GPS for the blind

The European Space Agency and other organizations are testing a personal GPS-based navigation system that helps blind people get around better on their own. The handheld device, dubbed "Tormes," was unveiled in Madrid in early June 2003 and is likely to debut in 2004. It weighs less than one kilogram (about 2 pounds), comes with a Braille keyboard and a voice synthesizer, and taps the global positioning satellite system to provide verbal directions. Added software and a database of city maps give immediate feedback about the users' surroundings.

While the device can help to navigate new or unfamiliar areas it is not intended to replace traditional tools like walking canes or guide dogs to get around. The device cannot alert you to small obstacles like stairs or street curbs. Tormes will help navigate to specific addresses, locations or places like bus stops, and it could help people orient themselves if they are in a taxi, for example, and need to give directions. Also it makes it possible to navigate large open areas or parking lots. Source: www.wired.com - 14 June 2003

May 19 2003

Surfing in the library From this week on visual impaired visitors of the Public Library in Amsterdam Buitenveldert have at their disposal a computer with screenreader and magnification device to read texts or to surf the internet. This is one of the first libraries in the Netherlands to offer this service. The library in Nijmegen also offers a special surf- and read corner and the libraries of The Hague and Groningen have promised to follow their lead soon.

News from Monday September 23, 2002
In a small church in Velsen-Noord (Holland) they have reconstructed all kinds of daily situations – completely in the dark! The name of this special, permanent exhibition is "Seen in the dark". If you are blind or visually impaired, you can bring your family and friends over there and let them experience waht it is like. Your school can also make an appointment for a group-visit. There’s plenty of things to do and discover, but you will need to make good use of your nose, ears and hands. Laurie, a Dutch, blind girl, aged 11, sent us an e-mail that she visited "Seen in the dark". This is what she wrote: Seen in the dark was set up by Jan and Tina Visser. They are both blind. That building used to be a church. When you enter you have to pay. There is a room where you can play games in braille and write your name in braille. In that room it is light, but in the exhibition itself it is dark, like a world without lanterns. The seeing visitors have to come in by using a stick and then come in a park and you hear all kinds of sounds like the singing of birds and the water in a pond. You also have to cross a road by use of a rattle-ticker and you come to a marketplace where you can feel and smell the fruit and vegetables. It ends in a bar where you can have a drink or dance in the dark. My mother was scared and walked holding hands with Tina.
Laurie

Seen in the dark Grote
Hout or Koningsweg 35, Velsen-Noord, Netherlands
Phone (0)251-274788 Open on Wednesday and Sunday 11-17 hours and groups on appointment.
Seen in the dark Grote
e-mail: donkergezien@wakan.nl

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