[gps-talkusers] Re: your assessment of C E S?

Hi Mike, I know that cES is over tomorrow. I looked for stuff from you on the Sendero site but didn't find anything today. I heard some discussion of the latest and greatest techie stuff today on NPR and not once did I hear the words accessible or accessibility. Of course I would have been surprised if I had. I hope you tried to put Accessibility on people's radar as you went around, but then, that would be an overwhelming task and you would probably be seen as a winer depending on how you went about it. At any rate, with the advent of all the "new, cool" (touch screen) stuff, and surely more to come, because as we all know the I-Phone is just SO COOL right????? Anyway I hope, but doubt, that vendors are thinking of accessibility when they are making all sorts of things ranging from many new pocket devices, interactive touch menus for restaurants, tabletop touch screens with icons like those being developed by Microsoft, and wall sized interactive computer menus and video displays. Just curious what you discovered there and your thoughts about the future trends of off the shelf products that might be accessible for blind folks. Clearly the Garman product is one that, while half way there, might as well not be considered as such at all. Looking forward to your comments. Jim
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael May" <MikeMay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: "GPS-talkusers-freelists.org" <GPS-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 11:56 PM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] update on Garmin with voice control
I finally got a good demo of the Garmin voice controlled products. As sexy as this may sound, a blind person still cannot independently use a Garmin with voice recognition.
What happens is when you say something like coffee shops, a list is presented on the screen, then you have to choose one of the options but they are not spoken. The sighted user sees which numbered item they want and they say for example, Select number 4. There was no way to up and down arrow through the list to hear what the options were.
Magellan has a similar voice recognition product. Since sighted folks don't need all the voice feedback blind users need, the interface simply doesn't echo everything presented on the screen.
Typically, the destination is being set before a trip begins so there isn't the need for the sighted driver to use the GPS unit strictly with speech. They can look at the screen and speed things up by not having to listen to a lot of what they would consider unnecessary voice prompts. 

Mike



Michael G. May

CEO Sendero Group
Developers and distributors of the Cadillac of accessible GPS products as well as distributing BrailleNote, VoiceNote, Victor Stream, Talks, Miniguide and the ID Mate
Crashing Through by Robert Kurson available at http://www.CrashingThrough.com 

MikeMay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.SenderoGroup.com

1-888-757-6810, Fax (530) 757-6830, Mobile (530) 304-0007
Sendero Group, LLC
1118 Maple Lane, Davis, CA 95616-1723, USA

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