STAMPS
Similar to Socialight, STAMPS lets you leave location-based info from your mobile phone. So your note about a great pizzeria (or a supermarket with wheelchair-friendly shopping carts and access-savvy staff) can be viewed by others on their mobile phones.
Software addresses colorblindness
A new PC program allows users to have colors announced, modified, or highlighted, making screen objects like weather maps easier to understand.
What a tangled web
The University of Southampton found that about 3 in 5 UK government websites don’t meet accessibility guidelines, and very nearly the same number have HTML errors. The UK accessibility guidelines, like the WAI guidelines, mandate that “HTML page should validate against specified version of HTML” (the equivalent of WAI 3.2). Hey–one solution to two issues. But if you look at the list of “See Also” links on the right side of this page, you’ll see that no one has exactly been rushing to fix this…
Money for nothing and your chits for free
Latest entry in the almost-random-matching-of-technologies sweepstakes: If you don’t want to use your mobile phone to make purchases, how about your MP3 player? As with the phone technology, it could be of use to people with dexterity and visual disabilities.
Can you hear me now?
If you would prefer to avoid using HearPods, Apple now has a free download so you can specify the maximum volume of your iPod. Parents can use a code to make sure kids don’t set their own limits.
Flip remarks
The Flip (available in April) will allow one monitor, keyboard, and mouse to be shared between two computers. Ergo, individuals who use assistive tech hardware such as large monitors or alternative mice can use their equipment with, say, a laptop and desktop CPU simultaneously. We’re guessing that the part reminiscent of the old iMac mouse is really a good-sized switch to allow easy selection between computers.
HearPod
A North Carolina company may have finally cracked the problem of how to market hearing aids to Boomers: Give them a name that makes it sound like Apple’s famous music player/cause of hearing loss. The part that fits inside the ear has different colors, presumably so right and left aids can be distinguished; a nice touch. But they failed to complete the iPod metaphor by not making the external part white.