[real-eyes] Re: Touch-screen gadgets alienate blind
- From: <bigdaddylou63@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:14:47 -0500
energy to, hahahaha. Depending on how much you have, I guess.
Peace
Luis
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sarah Jevnikar" <sarah.jevnikar@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 11:01 AM
Subject: [real-eyes] Re: Touch-screen gadgets alienate blind
> Shoveling is great - it just takes a lot of motivation.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: real-eyes-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:real-eyes-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of bigdaddylou63@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 6:59 AM
> To: real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [real-eyes] Re: Touch-screen gadgets alienate blind
>
> this one Ginny, was forwarded to the A C B list I'm on so I just forwarded
> it. No magic wand, even though I wish I had one, hahahahaha, just like
> many
>
> of us I'm sure.
>
> Insomnia? I feel your pain. Why, if you don't mind me asking. Anything
> troubling you? Sometimes the stresses in our lives can cause this you
> know.
>
> How funny, I just sent you an e mail talking about mine, hahahahahaha.
> What
>
> timing.
>
> It is working on 6 in the morning out here in the great Northwest or let
> me
> say the Midwest, but I do live in Northern Indiana which is right off Lake
> Michigan. I can hear the snow plows working and have been for a little
> time
>
> now. We're expecting like 6 inches of snow after all is said and done.
> Do
> I like it? NO!!!!!, that's in capital letters, just so you know,
> hahahahaha.
>
> Just the thought of going outside and having to shovel is depressing, not
> to
>
> mention having to get dressed for it.
>
> I'm sure, you've found out if you've been surfing why the internet is
> called
>
> the "world wide web", hahahahahaha. There is just way to much out there,
> wow. No wonder it could be bad and good.
>
> Hope you feel better and are able to get some sleep, why don't you take
> like
>
> some Tylenol or drink some tea? This might help relax you. Do you take
> anything for it or have you had it before? Just curious.
>
>
> Peace
> Luis
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "V Nork" <ginisd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 6:26 AM
> Subject: [real-eyes] Re: Touch-screen gadgets alienate blind
>
>
>> Dear Luis, I am up late again, insomnia for the first time really in my
>> life, and am looking forward to reading this. What a nice surprise on
>> this
>> night especially.No hurry or anything, but what was the process you went
>> through to find this article? I recently took a Library science class,
>> and
>> often use Proquest, a library database you may have used. If not, I can
>> tell you about it some time if you like. So, with this article, did you
>> go
>> to one of the websites or links here in this E mail and go to the search
>> box and type in the word blin, maybe with an asterisk to give you all
>> the
>> forms of the word? Or what? Or did you just get out your magic wand?
>> Anyway, thanks for this, Su Amiga Virginia
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <bigdaddylou63@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 3:06 AM
>> Subject: [real-eyes] Touch-screen gadgets alienate blind
>>
>>
>>>> Touch-screen gadgets alienate blind
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Yahoo! Tech
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> NEW YORK (Reuters) -
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The craze for touch-screen gadgets, sparked by Apple Inc's popular
>>>> iPhone,
>>>> is raising worries that a whole generation of consumer electronics
>>>>
>>>> will be out of the reach of the blind.
>>>>
>>>> Motown icon Stevie Wonder and other advocates came to the world's
>>>> biggest
>>>> gadget fest, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this
>>>> week,
>>>> to
>>>> convince
>>>>
>>>> vendors to consider the needs of the blind.
>>>>
>>>> Wonder told a CES event that his wishlist included a car he could
>>>> drive --
>>>> which he acknowledged was probably "a ways away" -- and a Sirius XM
>>>> satellite
>>>>
>>>> radio he could operate.
>>>>
>>>> "If you can take those few steps further, you can give us the
>>>> excitement,
>>>> the pleasure and the freedom of being a part of it," said the famed
>>>> musician.
>>>>
>>>> Wonder said some companies had managed to make their products more
>>>> accessible to the blind, sometimes without even meaning to. He cited an
>>>> iPod
>>>> music player
>>>>
>>>> and Research in Motion's BlackBerry as gadgets he likes to use.
>>>>
>>>> Advocates argue that if product designers take into account blind
>>>> needs,
>>>> they would make electronics that are easier to use for the sighted as
>>>> well.
