, an app made to help individuals with dyslexia and other print disabilities be able to access text using their smart device. We also have a story out of Ohio about them trying to change the look of the handicap accessible signs, as well as a couple of stories about increased access in cinemas in India and parliament in Scotland.
Josh Anderson:
If you ever have a question about Assistive Technology Update, or maybe somebody who would make a great guest, don’t forget that you can always reach out to us at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. You can call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. You can also drop us a line on Twitter, @INDATAproject. Also, if you happen to be listening to us through the Apple podcast app, you can always leave us a review and some stars there. We always like to get those as well.
Josh Anderson:
So without any further ado, let’s go ahead and get into today’s show. For many years, TJ [inaudible 00:01:59], has been doing our transcriptions for us. And he is going to have to step away from that for a little while. Due to that, we are a little behind on our transcriptions. They will be uploaded just as soon as they are available. We wish TJ the best and he will be greatly missed here. And we apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.
Josh Anderson:
Many of us around the world are used to seeing the handicap accessible signs. So it’s usually a white figure on a blue background. It shows somebody sitting upright in a wheelchair, a stick figure kind of thing. Well, lately Ohio was actually going to change the design on the ones in their state. It was going to be, still have the circular wheel, still the blue background, the white figure, but they’re going to be leaning forward, kind of showing more motion. And actually it looks like they did end up getting that passed, but they had to stop making them before they even started in response to a federal warning. I’ll put a link to a story over at ohio.com titled Ohio legislature reversing course on accessibility signs after feds threatened funding.
Josh Anderson:
It’s written by Rick Rouan at The Columbus Dispatch, and it talks about how they had originally passed this to change the sign. And it says here, that it’s going to depict a more dynamic character leaning forward with a sense of motion. This was brought up by the Senate minority leader, Kenny Yuko, who has a friend with multiple sclerosis. And really it says his reason for wanting to change this, was that the original picture show someone’s long and tall and erect in a chair waiting for someone else to push them. Like they were totally dependent on someone else.
Josh Anderson:
So this did pass, but then they were warned by the Federal Highway Administration that they were not allowed to change the sign. It says that their rules actually say that a sign must be unmistakably similar to the ones in the manual. So it looks like no other states will be changing this anytime soon. Maybe if enough people get on board. This is something that maybe can get changed nationally or internationally. We’ll put a link over to the show notes, so you too can see what’s going on there in Ohio.
Josh Anderson:
But I don’t know if other states are trying to do this or not, but just found it pretty interesting that the sign that we’re used to seeing everywhere might be getting a little bit of a facelift soon. I found a couple of good stories about some apps and different things to increase individual’s access to places. So the first story is from the Times of India, it’s written by Mohua Das, and it talks about some different accessibility features that are starting to show up in cinemas in India. So it looks like there’s app-enabled, audio-described, subtitled, autistic-friendly and wheelchair accessible areas in their cinemas. So a lot of this stuff wasn’t really available at first, but now they’re actually starting to put these in different places.
Josh Anderson:
So one of the things is an XL Cinema app. And basically what you would do is you download this app. You can buy an audio ticket. When you go inside this theater, it knows that you’re there inside the theater, you sync it, tap it to play, plug in your headphones, and you’re given audio descriptions of what’s going on on the screen. It says in some theaters, they’re starting to have sign language interpreters that will stand up next to the screen with a light on them so that they can actually sit there and sign everything that’s going on on the screen. They have different sensory nights. So times when maybe everything’s turned down a little bit, or the lights are kept up a little bit for individuals with autism that maybe can’t handle it being real dark or real loud, have them kind of get sensory overload.
Josh Anderson:
They’re making them much more accessible to individuals in wheelchairs. So they’re giving them different ways, different ramps, lifts, and things like that in order to be able to get through. And as I’m reading this, I found some other things that are really important as well, and that they don’t talk about as much. The other thing that they’re doing is, they’re training 90% of their staff on some different things about disability. They’re training them on how to handle people with different disabilities, how to use this assistive equipment or apps as well as disability etiquette for respectful communication.
