[Athen] Experiences with Aira

[Stores, Mary A.]

Hello,

 

We have quite a few students using Aira on the Indianapolis campus. There
has been a lot of construction, both in and out of buildings, and Aira helps
tremendously in those situations. Aira is also helpful when going to campus
cafeterias or Stores, because an agent can read the different menus and help
students navigate through lines without bumping into other people. Aira is
also helpful when watching films in class if the student can get close
enough to the screen. An agent can describe the action and in some cases,
rea subtitles. Stuff like that is helpful in foreign language classes. 

 

What would be difficult is if the student has to rely on Aira in a math
class, and the instructor is talking and writing on a board. Some math
instructors insist that if they are going over mathematical concepts, the
only way to understand them fully is to write out equations and how to solve
them by hand. Aira agents might have difficulty seeing the writing, and even
if they take pictures of it so they can magnify it, that takes time. It
would be difficult to listen to an instructor, listen to the agent, and take
notes. 

 

One other difficulty occurs if the institution doesn't establish firm
guidelines with the students. When Aira was set up for students on the Indy
campus, they were given the glasses and told good luck. Any technical issues
that came up they had to solve themselves. And now that the new Horizon
glasses are out, since the students weren't given guidelines and the
administration who originally set up Aira for the students all moved on,
there's big debate about whether or not the students themselves can request
the upgrade to the Horizon glasses. 

 

Incidentally, Bryan, you mentioned how Aira can drain a cell phone's battery
power. With the new Horizon glasses comes a phone which can be used with the
new AI Chloe. That way your student would be able to receive phone calls and
messages and the like on their own personal phones and have it as backup in
case the Aira phone drains. Chloe will either open KNFB reader for you and
scan documents (which is useful when instructors give out last minute
handouts) or it will connect to an agent. If it's in the middle of class and
the OCR didn't do so well on scanning a document, a student could use the
new Aira message feature and text an agent and attach the OCR image, and the
agent could text back what it was supposed to say. 

 

Another way that students have used Aira is to check over the formatting of
papers before turning them in. I think we all have been duped by auto format
in Word. An agent would be able to help the student make sure the paper was
in the format the student needs.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Mary

 

 

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf
Of Kluesner, Bryon
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2018 5:55 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Experiences with Aira

 

We had one student use it last semester and it was paid for as a monthly
subscription ($89?) by a private donation to the office. The complaint the
student had was it drained his cell phone battery. He is working with Aira
on how to get a discounted institutional rate and plans to to talk to city
mayor about making it available downtown. He did like it, except the cell
phone app issue.

 

Bryon

 

Bryon Kluesner, RhD

Adaptive Technology Coordinator

Disability Resource Center

Adjunct Professor

College of Health, Education & Professional Studies

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

103 Frist Hall

Chattanooga, TN 37403

423-425-5251

 

  _____  

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu
<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> > on behalf of
Priest, Ione <ipriest at msudenver.edu <mailto:ipriest at msudenver.edu> >
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2018 5:16 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> 
Subject: [Athen] Experiences with Aira 

 

Good afternoon all,

 

I am curious if anyone has any experiences in using Aira (aira.io
<https://aira.io/> ) with students who are blind, specifically on an
institution level. We have one student utilizing a personal subscription in
the classroom with seemingly great success, and we are curious if this might
be a worthwhile investment for all of our students to utilize. Any
information you are able to provide would be greatly appreciated.


 <https://aira.io/> 

 <https://aira.io/> Home - Aira : Aira

aira.io

Your Life, Your Schedule, Right Now. Using augmented reality, Aira connects
people who are blind or low vision to a trained professional agent who is
dedicated to further enhancing their everyday experience - completely
hands-free assistance at the touch of a button.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Ione Priest, CPACC
Accessibility Technology Manager
Access Center 

Plaza 122

Metropolitan State University of Denver

ipriest at msudenver.edu <mailto:ipriest at msudenver.edu> 

Phone: 303-615-0200

Fax: 720-778-5662



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