Tech Shout!

Yesterday, a cyber café called Good Bytes Café opened up in San Antonio in the U.S.A. This cyber café has stained concrete floors, jars of yummy puffs to eat, and a small bank of computers in the corner. But this is not your usual cyber café, as the Good Bytes Café is a special cyber café meant for disabled people.

The computers in Good Bytes Café are equipped with a joystick mouse, magnifying software and equipment that allows people to point and click with their eye movements. It surely has been designed keeping in mind the disabilities of people, and is actually opened up by Goodwill Industries, a nonprofit organization known for selling used clothing and furniture in its thrift stores across Texas.

“We’re the first, but we won’t be the last,” said Rebecca Helterbrand, marketing vice president for Goodwill Industries of San Antonio.

Goodwill Industries wished to build something that would give more disabled people the chance to access technology, and hence have come up with Good Bytes Café, which is fully equipped with assistive technology.

Typically, disabled users who need special technology or equipment to operate computers or surf the Web must pay for it themselves, said William Gribbons, a professor of human factors in information design at Bentley College outside of Boston.

Some of the technology, including the software has magnification abilities and also reads aloud, so that those who are visually impaired can easily access whatever information they desire. This sort of technology is cheaper than the actual equipment, because there is a huge market for aging computer users. However, technology that will aid rarer disabilities will definitely be much more expensive.

Another Pc in Good Bytes Café allows those with limited mobility to click a silver dot to their noses or spectacles. A screen-mounted reader recognizes the dot’s movement, and hence the user is able to navigate and type with it.

Yet another PC allows users who can move physically, to control a mouse with the movement of their eyes. The mouse then follows their gaze and clocks when they blink.

Leticia Rodriguez, who is deaf attended the opening ceremony of Good Bytes Café, and found the silver-dot navigator very helpful. “This is absolutely awesome,” she said through a sign-language translator. “It’s wonderful for people with other disabilities, and I think it’s about time

Good Bytes Café for disabled users was funded with a $125,000 grant from San-Antonio-based AT&T, and will now be supported mainly by food sales. It will also double as a location to train disabled food service workers.