Touchscreen devices tapping into braille, turning previous fundamental thinking about how to make technology accessible to blind people on its head! Read more at the BBC.
Imagine being blind in the classroom, how would you take notes? What if you were on the street and needed to copy down a phone number? These are real challenges the blind grapple with every day.
Apple iPad accessibility features for low vision part 1
Robin Spinks from RNIB gives an overview of the accessibility features built-in to the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. In part 1, Robin explains the accessibility features for people with low vision including magnification, inverted colours, ibooks and an introduction to gestures.
Android Accessibility
Chris Millsap gives an overview of actions that can be performed with the standard Android screen reader, TalkBack. He gives an idea of what someone can expect from the Droid without installing any third party AT products. Its not quite on a par with the iPhone yet, but the Droid and the Android OS are growing into a viable option for the blind that we should all be open to as improvements are made over the next few months.
Podcast: Kindle for PC
Nancy Vanderbrink explores the features and benefits of this software that lets you read the wide library of books from Amazon’s Kindle store with synthesized speech.
WalkyTalky goes hand-in-hand with spoken walking directions from Google Maps to better navigate the physical world. In addition, application intersection explorer allows me to explore the layout of streets using touch before venturing out with WalkyTalky.
Another interesting blog post about Android’s smartphone features that enable detailed navigation for the visually impaired or blind. Read more here.
5 Ingenious gadgets and technologies for the blind
It’s difficult for those of us with sight to imagine just how different daily experiences are without this ability – but all of the challenges associated with visual impairment are being addressed at an amazingly rapid pace with stunning modern gadgetry.
New display technology is allowing users to "feel" touch screens, giving the blind a way to interact with mobile devices.
Interesting article over at Mobiledia
Interesting product concept
This USB fed e-book, is designed to bring the easyness of the internet based information to the blind. It allowes scrolling through text, and switching between different files stored in it’s memory, as on any flash memory stick.
When I got an iPhone, my life changed forever. I consider it the greatest thing to happen to the blind for a very long time, possibly ever. It offers unparalleled access to properly made applications, and changed my life in twenty-four hours.
Read Austin Seraphin’s story here
oMoby – Mobile visual search
oMoby is a product search app. If it can’t automatically work out your image by comparing it to an image search engine, it sends out the request to a ‘network of humans’.
Podcast: Apple TV
Matt Vollbrecht gives information about several recent updates to various Apple products and demonstrates the new version of Apple TV that includes accessibility with the built-in Voiceover screen reader.
Snapping an image with your smartphone camera brings more than just a pretty picture if you are blind. With the right app, it can increase your independence.
Read the article written by the BBC here
Omnifier braille case for iPad
The Omnifer is an innovative cover for the iPad that transforms it’s flat surface into Braille, reflecting the contents of the page you are surfing. Essentially the idea is to make the iPad accessible to the sight impaired.
Dyslexie, a typface designed to help Dyslexics read
Reading printed text is so fluid and transparent for most people that it’s hard to imagine it feeling any other way. Maybe that’s why it took a dyslexic designer to create a typeface that optimizes the reading experience for people who suffer from that condition.