Access for All Click

Now on BBC News,

it's time to Click.

This week, the latest disability

tech with object recognition, sign

to text translation and snow seat.

-- seat. -- the. -- seat.

Over the past few years, some of the

most fascinating technologies we've

featured on the show have been the

ones that help people with

disabilities. As the world's burst

bionic games proved, the

possibilities now emerging offer so

much potential, whether it be in

disability, sight or hearing, we've

seen how technology is tantalisingly

close but how long before it really

starts to impact people's lives for

real? This weekend sees the

international day of people with

disabilities and that's a great

chance for us to devote a whole

programme to the latest tech

developments in the area. We start

in Rochester in upstate New York,

which has the highest number of deaf

or hard of hearing people per capita

in the US. The unique combination of

this community and the technical

Institute in the area is really

starting to drive innovation. Paul

Carter went to investigate.

Rochester Institute of technology

and its constitute, natch, national

technical Institute for the deaf,

are now at the forefront of

developing and testing new

technologies that help deaf people

to communicate. One technology is

UNI, an innovation that helps to

live translate signed language into

text and speech. Alex Davies demo

the prototype... At Inglis

I do the signed for check.

I want to

check my flight.

Your flight is on

time. As you noticed it came up on

the screen as I said that. The

system works by using sensors with

two cameras that detect individual

points on the joints and fingers and

renders them into the software to

interpret the individual signs, a

task more, located than it might

first sound.

Some signs are

naturally doing it over and over

again, bag or wear.

This bag is a

carry on.

That's part of the

challenge and the complexity of our

applications because we have to be

able to filter all of that out, so

how does the software know you're

not signing bag, bag, bag, just bag.

It's safe to say assistive

technology for deaf people has come

a long way in a relatively short

space of time. Here at the Rochester

School of the death, this museum and

the items within it really highlight

the rate of change of technology

that aids communication for deaf and

hard of hearing people, from things

that look fairly primitive to us

now, from ear trumpets to speaking

tubes, to the cutting edge

technology, such as live translation

we're seeing today.

The advancement

of technology represents an

opportunity for the advancement of

deaf people in the workplace.

RIT

and in t.i.d. Started experiment in

with speech recognition in the

classroom so deaf and hard of

hearing students who may not know

sign language can participate fully.

This lecture's sign language is

being interpreted by a translator.

It is then displayed on the board in

real time.

It will probably help me

a lot. When the teacher is signing,

I have an interpreter voicing form

E, if I miss something while taking

notes I can look at the screen and

see what the teacher said. -- for

me.

One of the best things I've

found on the laptop, when you can

project it to your screen, you can

see the closed captioning on your

laptop. It allows you to save

transcripts so you can use for

future reference.

Here at RIT we

provide 25,000 hours of captioning

every year for our deaf and hard of

hearing students who are in classes

primarily with hearing professor who

is speaking their lecture. We

thought one way we can cover those

uncovered ours is to use automatic

speech recognition. Captioning has

been improved a lot in the past few

months -- uncovered hours. It has

improved last year when the error

rate was so high. But now ASR has

improved to the point where we feel

very confident to pilot the

programme to see how well it works.

And we can also make improvements

with the language model.

One of the

main challenges of speech

recognition has been finding a way

for deaf and hearing people to

communicate in situations where

there isn't an interpreter around.

These students are using a special

Instant Messenger app developed at

the university. We all know how

inaccurate speech recognition can

be. -- special speech recognition

app.

I think automatic speech

recognition is just getting started

really and it's going to be

improving. I think it opens up a

whole new avenue that hasn't been

possible before.

We want to become

the hub for really experimenting and

looking for solutions to reduce the

communication barriers that separate

deaf and hearing people.

