Access on Main Street

Welcome to Access on Main Street. We cover mainstream products that, by chance or design, make life easier for an elder or a person with a disability. We want to inform consumers, inspire designers, and wake up marketers to opportunities with these underserved customers. Please comment on our articles, and point us to your own mainstream nuggets. Browse by category (the links list on the right) if you’re interested in certain product types or disability categories. Looking for specific products? Use the regular search box, or visit the Advanced Category Search page.

We have yet to quite see the point of Twitter, the online service that lets you keep the world posted on the most minute details of your day (”Retrieved bellybutton lint, 5:04 PM”). But at least now there’s TwitterFone, a hands- and cost-free option for creating Twitter posts via speech recognition of phoned-in updates. As the article points out, this could also be used to create to-do lists for yourself, so maybe there’s a purpose after all.

Gadgetell.com: Twitterfone: why type when you can call in your tweets?

One of the problems for some would-be speech output users is that most speech output strategies require tricky or intense use of the keyboard, mouse, or both; this can be a particular problem for seniors. Some German researchers have come up with a pretty cool solution involving use of facial recognition technology: just close your eyes, and Microsoft Word reads back the “current” sentence (presumably the one where the cursor is located). Ein guter Start; we’d love to see additional features, such as the ability to blink slowly to have the speech output move to and read the next line.

ACM Digital Library: Spoken words: activating text-to-speech through eye closure (summary)

Firmo is a prototype system that uses a weak AC field to transform your skin into a signal transmission system for use with appliances, point-of-sale systems, and so on. Could be great for those with limited dexterity–or even no dexterity; we assume noses and toes would transmit just as well as fingers.

Crave Asia: Transmit data through your skin with Firmo

A bunch of German researchers have patented a chip that emits up to 100 different smells. We could see a range of access applications for this–for example, if a particular odor could be tied to a particular caller, then individuals with visual or dexterity disabilities could identify who was calling and decide whether or not to answer without having to fumble for the phone. In any case, makes scents to us.

Gizmag.com: The Smellophone

What’s better than a mainstream product with accessibility features? Why, a whole Microsoft competition full of promising designs, of course. We particularly like the electronic music stand that allows score pages to be turned via touch screen or foot pedal, the bracelet that wirelessly uploads information, and the neck-worn PC that automatically captures exciting events on tape (audio or video?) whenever the user’s heart rate increases–all of which could be useful to people with various levels of dexterity disabilities. Also submitted was the previously-noted ZEN PC with its tactile interface.

Gizmodo: Next-Gen PC concepts include laser screens, tactile interfaces, glossiness

Portable electronic dictionaries have been around for some time to help kids (and adults), particularly those with learning disabilities. Now Sharp has released their own version imbued with that trickiest of product features–coolness. Besides providing word definitions (in adjustable font sizes? with audio output?), it also functions as an MP3 and video player, and throws in twenty audio books too. So we assume the next time a hit tune includes words like “truttaceous” in its lyrics, it should be trivial for listeners to get a definition on the spot.

Gadgetell: Sharp’s RD-CX310 PMP turns you into walking, talking, rocking dictionary