Magnetic poetry
The next step in telephony: magnetic rings that can be used to perform a variety of functions using gestures without requiring any contact. The MagiTact app will work with phones that have built-in compasses. Not released yet, but we’ll look forward to it.
MagiTact hands-free phone control makes multitouch seem absolute
Cool for school
Some prestigious universities are starting to accept short videos as part of their admissions applications. This has great implications, particularly for kids with learning disabilities who may need non-written means to show their genuine worthiness.
Two thumbs infuriated
We’ve previously discussed the benefits of running augmentative communication software on mainstream platforms, such as computers and iPhones, over having monopurpose AugCom devices. Cost efficiency is one argument; normalization another. But in the middle of this month’s moving Esquire interview with Roger Ebert, a striking advantage emerged: the broad functionality of mainstream tech permits creativity of expression in a way that developers of specialized devices might never foresee.
“This time, the anger [over Disney's deletion of videos honoring Gene Siskel that were linked from Ebert's website] lasts long enough for Ebert to write it down. He opens a new page in his text-to-speech program, a blank white sheet. He types in capital letters, stabbing at the keys with his delicate, trembling hands: MY TRIBUTE, appears behind the cursor in the top left corner. ON THE FIRST SHOW AFTER HIS DEATH. But Ebert doesn’t press the button that fires up the speakers. He presses a different button, a button that makes the words bigger. He presses the button again and again and again, the words growing bigger and bigger and bigger until they become too big to fit the screen, now they’re just letters, but he keeps hitting the button, bigger and bigger still, now just shapes and angles, just geometry filling the white screen with black like the three squares. Roger Ebert is shaking, his entire body is shaking, and he’s still hitting the button, bang, bang, bang, and he’s shouting now. He’s standing outside on the street corner and he’s arching his back and he’s shouting at the top of his lungs.”
Dog bytes man
As usual, the development dollars are going into assistive technology for the canids. Cf. Puppy Tweets, which translates doggie activities into one of 500 texts (e.g., “Guess what I’m licking right now.” We’ll pass). With a little linguistic tinkering, we could see this turned into a useful way for people with various types of physical or cognitive disabilities to communicate, whether practical–a specific movement could send a message requesting help–or social.
Engadget: Puppy tweets will turn your pooper into a world-class Twitterer
As it is Twitten
Carmen Gonzales has come up with a summary of pretty convincing arguments about why Twitter has made a huge difference for people with physical disabilities. Some of these involve the potential for generating and receiving information with little effort, but there is also the fact that if everyone is communicating in 140 characters, assistive tech users or slow typists will be able to generate messages of an acceptable length with less effort than, say, typing a full email. There are parallel arguments to be made for cognitive access as well.
Twitup: Twitter remaking the persona of the physically challenged
Capacitive? Resistive? Delicious?
People who don’t have or use fingers for controlling touchscreens have problems with capacitive models like the iPhone. You can’t use it with most metal or plastic styli because the touchscreen is expecting a certain amount of capacitive charge found on typical extremities. But have no fear (except around mealtime) — it seems that sausages work well. Some may skewer such a solution, thinking it the wurst idea they’ve ever heard. But let’s be frank — it’s certainly in the ball park.
South Korean iPhone users turn to sausages as a cold weather ‘meat stylus’ — Engadget
And so to bed
There are two observations from a New York Times report on the Las Vegas Market furniture show that have potential implications for people with mobility/dexterity disabilities. One is that the public at large is choosing to do more computing in the bedroom, which may well result in more design options and greater comfort becoming available to computer users who have to work from bed. The other is a promising solution to an often pressing problem: how do you get your partner to stop snoring if you don’t have enough gross motor function to nudge them? The answer is the button on a remote that temporarily inclines their side of the bed, tilting them so the cacophony goes away. If the button can be activated with minimal pressure, it could be a relationship saver.