Josh Anderson:
So people first language, some other things that maybe those of us in the field take for granted, but individuals who don’t see, individuals with disabilities every day or interact with folks, maybe just don’t think that the way they’re acting may be considered rude or just not really appropriate just because they’re not used to doing it. So I think that training’s a huge part. And not only that, but then they’ll be able to help these individuals to use these apps, to use these things because otherwise, you’ve got all this really great stuff, all this great technology to help folks. And if no one knows how to use it, well, it’s just going to sit there and go to waste.
Josh Anderson:
So that was the first that I thought it was really cool that these cinemas in India are sitting here and going to make it a whole lot easier for folks to be able to enjoy movies a little bit more, have the audio descriptions for individuals who are blind or visually impaired, have the sign language for those who are deaf and hearing impaired, just so neat to be able to… All these folks can actually access movies in the way that most able-bodied individuals probably really take for granted.
Josh Anderson:
And then the second story that I’ve found is over at techdigest.tv, and it’s Scottish parliament launches app to help disabled visitors. So this one’s about the Scottish parliament building has launched an app, and it’s going to help individuals with disabilities with personalized assistance at their venue. It’s called the Welcome app. And essentially what it does is, someone opens up this app and goes in, and puts maybe some special accommodations they might need to be able to visit parliament or some of the other parliamentary buildings.
Josh Anderson:
It uses beacon technology, which I think we’ve talked about on the show before. And when this person gets close, an alert is sent that then lets the staff there know that this individual is going to need some assistance. So this is basically there to help them just respond more quickly and efficiently to the needs of their visitors and just allow more people to be able to visit. Sometimes whenever you have to walk in and find someone and ask for an accommodation, that can be really difficult, but if you’re on the way, you’re getting close, you’ve already asked for this, hopefully that’s already ready. They’ve already got it. They know that you’re coming. And then they know when you’re there without you even really having to walk up and talk to somebody.
Josh Anderson:
So I thought these were really nice stories about different apps, different things that are becoming available to people with disabilities and allowing them to experience things. And I also think it’s really smart of the businesses, the parliament in allowing more folks to come in, that’s more paying customers. That’s more folks that you can get in your door, which for any business is always really the main goal. So I’ll put a link to both of those stories, right over in our show notes.
Josh Anderson:
Many individuals around the world, struggle with reading and comprehension. We’ve had many guests on this show talking about how dyslexia and other print disabilities have been major barriers in their lives. Well, our guests today are the co-creators of the augmented reality app called Augmenta11y. And that’s A- U- G- M- E- N- T- A- 11- Y. And they’re here to tell us all about it. Now we’ve previously mentioned this app before in just a short news story, but I’m super excited to hear all about it from their creators. Tushar, Mudita, welcome to the show.
Tushar Gupta:
Hi Josh. Thank you for having us.
Mudita Sisodia:
Hi Josh.
Josh Anderson:
I’m really excited to get into the app, finding out all about it, how it started and all that. But before we start, can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and your backgrounds. Tushar, could you start us off?
Tushar Gupta:
Yeah, sure. So I’ve been into product design and development for the past four to five years. I love creating apps and just solving problems. And this is the latest thing that I’m up to. And I’m so excited to say that it’s been one of my most successful projects and I’m really hoping to take it forward for as long as I can.
Josh Anderson:
Awesome. And Mudita, what about you?
Mudita Sisodia:
Yeah, we just graduated our computer science degree and I’ve been working on development and design for the last four years, and I take special interest in front-end technologies. Yeah. And Augmenta11y, has been very exciting for both of us, and seen luckily a great journey so far.
Josh Anderson:
Very good. So what exactly is Augmenta11y?
Tushar Gupta:
So Augmenta11y works by using a person’s phone camera to scan a piece of text and display it in a manner which makes it easier for people with dyslexia to read. Well, all of the technology behind the app is backed by research. So we read a lot of research papers, talk to a lot of users about the problems that they face while reading something. And we found out that certain phone combination, certain contrast ratios, certainly line heights, make it better for them to read. So that’s the principle that the app works on and it’s completely customizable because we understand that this actually does not have a one size fits all solution. So we’ve really been trying to improve the customizations of the app and making sure that it works for everyone the way that they want it to.
Josh Anderson:
Very nice. What are some of the different settings that you can customize?
Mudita Sisodia:
So initially, one of the first few things that we worked on were phone stylings and foreground or background color contrast, so there are phones that are being designed specifically for people with dyslexia, such as open dyslexic. So that is one of the options that we have. So this font is weighted more towards the bottom of the letters. So that’s easier for people with dyslexia to read. And then also phones which has comic sense and sensory phones are preferred by them. So these are some of the options that we provide.
