Just in case Penny is appointed to that committee tasked with making
suggestions for redesigning the player:
I began thinking about what Frank said about the elderly sending back the
machines because they found them too difficult, and about the teaching that
Carl and Cathy do with their clients to help them use the machines, and two
things came to mind. 1. Elderly people are often forgetful. 2. The newly
blinded elderly usually have some vision and they are accustomed to
depending on their vision. Carl mentioned emphasizing the red color of the
power button, and the green color of the play button. When I first got the
machine, I didn't depend on the key describer mode to remind me what the
buttons were. I depended on the braille letter next to each button and set
of arrows until I became familiar with the player. The newly blind elderly
don't use braille, but they're not going to take the cartridge out of the
machine and press the keys each time they need to know what they are. So it
would be a really good idea to put a large yellow letter next to each
control in addition to the braille letter. Bright yellow is the easiest
color to see and it is a good contrast with the dark gray of the machine.
Some help would still be necessary and there isn't room for an entire word
to be written in large enough print for people to see it. But the S for
speed and the V for volume, for example, just as we have in braille, would
be helpful.
Miriam