That was Paul Carter. Now, in the

UK, around 5% of all rail journeys

are made by those with a disability

or a long-term illness. That equates

to around 85 million rail journeys

every year. Now, while not all

disabled people require assistance,

a quarter have reported problems

with using public transport. The

rail company London Midland is

hoping to improve accessibility for

its De Zeeuw all passengers with a

new app, Passenger Persist, and we

asked Emily Yates to try it out for

us.

I'm Emily Yates and I'm just

planning my train journey to

Birmingham. It requires a fair bit

of advanced booking. I'm confident

travelling by myself but I'm not a

huge fan of the train, which is

actually why I'm making this

journey. I've heard about an at in

development called Passenger Assist

which could be a game changer for

disabled travellers. I think anybody

watching this who's disabled will

probably agree with me that you can

have some pretty horrific travel

journeys if you're disabled. I've

been left on the train before, but

persistence and somebody has said,

yeah, we're going to come and meet

you and I've been left on the train

unable to get off and I've had to go

four or five stops down the line to

be able to come back again so I'm

relieved as did to see what this app

has to offer. -- really excited.

I've got this new app which is

currently in development and I'm

just about to fill in my own

profile. What's brilliant about this

app is it says do you need room for

a guide dog, do you have a hearing

impairment, do you need a ramp, do

you need help buying a ticket? So,

Roxanne, I've added my profile

details and now I've just planned a

journey. This is obviously in

development but this is how it would

work. I've put in my journey and now

it should come up on your phone any

minute.

Here you are...

You've got

my picture and everything so you

know exactly what I'll look like.

I

know what you look like, know what

to expect, I press I'm here to help.

Brilliant.

I can send you a message

saying I'm here, my name is Roxanne.

Back on the train for me and now I

have this. Passenger Assist is being

developed by start-up Transreport

under the guidance of London

Midlands' lab. Right now the phone

is tracking both the staff member

and the passenger. We're obviously

in the same place so you can see the

two dots are quite close together.

Using the technology such as

beacons, Wi-Fi, four G, GPS, we can

use multiple tools.

You know exactly

what carriage I'm in even.

Yes, down

to the carriage, we can pinpoint

less than one metre to your location

and find out which carriage, which

train and the direction of travel

you're going in as well.

That's all

well and good for staff stations but

how would it work on unmanned

stations?

The app is still in

development, it's making good

progress but we do have a challenge

with unmanned stations. What we

would want to do is get you to the

Nehra is accessible station to get

you on your way.

And it's not just

about the app. Transreport is also

making trackable wristbands and

these key faults, they'll be

available for those unable to use

phones as easily. Let's face it, in

a world where we can now track our

pizza by the minute am having to

book train assistance 24 hours in

advance seems a little old school

and this way staff will have

information at their fingertips too.

Transreport hope to roll out the app

across the London Midland service

early next year and the plan is for

the entire UK rail network to be

able to access it by June, 2018. If

there's one thing disabled

travellers need that the current

system doesn't provide its the

reassurance that someone will be

there to help and not leave them

stranded when getting home all of

the train. -- on all of the train.

Hello and welcome to the week in

tech. It was the week where the

world's largest lithium ion battery

was turned on in Australia.

Assembled by Tesla and designed to

store energy from a nearby wind

farm, it can power 30,000 homes for

one hour. An AI robot called Sophia

started crowd fending for more

brainpower. Instagram confirmed a

pregnant Beyonce picture was the

most liked 2017 so far and dogs were

the most liked face filter. Speaking

of selfies, Facebook's new security

system may be asking for one to

prove you're not a bot while logging

on and Uber made headlines again,

this time it was accused of using

ex- CIA agents to spy on rivals also

developing self driving tech. Plus

it was revealed their data breach

reported last week affected 57

million users' details. Robots have

been flexing their muscles, lifting

1000 times their own weight. These

origami inspired bots from MIT mimic

real muscles, being built with soft

materials to make them a bit more

human friendly. Universities across

the world are working on these types

of highly dextrous robots. And

finally, good old-fashioned Lego is

getting its own augmented reality

app. The Lego AR studio will bring

to life some of the most popular

sets, so just as you thought the

kids were sitting happily not having

any screen time, well, out comes the

app.

