Ah - yes; this subject of voice access and touch-screen technology and
other related issues dealing with accessibility has been a real bugaboo
for quite some time now. While there are companies out there doing a great
job of making products accessible either by manufacturing stand-alone
devices or developing software that'll provide decent interfaces to
non-accessible applications, today's electronic instruments are by enlarge
inaccessible to people who are blind. I've been told by some sighted
musicians that they don't like touch-screen based instruments because
they're difficult to deal with on stage and in situations where the
lighting is such that they can't see the screens properly. they feel that
they might hit the wrong button during a performance, and I don't have to
elaborate on the consequences of that.
When I was a Product Specialist for the former Technics Musical
Instruments, I had many conversations with folks in research and
development about this very issue, and while there was a fair amount of
enthusiasm from people in the US, it fell on deaf ears when it was brought
up at the factory in Japan. One idea was to not change the design of the
instruments, rather it was to adapt them so that they could be interfaced
with computers that had assistive technologies running. I didn't believe
that the wheel needed to be reinvented at that point, and I still don't.
However, the fact still remains that accessibility to today's Workstations
and consumer line keyboards is a major problem for the blind community.
Before I became aware of Dancing Dots and its mission, I was considering
calling it quits to my musical career because I was growing sick and tired
of trying to do a professional job in putting projects together, and just
plain being able to operate an instrument for my own enjoyment. I already
have many frustrations in using products from cell phones to DVRs
confidently; I certainly don't need to compound those frustrations trying
to deal with things that are supposed to enhance what I love doing. On top
of that, there are all kinds of appliances and other everyday devices that
one needs for daily living that are incorporating touch-screen controls,
and I fear that this could put the blind community further back into the
dark ages.
Ramy's right in that more needs to be done in lobbying for better
accessibility to things, especially products in the music industry.
I think that one major problem is that the blind community doesn't have
the resources needed to lobby corporations and government bodies
sufficiently so as to be properly heard on this issue. There was an
article that appeared in the Baltimore Son several years ago and was
picked up by my local newspaper that dealt with accessibility issues with
Web Sites, etc. A gentleman by the name of Dr Jonathon Lazar, who I
believe is a computer science professor, made a point that nearly 75 % of
the adult blind community in the US is out of work because many of the
applications used in various places of employment, be it Internet or
otherwise, are becoming more and more inaccessible due to how they're
designed. Many of them could be made accessible just by adding or
modifying code. There have been a lot of discussions on this subject for
many years now, but that's all it has amounted to, just discussions. I
wrote to Dr Lazar and suggested that we somehow need to get passed the
discussion phase and move toward a more pro-active phase where things get
done in resolving these problems, but I never got a response one way or
another. I believe that there are practical solutions to achieving this
goal without necessarily having to redesign already existing technologies.
Dancing Dots is doing just that. I can't say enough positive things about
what this company's doing in that regard. They've been able to take a
program like Sonar and make it work for us, and that's not only amazing,
but it's proving my point that it can be done without having to retool
everything to do it. So keep up the great work! In the meantime, we have
to figure out a way to generate resources to effectively lobby for further
accessibility in all things without breaking the bank.
Have a good one.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ramy Moustafa" <moshtaqlealganna@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 15:41
Subject: [ddots-l] O.t voice over
Hi all:
Really am too happy, to see the voice over is making another success,
After huge success in I phones, apple, put there voice over screen reader
in
Ipods.
And now, we can easily use the ipod with touch screen machines,
So my question, can’t we try to tell the musical companys that are
producing
touch screen keyboards like korg, to put a screen reader to be able to
use
there products?
Even they can make it optional, but really its well be very very helpful.
So please, try to think with me how can we start, my English is not so
good
to make an online potition.
And don’t know how can we show to them that we are so interested in this
matter.
So please, need your ideas and thoughts to be able to use the touch
screen
keyboards, cause I think that all world well go toward this touch screen
things.
To read more about voice over go to:
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/itunes/ipodtouch.html
Any ideas well be highly abbreciated
Cheers
Ramy Moustafa
Skype:
Roma30
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