E-reader accessibility fight re-Kindled
Here we go again. First the Kindle promised compatibility with speech output, then the Authors Guild objected. Looks like we might be heading into a similar fray with the iPad, which will have VoiceOver, Apple’s proprietary blindness-friendly screen reader, built in. Will it make a difference that VoiceOver, unlike Kindle’s speech technology, works with all apps instead of just e-books? Stay tuned.
Gizmodo: Apple’s iPad Will (Perhaps Controversially) Read E-Books Aloud
ETA: Things are looking up. The Authors Guild has just joined a coalition to “ensure that when the marketplace offers alternative formats to print books, such as audio and electronic books, print-disabled consumers can access the contents of these alternative formats to the same extent as all other consumers.”
Authors Guild: White House Applauds Joint Effort for Print Disabled
Talk radius
Hmmm…a headset that bypasses touch screen access problems by enabling both audio output and speech input? Sounds like a product designed for blind (and some learning/cognitively disabled) folks, but it’s actually a mainstream product from Bluetrek that was shown at CES last week.
Ubergizmo: Bluetrek Dial 2DO Bluetooth headset does text to voice to text
Blio us away
The latest developer to enter the e-book fray is Ray Kurzweil, who this week will be revealing Blio. Instead of taking a hardware approach, though, Blio is platform-independent, free software that will present books in a consistent format–rather like PDF–that also supports use of color and video. People with learning disabilities will be particularly happy to hear that this format supports use of text-to-speech synchronized with text highlighting, and that markup such as bookmarks will be imported when the file is shared among devices. Not clear what the implications will be for blind individuals; we’ll probably learn more when Blio is formally announced at the Consumer Electronics Show this week.
Wired: Singularity Proponent Ray Kurzweil Reinvents the Book, Again
Google Goggles, we accept you
Today’s Google press event foretold some innovations that could make finding information easier for everyone, including people with disabilities. With our usual reservations about accuracy, we’re intrigued by query-by-voice technology. Google Goggles will let you submit a photo and return information about the subject; not new technology, but we’ll look forward to Google’s spin on it. The ability to include near-real-time Twitter feeds in search results could be useful in emergencies and other situations where people need fast information access, particularly to Deaf people for whom other information channels may not be as accessible. But we’d give the “most innovative” award to a cellphone-based capability that will predict what you’re searching for based on your geographic location, saving people with dexterity disabilities a lot of keystrokes–e.g., type in “c…u…” in New York and it would bring up a list of CUNY campuses; type it in Chicago and get information on handling chronic heartbreak.
Cupertino coups
Apple continues hard at work on interesting ideas with accessibility implications. One recent patent filing is for a system that eliminates the need for “ejecting” a USB or similar device before it is disconnected from a computer. Disengagement occurs when the device is touched or “if an impending touch is detected”; this could be helpful for people with dexterity disabilities, not to mention anyone who forgets, doesn’t understand, or has never heard of the ejection requirement. Another filing covers a way to have the contents of text messages automatically sent to a text-output device, to the benefit not only of the people with low vision mentioned in the patent but also many people with learning disabilities.
AppleInsider: New Apple patent filings cover device ejection, text to speech
Shot, less in the dark
OK, here’s what we’re all about: Alex Dejong, a professional photographer with acquired blindness, figured out how to use the VoiceOver speech output feature in the latest iPhone to access photo editing applications, eliminating the need to hire an assistant. Says Dejong, “Even if I don’t see the output myself, I still want to have my hand in everything that I do as a photographer.”
Wired: Blind Photographers Use Gadgets to Realize Artistic Vision
Card trick
James Alliban, a Flash programmer in London, has come up with an augmented reality business card; point it at a webcam, and it gives you a 3D representation plus audio–think Leia’s virtual “Help me, Obi-Wan” incarnation. The video still leaves something to be desired; much of the time, the image looks rather like something assembled from colored Post-It notes. However, the audio quality seems quite good, and this could be a way to create talking business cards for the benefit of folks with visual or cognitive disabilities, especially if something more ubiquitous than a webcam (a cellie, mebee?) could trigger playback.