Serotek today unveiled its newest product, the AE HotSpot, at the 2010 ATIA conference in Orlando, FL. This revolutionary appliance, based on the same technology as Serotek’s Web-based Accessible Event service, gives people with disabilities access to classroom presentations, seminars, and other events. For the first time, people who have hearing or visual impairments can take full advantage of all aspects of any online or on-site event/presentation.
By leveraging our Accessible Event platform and secure wireless networking technology, Serotek’s AE HotSpot appliance allows event participants with disabilities to access slides, Excel spreadsheets, Web pages, and Word documents using their own wireless-enabled computers and access technology in real time. With the AE HotSpot, an event can be accessed from the Internet if the event coordinator wishes, but an Internet connection is not necessary for on-site participants to have full access to the event. That’s because the AE HotSpot appliance is a completely independent WiFi access point. This allows the event coordinator and/or presenter to decide what content will and will not be available to the attendees. The self-contained nature of this appliance enables a closed, secure Intranet environment, regardless of whether Internet connectivity is available. However, where Internet connectivity is available, the event coordinator can configure the AE HotSpot appliance to provide wireless Internet access as well as access to the event. The AE HotSpot can also record all event content and publish it on a web site or intranet with no need to install additional software on the target server. This enables anyone to deploy an accessible recording of an event, even if they don’t subscribe to the Web-based Accessible Event service.
Serotek will release the AE HotSpot soon. Learn more about the AE HotSpot by watching this accessible presentation.
My friend and I were recently discussing about how technology has become so integrated in our day to day lives. Reading this post makes me think back to that debate we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.
I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside… I just hope that as technology further innovates, the possibility of downloading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about all the time.
(Posted on Nintendo DS running [url= kwstar88.zoomshare.com/2.shtml]R4 SDHC[/url] DS OperaV2)
I don't get why another device is needed for this. Why not just market the accessible event platform itself as a software product? Then it could be run on the same computer, or a standard server, of the institution's choosing. Not sure how many institutions are going to be willing to buy a new device just for this. Proprietary accessible devices is exactly what we need to get away from, not promote.
I think you are missing the mark with the comment related to "just using software or the net". There are a lot of places where that isn't practical or possible. Internet is either not available, allowed or the material itself is not something that should go on the internet for privacy/security reasons. I don't know about you, but I've had to sit in on countless conference sessions, training courses, presentations or corporate staff meetings where all this information is pushed to the front screen with a projector but us blind folk get excluded from it. This is a great idea, and I hope events like CSUN seriously consider offering something like this during it's sessions so I can follow along with the information everyone else has access to during their sessions.
Corporate areas spend tons of cash on equipment for their video conference and presentation areas. This seems like a good way for those same corporations to practice inclusion by design the next time they set up a new board room.
I commend Serotek for their innovation and look forward to seeing it at events and things I attend.