[nfbwatlk] FW: [List] UK article about blind youth & internet

Mike Freeman k7uij at panix.com
Sat Oct 6 03:35:21 UTC 2012



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Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 11:10 PM
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Subject: [List] UK article about blind youth & internet

Karl-Erik here with something disturbing.

I just read this article from a friend's post on facebook.  It made me
want to throw up, and not because it was gross, but because of the level
of ignorance and misinformation that was actually published in a
respectable newspaper, the Guardian, about blind youth and technology,
noteably the internet.

The article is as follows:


Blind Young People Aren't Well Connected to the Internet... Yet

Back on my work email, I read a message from Lee, one of the blind young
people that my charity, The Royal London Society for Blind People (RLSB),
works with. He wrote: "At weekends I just stay at home wishing I could go
out and do the same things as other people. I am not allowed to go out by
myself and I don't want to go out with my sister all the time."

Lee's experience is a snapshot of life if you are blind and young. It's
not the futuristic digital generation, depicted in Danny Boyle's Olympic
opening ceremony - of making friends and expressing themselves via the
internet and using smartphones.

In the UK, more than a fifth of young married couples first met online, a
quarter of jobs are only advertised online, and the average person spends
eight hours a month on Facebook. In stark contrast, nearly 40% of disabled
people have never used the internet, accounting for half of all people who
have never been online.

Of the blind people motivated to get online, most go into battle using
outdated kit badly adapted to today's internet, which is largely built by
and for sighted people. Younger blind people are increasingly disconnected
from the internet, and this in turn intensifies the dark reality of their
lives: lonely, depressed, skint and with little hope for the future.

Not every blind young person is like Lee, of course. A small number of
them are actively making the most of the net: chatting, shopping, trading
and getting work. The solution is found in smart touchscreen devices
equipped with the latest software and apps.

Blind people have a history of using touch to empower themselves. Braille,
invented in the 19th century, is the classic example. In the 21st century
touchscreen smartphone devices will become the new Braille. So why doesn't
every young person that's blind get a tablet PC? Our research highlights
three significant barriers.

. First, browsing the internet is difficult if you are blind: research
participants took up to 11 minutes to find out the following day's weather
forecast. Unless you're a blind super-user, browsing doesn't improve
without specialist software and training.

. Second, learning to use new technology is difficult if you can't see it:
blind young people exhibit low levels of new technology adoption. It's
disruptive to their hard learned routines. Additionally, as technology
brands rarely target younger ages of blind people, they aren't aware of
new products.

. Third, touchscreen smartphones cost too much. More than two thirds of
blind people live in poverty - buying a device or getting a monthly data
contract is too often out of reach.

Because we speak to people like Lee every day we decided we ought to do
something about the situation. RLSB's goal is to get a life changing fully
accessible touchscreen device into the hands of every blind young person
in and around London.

We asked young people like Lee what would make the internet more
attractive - they said they wanted the internet to talk with them, like
the computer on Star Trek. We called this a Conversational Internet, where
devices and users ask each other questions, jointly navigating the content
of web pages. You can watch a concept video of it here.

We reached out to those we thought could help, and received incredible
responses from many global technology brands. IBM's UK chief executive
contacted us proposing their annual Extreme Blue intern program could
develop a prototype solution. Two weeks ago a basic working version was
unveiled to the press.

To increase adoption of new technology among blind young people we need to
inspire people to move beyond the limits of sub-standard, difficult to use
'access technology' and create 'everybody technology'. I believe
increasingly there needn't be a choice between access or mainstream
technology - mainstream innovation can deliver products good enough for
anyone.

To support this vision, we're creating an expert advisory network, drawn
from the third sector, to work closely with technology companies to create
technology that works for everybody. It's also important blind people and
developers get to know each other better, and we'll be hosting our own
event called Technology without Limits on 30 November in London to do just
that.

And no I haven't forgotten about the third challenge; the prohibitive cost
of touchscreen technology. At our event we'll also be launching our pledge
to provide a touchscreen smartphone, loaded with the best software, to
each and every one of the 7,000 blind young people in London who needs one
(donations are, of course, welcome!).

Today, blind young people like Lee are stuck at home, isolated, inactive
and cut-off from the world. In the 21st century this needn't be the case.
Just as with Braille, with the right technology, the determination to use
it and our help, blind young people can take another big step towards
living their lives beyond blindness.

Julian Dailly is director of communications at the Royal London Society
for Blind People

Retrieved from:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/oct/02/blind
-digital-technology-internet-design?fb=optOut



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