Mudita Sisodia:
And when it comes to background to foreground color issues, we realized that people prefer yellow to black contrasts instead of the style white and black contrast. So that is one of the settings. And then there’s also line height, after some of these interviews, we realized that people with dyslexia can just stipple with lines. So the greater the line height, the easier it is for them to track which line they have to go to next. And there’s also word spacing and letter spacing again for the same reasoning to be able to identify each letter and not if it’s used in swarm of letters, if that is.
Josh Anderson:
Very nice. And is it actually able to read to you?
Tushar Gupta:
Yeah.
Mudita Sisodia:
Yeah. And we also have a feature, a Read Aloud mode. And yes, so it can basically scan the text and it can read it out to you.
Josh Anderson:
I’d like to see. Yeah, that’s very helpful because then not only can I actually see the text a little bit easier and be able to read it, but then having it read back to me, just could really open up a whole world of reading for individuals with dyslexia and other print disabilities. Where did this idea come from?
Tushar Gupta:
I think it originated out of just curiosity on our part. Because formally, this was supposed to be our thesis project for our degree, right? For our bachelor’s degree. And we knew that we were interested in working on human computer interaction and figuring out how technology can be used to make certain tasks easier for people. And inside HCI, we found out that accessibility is often something that is overlooked and that’s how we sort of decided that, “Oh yeah, let’s maybe try and make lives better by going up for something that is usually a second or an afterthought.”
Tushar Gupta:
So that’s how it started, we looked into various things such as vision impairment, colorblindness and reading disabilities. And that’s where we landed in disabilities. And that’s where we found dyslexia. And we researched about things that have been done so far. And we really thought that using the latest technology such as augmented reality and real time translations, we could really make a difference here using technology.
Josh Anderson:
Oh, for sure. I mean, especially for younger people just having that different kind of interface, I’m sure it makes it a lot more usable and more fun to use. Kind of talking about that and where the idea came from, how long did it take to develop the program?
Mudita Sisodia:
Yeah, so our social launching typically is found in our thesis project. So we started a year ago. Yeah. So it’s been a year. We had our first prototype running within a few months. And then within, I think about four months, we were able to show the prototype at the Dutch Design Week. And yeah, so after that we released the Android version and after a few months, the iOS. And then we did some testing with students at an NGO in Bombay and one in Delhi. And we had some great results. We actually saw decrease in the amount of time that they take to read. We saw a 21% decrease in the amount of time that they took to read using the app. So yeah. Now we’re here after a year almost, and yeah we’re still working on new features.
Tushar Gupta:
Oh, we spend the first one or two months just talking to people and reading all of those research papers. Because with something so broad as dyslexia, you really have to get deep into those problems that real users are facing. It’s not something that you can just go and build just by reading three papers and talking to four people. Right? So we really spend some time doing that at the beginning. And even throughout the process, we’ve spoken to so many people and just learned so many insights from everyone that we’ve met. Because the reading mode that you saw, it’s one of the main features of the app now, but that was something that was given to us as a feedback.
Tushar Gupta:
So while alpha testing the app at the Dutch Design Week, the app would only read whatever was on your camera screen. But if someone wanted to read a paragraph using the app, and they couldn’t because they said it kept shaking and the font was too small and that’s when we realized that, Oh, what if we can just click a text box and show that in a different page and they can read it in an isolated view. And so, yeah, I mean, that’s just one example of how feedback has really pushed us to keep working on the app and not wait even further.
Josh Anderson:
And I think that was one of my favorite things about using the app was the way that, it brings the text up in these little bubbles, in the augmented reality. But then if I want to read it a little further, I touch it and it takes it to a whole another page. Originally, that wasn’t actually part of the app?
Tushar Gupta:
Yeah. I mean the first one or two months that the app was in alpha testing or, just doing the very basic foreign exchange, we hadn’t heard of it, the idea was just really oh, make something like Google Translate where you can just look at something and read it in a better way. But yeah, using the feedback, we realized that, oh, since reading is such at the core of the app, then maybe we should also have a separate reading screen. And now it’s the core feature of the app.
