Posted on 01/09/2009 3:18:27 PM PST by gridlock
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.
(snip)
"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."
(snip)
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Like music alienates the deaf...
Braille instructions are on drive-thru ATM machines because the manufactures of those fronts only build a few designs that all have braille.
Simplifies inventory and the keeping of spares.
So?
May have to rename it as the eyePhone.
I really love you Stevie, but GMAFB. At 5’3” I can’t reach a basketball hoop or play linebacker, and I’m not whining about it. Nor can I play piano or guitar worth a damn, so I photograph musicians instead. Adapt - as you have done - and pipe down. *Shrug* *Sigh*
Dear Gridlock.
What a wonderful, commonsense solution.
If you don’t mind, I’m saving this to my “famous Quotes” file and plan to use it liberally — no pun intended.
Oh for Pete’s sake!
Who cares?
Just because its called an iPod does not mean all eyes can see it. It is a mean-spirited name and Stevie Wonder has a valid, victimized point. < /sarcasm>
Dear Gridlock
I hope you don’t mind, but it was Lefty-lie-spy that inspired my response. I’ll use lefty’s also.
And don't read this post out loud, or they'll know what we're up to.
Not eyePhone. C-ing-iPhone
Television and movies alienate the blind.
The drive-thru ATMs at Wells Fargo have braille. WTF?
Automobiles alienate the blind.
Last but not least, newspapers alienate the blind. And they have long alienated alot of people here who have their eyes wide open.
Braille instructions are on ATMs because they have to be—it’s the law.
aofk adfd[vc!
Sign language alienates the blind.
Books on quantum physics alienate me.
Um, you might not be aware of technological advances these days, but there are these cool things called “preset buttons” that allow anyone to punch a button and automatically tune to a radio station (or “scan” if the presets are not yet tuned). Also, most cellphones these days come outfitted with voice commands. All your grandson would have to do is flip up his cellphone, say, “Call Grandma,” and the phone would automatically connect with your number. Neat, huh? Blind-friendly products abound.
There are a few products, but no they do not abound. The services for the cell phone are expensive, I have looked into it.
I am still looking and I will find what I am lookng for.
The point I was making, the products I mentioned, I was expressing how nice it would be if they were more accessable to the blind.
And the attitude of comments are callous, heartless, and cold.
As stated, he lives with me, I know how hard it is.
I dare you to try a day of being blind. Blind fold yourself and try all your products out, shower dress, cook, clean or whatever. Find out how it feels to have no eyes. You have yours and God, be thankful, but don’t be so damned callous toward those who cannot.
I operate mine "blind" in the dark using the remote control. The buttons are shaped differntly for different functions, making it very easy to choose presets and change preset banks.
Listen I want no pity or anything. If you had been through the last 2 years, I have, you would understand where I come from.
Every where we go for help, we hit brick walls. The neuro re-hab are not great help in training, they hit a wall because, guess what? He's blind. They do not know how to work with a brain injured and blind person.
And guess what else? If he were just blind, piece of cake for training to lead a blind life. But, here comes the butt monkey, He is brain injured, We do not know how to train a blind and brain injured person.
Cognitive skill and mental problem from brain injury and blind too, is hard, and no one knows how to help him, I am frustrated as hell, and my humor left me.
I'll call balderdash on that one. I've had a cell phone for several years where after a few minutes of set up, it can be operated by one click on a side button and voice command. As for cost, it was free with a one year plan.
So if he doesn't have a cell phone, its either because he can't afford the monthly payments, or no one wants to spend less than 5 minutes setting it up for him. It's not because hardware isn't available.
As for music, try looking at $20 MP3 players instead of $250 touch screen IPods, and I suspect you'll find something quite usable for playback.
Once again, the technology is most certainly available. You just have to be willing to pay for it (and no, it isn't always that expensive...some of the phones are free after rebate with a 2-year phone contract, or cheap on ebay for use with a prepaid plan that might only cost you five or ten dollars a month to use). Oh, and I'm not "damned callous" toward the blind. Ha!! If you only knew....
My own eyes, “the very technology alienating the blind”... good grief.
Have you seen the cell phones that they make for young kids? They have very big buttons and only have the basic numbers and ‘Talk’. AT&T and Sprint both offer them.
Unfortunately, that’s kind of the way it is when you are disabled.
I’m sure companies don’t want to produce gadgets for disabled people because there isn’t money in it.
It sucks to have a disability in a lot of ways.
(My daughter also has a brain injury. She has a seizure disorder, speech problems, etc. Some people think she is unlucky. I think she is lucky because I know plenty of people that are worse off than her.)
I think the doctors, therapists, and educators just don’t know much about brain injuries period!!!!!!!!
When my daughter wasn’t talking, I had one therapist tell me that she was just choosing not to talk. (Just like your grandson is choosing not to see.)
When my daughter starting having severe headaches & behavior problems at a new school that she went to, the principal thought my bad attitude was causing the problems. (She a grand mal seizure and abnormal EEG shortly after that.)
My only suggestion is to break things up into very small steps and repeat it a lot. Work on 1 thing at a time. That’s how we’ve gotten my daughter to do things.
No, No. No offense to you. You are correct.
However, there is a fraction of the handicapped community for which we should be pro-active but, never-the-less, use their handicap at a bludgeon to rage at the rest of the world.
For those inventive companies that do so much for the most of us, there should be an element of discretion in how much of their resources are devoted to the specifically handicapped — and handicaps run a wide spectrum.
I would bet that in most large corporations there are specific departments devoted to coming up with handicapped-friendly versions of their main-stream products. Maybe not immediately with the launch of a new product...but at a point where that new product proves viable.
To insist, on the introduction of a new product that a handicap-friendly alternative version be introuced in tandem is a bludgeon.
Owasys 22C Screenless Cell Phone.
MP3 Player: VI Player from VI Electronics.
I have a similar cheap MP3 player that I use for the car, because I don't like having to take my eyes off the road to navigate the iPod.
As for Satellite Radio, it seems like the Polk Audio components are the best because they have big buttons and a logical control sequence that is reletively easy to memorize, even on the remote. They don't have any specific blind-friendly features, though.
Rose,
My deepest sympathies regarding your grandson and I apologize for being insensitive. To tell you the truth my reference to the eyePhone was simply to make the point that it requires vision to use it and in no way to denigrate the blind.
If he can handle the ‘randomness’ of the playlist, I believe the tiny little iPod shuffle would be the ones with the simplest controls. It has no screen to read.
I appreciated all your responses, and I apologize for my lack of understanding of you. All of you are smart, good and sensitive people. I will use your help and suggestions with gratitude.
I see through limited eyes and a lot of people have just as many problems and worse too.
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