Re: Sonified Debugger vs. Screenreader Question

But as I said I am not against research I am just questioning what benefit it will provide. If it is a great thing for us how is it great for us. Surely there is a problem they are trying to solve by doing this research. All I can get is it is a great thing and no explaination as to why. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jared Wright" <wright.jaredm@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 11:21 PM
Subject: Re: Sonified Debugger vs. Screenreader Question



Jared Wright wrote:
"The research certainly is intriguing and worthwhile, and users possibly playing music 
in the background shouldn't slow it up at all."
I'd hoped to make it clear that whatever research is being conducted is by no means a bad thing. However, the general idea this research had seemed to be pointing to was some sort of assistive technology that utilized a sophistocated sound scheme to inform users rather than the mostly text-to-speech mediums we get information through now. There had been prier discussion, in this and other threads, about the possible practicality of such an idea, and my remark was intended to provide an additional take on the overlying concept and to bring something to the general idea's discussion that had, to my knowledge, been overlooked. Perhaps you are unconsciously allowing John's apparent misgivings about the research to modify the context of my own remark. Rest assured, I need no convincing of the potential merit of such research. My impression is that Andreas, compared to much of the list, is somewhat unfamiliar with the kinds of assistive technology we regularly use and just how we use it. He seems to be making a thorough effort to learn these things. Knowing that at least one blind user, and I would imagine plenty more, listens to music or listens consistently to some other sound source while computing may effect his research now or in the future. It wouldn't be the first time someone thought the tunes went off to account for all the visual access technology I use, and given where the general direction of this research seems heading, I think it's a relevant tidbit. 

JW

Matthew2007 wrote:

You kinda contradicted yourself in the first 2 sentences below.
Nevertheless, I pretty much understand your point regarding individual differences, but you too are making the same mistake as John. You guys are taking a sample of 1 and applying the findings of this single sample to the entire population of blind individuals. Andreus is not basing his research on what John might or might not like, he is hoping to apply his findings to the majority of the target population, and he cannot do this by simply focusing on John's opinions. McDonald's knows they have no chance with vegetarians, yet they are not throwing in the towel but rather spending millions of dollars in research for most members of their population of food eaters on this planet. 

Matthew
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jared Wright" <wright.jaredm@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 4:03 PM
Subject: Re: Sonified Debugger vs. Screenreader Question
Oh, I know that productivity definitely doesn't go down when I turn Winamp off. But now we have to consider just how great a benefit these sound schemes could provide, which I tried to allude to in the last sentence of my original post. Productivity be damned, I'm a musician and an avid music lover. I consciously sacrifice some productivity in order to enjoy music while I work. That takes the discussion into the realm of personal preferences and psychology, (for instance, while I know productivity is higher, I find myself generally less comfortable in my working environment if music is not present) so I'll not pull things too far that way on this list. The research certainly is intriguing and worthwhile, and users possibly playing music in the background shouldn't slow it up at all. It's just something I instantly thought of when I started reading this, since it's something I'd have to confront if ever presented with an idea like this. I thought it deserved a place on the table. Before I go...
"You might be interested in knowing that some research shows that while music may not redirect attention dramatically, listening to spoken words such as commercials and especially talk shows on the radio does interfere with human attention." NO radio for me. It's all off my hard drive, hence there're no commercials. I haven't researched this topic very thoroughly, I admit, but your info implies that this would not be as distracting, since it's all music and music the user is probably familiar with at that. Just thought it should be clarified, since I don't think this is uncommon, what with people's personal media libraries able to all fit on the tiniest of storage devices now. 

JW

Matthew2007 wrote:
Interesting you mention computing when music is playing. I can't stand doing this as I cannot focus while my attention is constantly redirected from the task at hand to each different song on the radio. You might be interested in knowing that some research shows that while music may not redirect attention dramatically, listening to spoken words such as commercials and especially talk shows on the radio does interfere with human attention.
Regarding your comments on productivity, you might find it interesting to also run a little bit of a reversal design in that you might want to find a manner of assessing your productivity when listening to the radio for a month or so, then assess productivity for the following month without listening to the radio, then finally assessing productivity for the third month while listening to the radio. You might surprise yourself in that you might find you can focus much better as well as completing tasks much faster if you turn off the radio in order to not spread your pool of attention over multiple tasks rather than just a few tasks. 

Matthew
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jared Wright" <wright.jaredm@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: Sonified Debugger vs. Screenreader Question



John Greer wrote:

"But Mat don't you want to program to Beethoven?"
Interesting you should put it like that, since that's been my overwhelming thought during the time I've been reading this thread. I don't know how the rest of you feel about other sounds in your computing environment, but I am rarely if ever working without 
music playing. A variety of other factors in my computing environment
generate sound. One nice thing about the boring, droning speech synthesizers is that they do isolate themselves within a certain segment of my aural consciousness, allowing me to interpret what they're telling me without having to pick their cues out amongst from whatever my current soundscape might be. IN order for me to entertain the idea of using something that uses a lot of auxiliary "normal" sounds, I'd have to see more than a cursory potential spike in productivity. 

JW
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