Caption crunch
Onstage LED displays that provide redundant text have been an opera staple for some time, but to the best of our knowledge there hasn’t been a widespread equivalent for other types of theatrical performances. That might change with Airscript, a wireless device currently being tested in London that furnishes simultaneous translation of what’s going on; it has a channel for eight languages, and we were pleased to see that one was English for the benefit of Deaf/hard of hearing people, or just those with lousy seats. It shows multiple lines, so that you don’t have to spend all your time staring at it and away from the stage.
Engadget: AirScript translator beams live theater subtitles over the air
Emotional baggage
It’s sometimes hard enough to recognize your luggage on the airport carousel if you’re sighted, never mind if you’re blind. The Talking Luggage Locator helps almost anyone by snapping onto a suitcase handle and then playing back a 30-second user-recorded message at the press of a remote button. For the benefit of Deaf travelers, activation also triggers three blinking lights. Very promising–until everyone gets one and we end up with a Control Tower of Babel.
‘Roid runner
The link below will take you to a nice roundup of applications that can turn Android-based phones into remote controllers and wireless keyboards/mice. Inexpensive, portable, and reduces the number of gadgets that have to be carried around–everything we look for in a better environmental control system for people who have some available dexterity.
Wired: 5 Nifty Apps That Turn Your Android Into A Universal Remote
Coming to blows with the iPhone
Blower is a new app that uses a standard iPhone–no hardware add-ons required–to blow enough air to extinguish birthday candles. Obvious accessibility use: extinguishing birthday candles, for people with respiratory disabilities. Not-so-obvious use: inclusion in other apps to provide discrete signals to blind individuals, for example when a reminder pops up. (Discrete, that is, if the leaf-blower audio can be eliminated.)
When in Rome, do like a Roman
Now that we think about it, it makes sense: fear of H1N1 may be driving development of touch-free products light years forward. Take the Holy Water dispenser that some Italian churches are installing and which work on the same principle as the auto faucets that have become commonplace in the U.S. The side benefit is that many devout folks who couldn’t use the traditional font should now have a significant measure of accessibility. Let’s hope this technology stays in place after the flu has flown.
New Launches: Auto Holy Water dispenser, Italy’s religious swine flu prevention technique
People with Up
What do the films How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Up have in common? Besides (despite?) featuring unapologetic curmudgeons as primary characters, they both represent accessibility landmarks: Grinch was the first commercially-released DVD to have a closed-captioned option, and Up is the first to have the audio-described (DVS) track available for sale on iTunes. Of course, you don’t have to be blind to appreciate the DVS version–it could find the same drive-time audience as audio books, which means there would be more DVS-only versions of movies available, which would benefit blind people…yeah, we could live with that.
Amended to add: apparently more careful research than mine (thank you, codeman) has raised doubts about Grinch; with luck, an equally befuddled future investigator will find clearer documentation for the historic value of Up.
Time share
Standard, simple human interaction: person A asks what time it is and person B responds accordingly. Happens a kazillion times a day…but can become complicated if, say, person B has a speech disability or person A has a hearing disability. B could, of course, turn their wrist to display their watch, but the face is then at an angle that could be hard for A to view. Maezm is proposing a “sharing watch”–not specifically for people with disabilities, btw–where B simply turns the face 90 degrees to make it easier for A to read. We propose taking this a step further; why not take advantage of gyro technology to move the dial automatically depending on wrist positioning, letting people with dexterity disabilities in on the conversation as well?