>>>>
>>>> The good news is that manufacturers do not need to put large sums of
>>>> money
>>>> into making products accessible, nor would they have to forsake
>>>> innovation,
>>>> said
>>>>
>>>> Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation For The Blind.
>>>>
>>>> "We don't want to hold up technological progress," he said. "What we're
>>>> saying is, think about the interface and set it up in such a way that
>>>> it's
>>>> simple
>>>>
>>>> .... The simpler you make the user interface of a product, it's going
>>>> to
>>>> reach more people sighted or blind."
>>>>
>>>> TOUCH SCREENS
>>>>
>>>> With the popularity of touch screens, once simple products such as
>>>> televisions and stereos have become difficult for blind people to use
>>>> as
>>>> they often require
>>>>
>>>> navigation of multiple menus that need to be seen to be used
>>>> effectively.
>>>>
>>>> "That's an increasing problem with new digital devices. It's easy to
>>>> add
>>>> feature after feature that's buried under menu after submenu," said
>>>> Mike
>>>> Starling,
>>>>
>>>> chief technology officer of National Public Radio, which is working on
>>>> accessible options.
>>>>
>>>> Manufacturers have been putting touch screens in everything from
>>>> calculators
>>>> and watches to computers and music players.
>>>>
>>>> Sendero Group President Mike May, who is blind, joked, "Can I ski 60
>>>> miles
>>>> an hour downhill? Yes. Use a flat panel microwave? No." Sendero makes
>>>> GPS
>>>> navigational
>>>>
>>>> devices that have an audio output for the blind.
>>>>
>>>> There are also screen readers that give an audio reading of a phone's
>>>> menu.
>>>> But Anne Taylor, director of access technologies at the National
>>>> Federation
>>>>
>>>> for the Blind, says they do not yet help her to use a touch-screen
>>>> phone.
>>>>
>>>> She said the ability to use a device without needing to look at it
>>>> could
>>>> help sighted people who are driving or older people whose eyesight is
>>>> starting
>>>>
>>>> to deteriorate.
>>>>
>>>> While blind users can buy screen-reading software for $300 upward, it
>>>> tends
>>>> to only work on certain phones, often the most expensive smartphones.
>>>> Sendero
>>>>
>>>> said accessible technology is often expensive, and about 70 percent of
>>>> the
>>>> U.S. blind population is unemployed.
>>>>
>>>> Taylor is using CES as a forum to present vendors a set of suggestions
>>>> for
>>>> product design that she sees benefiting both sighted and blind
>>>> consumers.
>>>>
>>>> For example, manufacturers could include an easy-to-use start-over
>>>> button,
>>>> different sounds for different menus, and controls with good tactile
>>>> feedback.
>>>>
>>>> PROGRESS
>>>>
>>>> Ahead of the show, there were some signs that vendors, while unlikely
>>>> to
>>>> give up on the touch-screen trend, may be more ready to consider
>>>> consumers
>>>> with
>>>>
>>>> disabilities.
>>>>
>>>> Developers at Google Inc are working on ways to make touch-screen
>>>> phones,
>>>> including those based on its own Android mobile software, usable for
>>>> blind
>>>> people.
>>>>
>>>> National Public Radio announced a special radio receiver technology and
>>>> software that would connect a digital radio to a dynamic Braille
>>>> generating
>>>> device.
>>>>
>>>> It has also created special digital radio channels for readings of the
>>>> day's
>>>> newspapers.
>>>>
>>>> Dice Electronics has made a prototype radio that incorporates the NPR
>>>> technology, and NPR's Starling hopes this will become a commercial
>>>> product
>>>> in 2009.
>>>>
>>>> Starling has also set up meetings at CES with other manufacturers in
>>>> the
>>>> hope they will include NPR's technology. He said responses to requests
>>>> for
>>>> information,
>>>>
>>>> which often go unheeded, are much more active this year.
>>>>
>>>> Some manufacturers could use their production facilities to make such
>>>> devices, as demand weakens for more mainstream products in the economic
>>>> downturn,
>>>>
>>>> he said.
>>>>
>>>> "I think in general there may be a view that accessibility may be
>>>> becoming
>>>> the new green," said Starling.
>>>>
>>>> (For more news from the Consumer Electronics Show, please click on
>>>> http://www.reuters.com/news/topics/CES and visit the Reuters MediaFile
>>>> blog
>>>> at http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile)
>>>>
>>>> (Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Richard Chang)
>>>
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