[nabs-l] The craze for touch-screen gadgets is raising worriesthat a whole generation of consumer electronics will be outof the reach of the blind

[hannah]

that would be soooooo awesome!!!!! Who knows they might be 
working on that

> ----- Original Message -----
>From: Beth <thebluesisloose at gmail.com
>To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 18:40:54 -0500
>Subject: Re: [nabs-l] The craze for touch-screen gadgets is 
raising worriesthat a whole generation of consumer electronics 
will be outof the reach of the blind

>Wow.  I won't be surprised if I see a car I can drive.
>Beth

>On 1/9/09, Chris Foster <cfoster at nfbco.org> wrote:

>> 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>http://www.reuters.com/ne
ws/topics/CES
>> and visit the Reuters MediaFile blog at
>> 
<http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile>http://blogs.reuters.com/medi
afile)

>> (Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Richard Chang)





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