Vision Australia’s Visual Assistive Technologies Help Australians Reach Their Full Potential

It is estimated that more than 300,000 Australians have some form of vision impairment. As our population ages, this number is set to double by 2020.

Accessing information is one of the key obstacles for this growing segment. Less than 5% of information exists in a form that can be read by blind or low vision Australians.

This figure is even more disturbing as it impacts more than 4 million Australians who have a print disability due to dyslexia or other conditions.

Gerard Menses, chief executive officer of Vision Australia, works every day to broaden opportunities for Australians who are blind or have low vision. As information is increasingly created, sent and stored in digital formats, he recognises the powerful role that technology can play.

Microsoft has released a global ‘plug-in’ for its Office suite that gives every user the option to save their Word documents as a DAISY file, a format that allows for assistive technologies such as screen readers and playback devices to deliver documents in ways useful for the print-disabled audience.

"Our vision is that in the future people who are blind or have low vision will have access to and fully participate in every part of life they choose," Gerard Menses says.

DAISY was created by Plextor and developed in partnership with the Digital Accessible Information System consortium, which leads the worldwide transition from analogue to digital information for the print-disabled community. Vision Australia is an active and leading member of the consortium. Once the Word document is saved, users can "hear" the document by using a variety of DAISY- compatible playback devices.

"The impact of DAISY means the millions of documents currently being created can be readily accessible to blind or low vision Australians. This development will have a hugely positive impact. It is as significant as the advent of Braille!" Gerard says.