I really began with my own reality.

Someone using a wheelchair to get

around and consistently frustrated

when I show up at bases and I don't

know which they are accessible or

not until I get there. Countless

times I show up and there are steps

or other barriers that prevent me

from doing the things that I want.

And so I was really motivated to try

and solve this problem and the way

that we've gone about doing that is

by creating a mobile app that can

simply allow people who experienced

express it -- accessibility needs to

share information about what is

accessible on their own communities

and around the world. It starts by

selecting a place and then breaking

a place as accessible or not

accessible. You can go one step

further and and a description, you

can say things like, I showed up at

this place, the customer service was

fantastic. So this cafe looks like

it's not accessible. There are two

steps at the entrance. But when I

look at app my, I can see there's an

alternative entrance through the

building here, that will let me into

the cafe. Let's check it out. For me

the main magic, the most exciting

part about Access, is the

information is all crowd sourced

from people who have experienced

accessibility needs in there own

life, or are just motivated to get

wheelchair information. We started

in Toronto with a couple of 100 pins

and now we've reached over 20,000

throughout the world. What we really

want to make this a global movement.

Before Access, I think people each

had their own internal maps in their

ahead of what places are accessible,

what works for them in their own

communities. But the second you step

outside of your comfort zone of

where you live in your

neighbourhood, accessibility can

become challenging. There are many

times when people who have mobility

needs are isolated in many ways and

it simply because, you know, from

the way I see it it's not people who

are disabled but it's our

environment that are disabling. So

if we can remove the barriers that

restrict people from engaging with

their communities, with their

workplaces, with their lifestyles, I

think we can come to a much more

inclusive world for everyone.

That

was from Toronto. Now, running a

marathon, fancy it? No, me neither.

But for Simon is a regular

occurrence. We first met him a

couple of years ago when he just ran

and ultramarathon in Namibia. That's

150 miles. I should at this point

say that Simon is blind, so knowing

where to run is as much of a problem

as the running itself. In Namibia he

used audio from a smartphone to bite

him. Since then, as a programmer and

inventor, he's invented his own

track to guide him while he runs.

And the technology allowing

navigation and visualisation of the

world, with outside and in, is

hopefully about to become a bit

easier. We asked Simon to

investigate.

My name is Simon and I

am a huge fan of technology. For the

past few years I've really been

using technology to push the

boundaries of possibility. Recently

I became the first blind person to

attempt a marathon solo. A few weeks

ago in New York I used technology to

run a needed for 15 miles, until

unfortunately the prototype didn't

quite make it. For a blind person,

mobility is always a key issue. Even

things around the house, it is as

simple as identifying different

products in the kitchen or even

identifying different articles of

clothing, being able to identify

objects is a constant problem. So

one of the interesting breakthroughs

has been a product from Microsoft

which is and app that runs on an

iPhone. Seeing Eye uses barcodes to

recognise objects. You point the

camera at the object. One of the

really powerful things that it can

do is simple text recognition.

Vitamin D, wholegrain, serial, rice,

sugar, salt flavouring...

One thing

is really nice is you can recognise

people, so you can point your phone

at somebody.

In case you didn't

catch that, that was Big Neil, seven

feet away.

One of the main issues is

that AI algorithms usually identify

objects in groups. What I really

need is something to identify

objects in detail, so don't just say

a cup, identify it specifically and

that's exactly what I've been able

to work out. IBM are using their AI

platform Watson to distinguish

between similar objects. The

prototype Big -- prototype app will

be exciting if it works. First I had

to do the training to get to grips

with it.

OK, when you are ready and

you have your table lined with some

objects, we can do some training.

I

had to take at least ten good

pictures of an object against a

solid background. Now with the model

trains we are able to identify

similar objects?

