Awesome Title:
Open Sourcing Assistive Technology
Person: David Parkhurst
Phone number:
250-480-0857
Your Location:
Downtown Victoria (506-1185 Yates)
Company or Affiliation:
Self-employed/online
Website:
Other contact info: –
Your Awesome Shit:
Adaptive technology cannot be solely a for-profit
enterprise, since it means those with disabilities are paying the price – or
more often than not never being able to pay! My project is a start: An Open
Source Braille Reader. With current devices selling for upwards of $5000, an
Open Source version will not only allow more blind people access to the written
word, as well as the Internet, but my goal is to get others to do it ‘one
better’, by making improved versions, and Open Sourcing other adaptive devices
that are sorely needed.
Your Bio:
I invent – mostly software/games – and decided to make a
device like this after reading local author Graeme McCreath’s book ‘The
Politics of Blindness’, about what the CNIB is NOT doing for that group of
people.
Anything else you think we should know:
The project is going ahead in any case, albeit slowly –
my desire is to (possibly) get a grant to move forward faster, but also as you
mentioned in your email “get the word out there to dozens of
well-connected people in the community”. It is my hope to be able to have
a chance to reach those people on Monday the 24th.
Thank you for your attention,
David Pankhurst