[access-uk] Re: The iPad could be the best mobile accessibility device on the market

  • From: Tristram Llewellyn <tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 09:52:46 +0000

For a blind user the extra real estate of an iPad panel is no gain and in fact 
more of a problem to navigate with native iPad applications.  As has just been 
pointed out many of the same features will make it onto an iPhone or iPod later 
this year.  From a purely blindness perspective it is more a question of 
waiting for a iPhone update rather than buying into the iPad hardware.

The iPad world seems idyllic at the moment however issues of its weight, glossy 
screen and performances within higher environmental light levels count against 
it purely as an ideal reading device.   Those issues may not matter for the 
constituents of this list but they are issues elsewhere.  Many would be 
forgiven for thinking that post iPad there is no role for e-ink screens like 
the Kindle.  Likewise Apple have been able to spin their model and pricing as 
the way forward which it is not necessarily and by encouraging content 
providers to provide their content in apps rather than browsers has its own 
consequences.

Whilst it is great the iPad has accessibility features built in the tendency in 
all the reviews I have seen of this device is to imagine that it is a magic 
bullet for every problem and they tend to read like yet another advert.  That 
worries me because for those who cannot get on with the paradigm of 
touchscreen+speech equals good accessibility may feel left out if they find it 
does not provides the answers.  They will not be able to wholeheartedly embrace 
the love in currently underway.  I would like to see a much more careful 
analysis of this device especially from a VI perspective but I haven't really 
seen it.

Regards.

Tristram Llewellyn
Sight and Sound Technology
Technical Support
www.sightandsound.co.uk

Mail:
Tristram: tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Technical: Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
General - info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Phone:
Support line: 0845 634 7979

Sight and Sound Technology Limited is a company registered in England and 
Wales, with company number 1408275.

Sight and Sound Technology
Welton House North Wing
Summerhouse Road
Moulton Park
Northampton
NN3 6WD



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