In a Staunton Media Lab (SML) broadcast streamed live on April 27, Audio Director Coley Evans, President Steve O’Keefe, and special guest Max Cross discussed (and demo-ed on a Chromebook) their preferred screen capture and transcription software, with emphasis on their usability by the visually impaired, hard of hearing/deaf, and other uniquely-abled individuals.

Do you need screen capture software?

Screen capture software is a good tool for those who want to record video and take screenshots of their screen, share and edit images and video, and create add-ons like comments and shapes.

Screen capture software works best for, say, creating tutorials, though video capture software may be a better solution if you’re making high-quality video tutorials. Those two types of software are similar, but video capture software offers a higher-quality video end product, and you can control video formats and length better.

As we’ve previously discussed, assistive technology and accessibility requirements development and implementation have a way to go, and any strides tech companies, app developers, or any businesses make are met with enthusiasm and hope.

Assistive tech is for everyone

Assistive technology can help — and can be used by everyone — not just for the people living with disabilities.

Take ChromeVox, for instance. As Kim Krause Berg notes in her article on test-driving Google’s accessibility apps for Android:

What is sonification?

Turning data into sound, or sonification, has been in the headlines lately, fascinating as it is because, well, “music from space” is part of it. Our interest in sonification is also reflected in pop culture: Have you seen the recent X-Files episode, in which agents Mulder and Scully investigate strange noises seemingly coming from the skies, which Mulder describes as “God blowing his own horn”?

Of course, music from space isn’t quite that. In a November 2015 article by Rossella Lorenzi, published on the Discovery News website, “Hear What the Earth Sounds Like,” Domenico Vicinanza, director of Anglia Ruskin University’s Sound And Game Engineering (SAGE) research group, talked about the algorithms he has developed with his colleague Genevieve Williams, to “give a specific pitch and melody to each image sent back from the satellite.”

“Sonification gives space research a new dimension. When you hear the resulting music you really are hearing the data,” commented Vicinanza, who, in addition to being a physicist, is a classical composer.