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Stevie Wonder Says Touch-Screen Gadgets Exclude the Blind
While Wonder cited an iPod and BlackBerry as gadgets he regularly uses and enjoys, he still finds plenty of room for improvement in regards to gadgets' becoming more accessible to blind consumers. "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," he explained.
But, with the current prevalence of touch screens in cutting-edge gadgets, those steps could prove to be difficult ones.
"Can I ski 60 miles an hour downhill? Yes. Use a flat panel microwave? No," laughed Mike May, President of Sendero Group. Blind himself, May's company offers accessible GPS units with specially-designed audio features.
Because many touch-screen gadgets, like the iPhone, have no tactile quality to their controls, the new wave of gadgets cannot be used, or at least easily used, by blind consumers. At present, audio 'reading' software for smart phones is available, but the programs are expensive, limited in compatibility and -- to many blind users -- not sufficiently helpful.
Anne Taylor, the director of access technologies at the National Federation for the Blind, has suggested that designers incorporate tactile response, distinct function-assigned sounds and a start-over button in their models.
Ever ahead of the curve, Google's developers are already working to make touch-screen phones more accessible to the blind.
Intriguingly, and on another front, developers at National Public Radio have announced designs for an innovative software that could connect a digital radio to a device that generates Braille text, allowing blind users to literally read the radio.
We can only hope that, as technology marches on for most people, it will march on for all people. [From: Reuters]
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Comments
5
Subscribe to commentszioncatJan 12th 2009 1:00PM
I understand what he is saying completly but are the compaines and manufactures of these gadgets going to do something about it probably not. Maybe if a company like apple were to invest in research and development and introduce new gadgets that the blind could use and enjoy then I believe everyone else would fall in line.
EJJan 12th 2009 2:05PM
Does everybody want to pay more for consumer products because a small amount of the blind want a Blackberry? Nobody really needs a blackberry unless you absolutely need it for business purposes. If it didn't make me money, I wouldn't need one. Do we now have to make all automobiles blind accessible, so that they can drive them? Do we have to create pool tables so blind people can play? Do we have to retool the local bowling alley so that our blind citizens can bowl? How about a game of tetris? Electronic equipment is built on the basis that there is a demand for it, it is built for the masses. If Stevie Wonder wants to invest in electronics for the blind, he should do that, it would be a good thing for him to be involved with to take an active role & financial role to make it happen. Shaking down companies Jesse Jackson or Union Labor style to make everything cost more because of a few people can't enjoy them because they have a disability is just wrong. I'd be against it, perhaps you can get an earmark from congress, I hear they are still handing them out.
tana greenJan 12th 2009 2:30PM
Because a market is small is no reason to exclude it. Because a task is challenging is no reason to avoid it. Someone who can see and has sufficient empathy for all the people who don't and who has the patience and the skill to invent, adapt and distribute whatever is needed to include this segment of society is to be applauded. The naysayers and the downright prejudiced should maybe rethink their attitudes toward the rest of humanity.
beardofdoomJan 12th 2009 3:07PM
whatever, hippie.
VideokonferenzJan 12th 2009 9:29PM
Gadgets for blinds, more people will love it for sure especially the blinds.