Josh Anderson:
It’s amazing how that kind of works, but that’s great that you guys are taking that feedback in order to put those features in. So it’s more useful to the individuals it’s for. Kind of along those same lines, what’s next for Augmenta11y? What are some of the features you’re thinking about trying to put in, or that you’ve heard from users that would be helpful
Mudita Sisodia:
Yeah. Currently, we’re working on translations. So we want to be able to identify what language the text is in, and it require translators to do the language that the users are comfortable with. And then there’s also, as you mentioned in the Reader mode, the Read Aloud. So we want to be able to set the tempo, you can make it slow or faster, or various voices. So that is in plan. Also, we have to keep meeting future more educators, more students. And signing the apps, you do need these educators because this is something that could really help them help their students to work on this next year, and find ways to deal with that. So, I think that’s what we’re aiming right now. That’s what we’re working on. And also there are also common sight words, that are commonly mistaken by people with dyslexia and the B’s and D’s. So, if we’re probably able to highlight those or bring their attention to that, make them more aware of that and how they face difficulties with that. So they can learn to deal with that better.
Josh Anderson:
Oh, definitely. And I do like the way your app has the different features. So it’s not just reading to me, which some educators and folks don’t like, because it’s kind of taking away that reading component, but actually being able to put the other features in there to help individuals learn how to read and just make it a little easier for them. But I have to assume that educators like that a little bit more.
Tushar Gupta:
Right. And just by talking to more special educators recently… I recently spoke to someone in Austin, Texas, and also someone in Bombay. So just two ends apart, but they’ve given us so much great feedback related to just things that they decide towards and the common word mistakes that people make. It’s just been amazing because our industry partner, the company that is funding the development of the app, they’re actually are European company. So them, they said, if you really want to target the European user base, you need to make sure that your app is available in all these European languages.
Tushar Gupta:
So that’s when we realized that, Oh yeah. I mean, definitely that’s something that we should be working on. So we’ve spent the last one month just making sure that the app’s user interface is not localized to all of these languages. We’re now currently supporting 10 plus languages. And we’re also adding support for translations as Mudita mentioned. So, you always have the option to translate whatever’s on your screen to your home language, if you want to.
Tushar Gupta:
And on top of that, just talking to more people… And here’s what we realized, till now we knew that the app helped people with dyslexia to read, but we were still not sure about the demarcation of what is the exact age group that it helps because yeah, we knew that kids are on one end of the spectrum and adults who have already learned to deal with dyslexia on the other end of the spectrum. We didn’t know how much and which of the features responded well with the adults, and which of them responded well with the kids.
Tushar Gupta:
So I think that’s something that we’ve been working on in terms of talking to more educators and more adults with dyslexia so we can figure out what works for them. Recently, as Mudita mentioned, while we were testing the app at a NGO in Bombay, we figured out that kids really want something where if the word is more than eight characters, they want it to be highlighted because they know that they have to break it down.
Tushar Gupta:
So one of the reading strategies that special educators teach kids too in terms of reading words, is if it’s more than eight characters, you break the word down into two or three parts. And we saw that live. So they said, if it’s more than eight characters, maybe you can highlight it in a different color. Maybe you can break it down into two or three parts. So I think we need to keep working on those things where we understand that if a kid is using the app, then he should probably get to see all separate set of features or an extended version of the app as compared to just an adult who’s using it as a utility.
Josh Anderson:
Like I said, you guys are doing it right by taking that input from users. And unfortunately in this field sometimes, and I meet folks that you have a great education, you think, “Oh yeah, I know how to do this and how to do that.” But if you don’t meet all those users’ needs, then it’s not really going to be useful.
Tushar Gupta:
Yeah. I mean, definitely this was one of the challenges. I mean, I think when it comes to product design, when you’re designing for the user, that’s not that you can specifically relate to, you need to make sure that the user feedback that you get is always at the center of whatever you’re doing.
Josh Anderson:
Kind of along those same lines, let’s say that I am a user and I want to give you feedback. How would I give that user feedback to you guys so that you can continue to make the app even better?
Tushar Gupta:
So since the app is available on all the major platforms, which are iOS and Android, you can definitely send us feedback using the app store’s mechanisms. So when you go to the apps page on either of these stores, you have a separate section for you, where you write a review, where you can contact the developers. So that’s definitely an option, but most of our feedback is coming from social media. So it’s just where educators and adults are using our app. And they’re talking about it on LinkedIn, on Twitter, on Facebook, I’ve seen so many people sharing the media coverage that we’ve been given and saying, “Oh yeah, I tried the app out today and it’s great.”
