The Touch Sight camera

Touch Sight Camera Allows The Blind To Take And Touch Photos | Device Daily

The Touch Sight, a concept camera from Samsung, is a great stride forward for visually impaired photographers with little of no vision. Instead of an LCD screen, it has a Braiille display that can present the image in a 3D format. Since it is only a concept, it is not for sale.

I will email the designer (Chueh Lee: chueh.lee@samsung.com), to offer thanks and encouragement. Maybe you have a moment to do so as well.

Slashdot | GM Researching Windshields For Old Drivers

Slashdot is running an interesting piece on a new accessible technology in development; GM Researching Windshields For Old Drivers. It seems like a cool idea that would benefit all drivers, not just older ones.

I really appreciate seeing developments in technology oriented towards accessibility like this one. Maybe one day, this will allow partially sighted folks to drive as well.

Study explores how blind pedestrians can cross safely

I spotted this article, Study explores how blind pedestrians can cross safely, in the Triangle's News & Observer. "Walk faster" does not seem like the best technology for pedestrians, never mind visually impaired ones.

My Point Exactly

This is what I have being saying for a while now:

“A lot of technology was originally developed for people with severe disabilities,” Mr. Sinclair said. “But these solutions are proving valuable to a much broader range of people.”

Th Times is running a piece, At a Certain Age, Simplicity Sells in High-Tech Gadgets , in today's paper. It is worth the read, though it is light on examples. The article mentions the new Jitterbug, some new GPS units and some desktop concessions.

When are these companies going to realize that a few easy design tweaks can make their products more appealing (and accessible) to a wider audience? More high-contrast visual interfaces, more auditory and tactile cues, more text-to-speech. None of this would be expensive, bue all of it would make products better.

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).

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.

New Audio Tours: iJourneys

Today's NY Times has an artucke about a new audio tour company, iJourneys. It looks like a good one. [iJourneys]

Portable Player Portal Main Page

Here is a nice review of iPods, other digital music players and related software from an accessible perspective: Portable Player Portal Main Page. I am interested in Rockbox, which has a voice-based interface, but it does not allow for Audible.com playback.

Medialoper » That’s What I Like: Audible.com

I have to second this opinion: Medialoper » That’s What I Like: Audible.com. Listening to audiobooks while working out gives me the opportunity and discipline to listen to those long books that can't be listened to while going to sleep. I recently made it through Jenkins' biography of Churchill [Churchill: A Biography] and now am finishing the second volume of Foote's history of the Civil War [The Civil War: A Narrative (3 Vol. Set)].

Pogue’s Posts - As We Get Older, Type Gets Smaller - Technology - New York Times Blog

Pogue's post this past week, As We Get Older, Type Gets Smaller, addresses a major issue that I think about too much. I reset the screen resolution, override default fonts and sometimes use Zoomtext.

Font Size in Balloons

PC Magazine has a tip on dealing with Font Size in Balloons. This should help you resize the font in those little comment balloons in Word.

More on PodGuides

Today's Boston Globe has an article, Audio-tours de force, today on PodGuides, though they don't use the name. The article talks about one company, Audissey Guides, which is producing digital audio tour guides, though these don't seem to be avaible directly on iTunes. The Globe is also carrying an AP story, Georgia college pushes for iPod ingenuity, about iPod uses for the classroom. One of these uses is an an audio museum tour for one of the classes. I am seeing more and more audio tours available online. For a recent trip to Chicago, I found a free audio tour to Chicago's new Millenium Park.

On the Side: Inaccessible accessibility

A couple of months ago, the Times' David Pogue wrote an article, Spending Time to Save Time, about why we do not take enough advantage of available computer technology that could make our lives easier, more productive or both. The lessons Pogue discusses apply directly to adoption of any level of 'assistive technology' whether it is a fancy screen reader or a simple Internet Explorer trick to make the text larger. I have spent countless hours finding these little ways to make using my computer easier and it has been an investment too high for most people. I would like to extend Mr. Pogue's call on software makers to make accessibility feature more accessible.

Audio Tour Podcasts

The Times featured an article, With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tour, a few months back that highlights a great idea. Folks are creating their own audio tours of museums and distributing them as podcasts. This is fantastic for two reasons.

