Finally, Pogue Speaks to US

David Pogue over at the NY Times has addressed our main issue in his blog: Gadgets With the Blind in Mind - Pogue’s Posts. A look through the comments so far (over fifty as of now) shows quite a range of responses from ignorant trolls to many insightful contributions. It is worth reading the comments (if you can drain the red from you eyes from the reaction to the troll comments).

Transit Info by Text Messages

Have you ever needed to take a bus or train but not had a schedule handy? Have you ever looked at the posted schedules at stops and found them missing or out of date? Or, like me, do your find printed schedules too difficult to read? I have a plan. However, I am not the first to think it up, as it has been implemented in some cities.

Public transit systems ought to offer schedules via text messages. You can access all sorts of data, from nearby restaurants to movie schedules to sports scores via Google's SMS system (see description at sms.google.com). Why couldn't the same system apply to transit schedules?

If each stop were label led with a stop ID, then a person waiting at the stop could send the stop ID to the designated text message service (e.g. GoTTA for the Triangle Transit Authority) and receive in return the next five buses expected at the stop. Sending the bus line (e.g. CHT NS for Chapel Hill Transit's NC route or TTA 412 for the TTA's 412 route) would return the remaining schedule for that bus for the day. I think that this system would be very useful. This could also be hooked up with those new real-time bus/train notification systems.

With such a system, transit authorities would not have to roll out real-time schedule signs at every stop to provide riders with access. Bus systems would not need to print and distribute so many bus schedules. Riders could access this information anytime and from anywhere.

This system makes buses and trains more convenient for everyone, but it also makes them more accessible to the disabled. Disabled people must rely disproportionately on public transit and have greater challenges reading and using available schedules. So I hope more cities adopt such systems for their accessibility as well as their convenience.

Zooming in the new IE

At first, I did not like the new Internet Explorer (IE). It buried the accessibility options I like most (text size and ignore colors specified on webpages). There is one new redeeming feature, the new zoom.

Zoom does what it says. Just like zooming in and out with your camera, zoom lets you magnify websites at any level of magnification you desire. I usually keep it between 125% and 200%, but it depends on the website. Very useful. Unlike text size, zoom works on all web pages. The only downside is that many pages will extend eve further off the right side of the screen. The solution for that has been to get a wide-screen monitor.

Zoom's official home is under the Pages menu right about my other favorite, text size.The excellent news is that there are two easier ways to access it. First, the bottom right corner of the IE window has a "change zoom level" drop down menu. Even better are the keyboard controls; Ctrl-+ to zoom in and Ctrl-- to zoom out.

Time to zoom away.

Fast Food Menus

Yet another gripe I have are the wall menus at fast food joints. From food court Burger King to local McAlister's Deli to the airport Starbuck's, all of these places have their menus on the wall, but no handy large print paper menu on hand. Asking the over-worked and under-trained cashier for help picking your meal either ends up in confusion or inappropriate questions and always holds up the line full of hungry folks. When I was a kid, I always picked and memorized one thing, "doublecheeseburgerlargefiriesandacoke". This worked well for McDonald's and BK's, but did not extend well to other spots. It definitely does not work today since I do not eat at either burger joint anymore. [See Fast Food Nation.] Why can't these places have a hard copy of the menu available?

I know that some do, usually a take-out menu. This is useful, but it would not cost these big franchisers a lot to design and distribute a large print version. Some might say that the menus are available (mostly) on the web, but who is going to print out and carry around a binder full of menus on the off-chance they hit a fast food spot that day?

Food for thought.

The Graying of the Web (NYTimes)

The Times has a great article on the elder segment of web users. They may be evolving into to major new web force with very different web usage and consuming patterns. In addition to virtual changes, I think the baby boomer generation will push designers to develop more accessible (but still stylish) tangible products.

VisionWalk

This year I am doing the VisionWalk (http://www.visonwalk.org/) fundraiser for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. The FFB does research on several vision disorders, including mine. If you have a few dollars to spare, please consider sparing some. I have a Visionwalk page at http://www.fightblindness.org/goto/tco . No pressure!