Tushar Gupta:
And actually the special educator in Austin, Texas that I was talking about earlier, he featured the app on his Twitter saying that, “This is something that us special educators should definitely use, apps like this which use augmented reality.” And so I just replied to him and I said, “Hey man, thank you for checking out the app. If you have any feedback for us, we would love to hear it”. And that’s how we got on a call. And now we’re working towards, how we can actually test the app in some of the schools that he teaches in. So I think the best way to give us feedback is just by going to the app stores or going to go the app’s website, where you can see a contact us page or just talking or in social media, because I’m pretty sure that you’ll find it.
Josh Anderson:
Nice. Very nice. And then probably the question everybody’s going to want to know, how much does the app cost?
Mudita Sisodia:
Oh, it’s free.
Josh Anderson:
That is my favorite four letter word.
Tushar Gupta:
And we like to believe that principle, it’s our fundamental right. And since the app isn’t costing us a lot to make and the company that is behind it, Oswald Labs they’re funding us. And since they’re an accessibility company as well, I think for as long as we can pull this together and it’s not going kill us, it’s going to be free.
Josh Anderson:
Where did the idea come from to work the a11y into the name?
Mudita Sisodia:
So the a11y stands for accessibility within people who work for accessibility within the development. So, I would say 11y is the acronym for that. So it stands for ally. So we just mixed the words together, augmented reality and accessibility. So it became Augmenta11y, with the ally.
Josh Anderson:
No, I think it’s super clever. I was just wondering where that idea came from to kind of get that all in. So you guys said that there’s an accessibility company that you’re working with to get the app out there. Who are you guys working with?
Tushar Gupta:
So we’re working with Oswald labs, it’s an accessibility company, that’s headquartered out of India and the Netherlands. And they’ve been really helpful in terms of funding the app and helping us meet all of these organizations that they’ve tied up with. It’s because of them that we’ve been able to present our work at conferences, such as the Dutch Design Week in India, HCI which is the premier of Human Computer Interaction conference in India. And it has been really helpful, and funding definitely plays a role. And I’m so glad that we found them as a partner.
Josh Anderson:
Now, that’s great to have them as a partner and be able to offer the app for free to folks. Like you said, having that fundamental right of being able to read and being able to access all that kind of information. So you guys mentioned a lot of new features that are going to be coming out. When are you planning on pushing those out?
Mudita Sisodia:
Yeah. So it’s a new update, will be pushed out by the end of this month. And we’re really excited to see how people like it.
Josh Anderson:
Oh, that’s excellent. Usually when people talk about things coming down the road, it’s a year or six months, something like that though. So excellent, that’ll be coming out really soon. Well, perfect. Well Mudita, Tushar, thank you guys so much for coming on the show and telling us all about Augmenta11y. And as it gets updated and gets new things, maybe we can have the honor again to talk about all the new stuff down the road.
Tushar Gupta:
Definitely. I think you shouted us out once and now we’re here. So definitely, I think as we keep working on the app, I’m looking forward to being heard again. We will be back, and you will know what we’ve been up to.
Josh Anderson:
I’m looking very forward to it too. And I do want to apologize, I think I called you 20 somethings when I mentioned it, but I promise that’s what it said in the story.
Tushar Gupta:
Yeah. We’re 21. So you’re absolutely right.
Josh Anderson:
Excellent. Well, the nice thing about being a podcast is I can perpetually stay like 25 and no one has to know. Well, thank you again, guys. We can’t wait to have you back on sometime in the future.
Tushar Gupta:
All right. Well, thank you so much for having us.
Mudita Sisodia:
Thanks for having us.
Josh Anderson:
Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If you do, call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. Shoot us a note on Twitter, @INDATA project, or check us out on Facebook. Are you looking for a transcript or show notes? Head on over to our website at www.eastersealstech.com. Assistive Technology Update is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. For more shows like this, plus so much more head over to accessibilitychannel.com. The views expressed by our guests are not necessarily that of this host or the INDATA project. This has been your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA project at Easterseals Crossroads in Indianapolis, Indiana. Thank you so much for listening and we’ll see you next time.