First, this open up more possible source for audio tours. Museum-goers no longer need to depend on museums to develop decent audio tours. Many museums don't have the resources or choose not to spend their resources on developing audio guides, so there are many museums and exhibits that don't have audio tours. Now anyone interested can make one. Not all podcast tours will be good, but some will be. There is now opportunity for varied viewpoints to emerge. Competition among any tour guide developers should eventually develop a good selection for the museum goer. This could also be extended outside museums to walking tours of cities or other places of interest. [Audible.com already offers audio walking tours of the Big Apple in the Soundwalk series.]

Secondly, creating podcasts is a very democratic process, meaning that it is free and fairly easy to do. So anyone, including you or I, can create our own audio tours of our favorite places. Many people have amazing knowedge and insights that would make for great audio tours. Now, with a computer and a little drive, you can share your thoughts and insights with the rest of us.

All we need now is a directory of audio tours which may already exist. Podcastdirectory.com already lists a few audio tour podcasts. Podguides.net appears to be a good effort to coordinate and encourage these audio tours.

PS The LA Times also has an interesting article on audio tours.

Audio Books - New York Times

According to the New York Times today, Audio Books are becoming both more popular and more acceptable to the reading purist. I hope this trend continues as I rely on audio books for all of my non-professional reading. As the demand grows, so will the supply and variety of good quality audiobooks.

Accessibility Switch

The technology guy for the NY Times posted some thought about an issue that had not crossed my mind, "But What About the Color Blind?". I think that browsers should come with some default accessibility option. I do not mean the complicated range of options available now, but a simple on/off switch. This switch would automatically reformat all websites in some easy to read, high contrast and nice looking style, something that uniformly addresses the widest range of accessibility issues. For more advanced users, they could leave all the tweaks available now. For those who prefer simplicity, this accessibility switch could make a huge difference in the quality of internet life. Such a feature on publicly available machines, at kiosks or in computer labs for example, would allow anyone to make the web accessible with the touch of a single button. I suspect that the technology exists already. There is something called a style sheet that controls the look and feel of a web site. All it would take is a web designer could develop a style sheet with the characteristics listed above and the browser designers incorporated a single button that strained all web content through that style sheet.

Slashdot | Artificial Retinas Bring Vision Back To The Blind

Slshdot has a story, Artificial Retinas Bring Vision Back To The Blind, that offers some hope for treating vision disorders. Maybe not for me and maybe not for a while yet, but the hope is there.

Let Users Control Font Size (Alertbox Aug. 2002)

Jakob Nielsen, a 'crusader' for web usability, wrote a plea,Let Users Control Font Size (Alertbox Aug. 2002), a few years ago. In this article, Nielsen articulates an idea that I have been percolating for a long time. From his column,

Consider adding a button that loads an alternate style sheet with really big font sizes if most of your site's visitors are senior citizens or low-vision users. Few users know how to find or use the built-in font size feature in current browsers, and adding such a button within your pages will help users easily increase text size.

I think that we need to expand upon this idea. Not only should every browser should come with a 'large print' style sheet and an easy-to-find button to load it, but every computer should have an easy-to-find icon on the desktop that will reset the Appearance setting to a larger font, higher contrast (but still visually appalling) setting. Computers at kiosks and in school computer labs and even ATM machines should be reuired to have these 'large print' icons.

Boston.com / Designing websites with senior citizens in mind

The Boston Globe ran an article, Designing websites with senior citizens in mind, about a month ago. These design principles will help all of us, not just seniors or the visually impaired. Hopefully, the continuing demongraphic shift towards an older population will hasten the arrival of more thoughtful web page design.

Review: Audio Travel Guides

The NY Times had a review a while ago called Put the Guidebook Away and Listen While You Look about a new service that provides audio travel guides. Though I have not had a chance to try these $10 guides, I look forward to doing so on my next trip. I am very sick and tired of trying to fish for my reading glasses to squint at the tiny print in today's printed guides. Currently, the site only offers tours of five US cities and one English city, but I imagine that they are busy expanding their selection.