Wow, MDTAP had the opportunity to participate in a fantastic event that focused on mobility and transportation for individuals with disabling conditions over at the Department of Transportation in Washington DC. We were welcomed and thoroughly enjoyed our time! MDTAP shared a table with our sister Virginia and Pennsylvania Tech Act programs. It was great to see the other Tech Act programs in-person and we all brought a variety of low and high tech devices to show off during the innovation event.
I had the pleasure of showing off two awesome devices to summit attendees
primarily from the federal and district governments, respectively. The first device I showed off was the fantastic Victor Reader Trek. Which is a great audio player for individuals with low vision that read a ton of file formats. Another cool feature of the device is the GPS functionality so it can support independent travel for individuals with visual challenges.
The second device I displayed was the Buzz clip; a mobility device that aids the movement of individuals with low vision and blindness. The device is a sensor that provides haptic feedback and aids with object detection.
This particular device hails from Canada and I was fortunate enough to meet the device’s creator earlier this year in California at the CSUN Accessibility Conference. What I love about the device is its simplicity and usability. I have received feedback that this device is helpful but it was noted that they hope the next version provides more directional haptic feedback so the wearer could determine the origin of the object in their path versus a non-directional tactile alert to an object.
Thanks for reading,
Andrew