Flower market.

In

the prototype stage I found the

prototype really tricky. -- mug. I

like that it was a voice guided so I

could do it independently. I've got

that connection with physical

objects again. Photos and mugs and

T-shirts. It got to the point where

there was no distinctly --

distinction between them. Now if I

train it and tag it I can get to

know that individualisation again.

It's great when you are doing things

in the kitchen. But with certain

objects which mean a loss to you

it's not the same. To be able to tag

them and find them it gives me that

memory. That is really giving me

something back that I lost many

years ago. It leaves me really

hopeful for the future.

Simon...

That was Simon and from his running

guide to full on robotic limbs, we

are seeing more and more tech

advances that promise to help

disabled athletes to compete in

sports that were previously

inaccessible to them. Our reporter

had her legs amputated ten years ago

and she's been trying out some new

feet which could help amputees to

carve up the slopes this winter.

I've come to Dorset Orthopaedic a

private company fits amputees with

prosthetic legs, from running blades

to hyperrealistic limbs. One sport

that's always been very hard for me

is snowboarding, because my normal

feet designed specifically for

walking. But here, they've got feet

that would make that easier.

Requirements of the full-time

different with skiing compared to

walking. With normal walking you

need a foot that has a fairly small

range of movement that gives you

energy back, as you roll over the 40

get some push off at the end to help

your walking. With skiing you need

more movement in the foot to

compensate for the uneven surface.

You also need some shock absorption,

so when you go over a bump or you

land on the ski unique some that

shock taken out and that's what this

does.

While I'm left to my own

devices, Kevin agrees to fit my legs

with some of these feet so I can

give them a go. This requires a lot

of honing and alignment to make sure

I am not pushed too far forwards or

backwards. Ta-da! My legs. I'm quite

intrigued as to how this will feel.

I have no idea.

Oh, wow. If you push

a weight forwards you should be able

to feel the movement in the ankle.

Oh, wow. That sensation I've not

felt in the ten years since being an

amputee. These feet work by putting

your leg into an adjustable

cylinder, which controls the

resistance in the foot. More air and

more resistance, as well as giving

this movement, shock absorption in

the foot means going over rocks or

bumps is easier, they are not cheap.

With the price of £2500 each, it

means only some people can get

access to them. It is clear that

bear not for walking. They are very

rigid, very square and very hard.

But if I let my mind go and imagine

myself snowboarding, which I've done

badly in the past, I can feel that

and then move and that's weird,

because I have not felt my feet move

in that way before. -- for ten

years. There's only one thing left

to do and it is to try defeat out on

some proper snow. I've come to an

indoor slope, but I've got to admit

I'm feeling very nervous. This is

Emma Gillespie. She has agreed to

come with me to fit the feet and

help the try them out. You've done

it before.

How was it? Hard.

But you

did it. So?

One leg.

This is what

you don't see about being an

amputee.

When I've snowboarding previously on

my normal walking feet, it's been

really difficult. But these offer

much more and the way they are set

up office and natural bent on my

knees, stands that almost impossible

on neutral legs.

Here we go. Think

about your posture of it. -- a bit.

And a turn!

So it's been awhile

since I boarded and expecting an

instant result is probably asking a

too much, but the best thing for it

is to keep throwing myself down the

slope and see what happens. Despite

the technology of these feet, there

is only so much they can do when it

comes to hitting the slopes. The

real work is definitely still coming

from the person. And if you're not

very good, bear not going to stop

you from falling. -- they're. I'm

soaking wet, that fall has drenched

me. But it's amazing when you merge

technology and disability, to give

people independence and the feeling

that they can try things that they

perhaps thought weren't there for

them. It's fun. But they are

expensive.

That's it for this special programme

for the international day off People

with Disabilities. We will carry on

reporting on this stuff throughout

the year, but you can keep a special

eye on our disability stories

online. Thanks for watching and see

you soon.