Sense and sensitivity
The good folks at Dartmouth’s MetroSense initiative are hard at work prototyping two interesting mobile applications with potential access implications. SoundSense can analyze audio information and provide feedback on whether it’s a voice, music, or just noise; imagine this being used by deaf people to know when someone is trying to speak to get their attention, or to get a feeling for what the latest hot tune is like. CenceMe uses programmable gestures or ambient events to interpret what an individual is up to and send this information to social networking software, which could be a useful communication strategy for people with severe communication or physical disabilities. Dartmouth’s motto is “A voice crying in the wilderness;” let’s hope some commercial entity is listening.
Estonia and then they’ll say “good luck”
Starting in 2011, citizens of Estonia will be able to vote via any cell phone equipped with an ID chip. Will the interface follow WAI guidelines for designing for mobile devices? Will it be friendly for, say, both voice-output and voice-input users? Stay tuned.
FaceLickBook
We know Fido has been begging for his own Facebook identity, and a company called SNIFtag (motto: “tails told, friends made”) has just made it easier to indulge him. The eponymous tags allow social Setters and convivial Collies within reasonable proximity to exchange detailed information paws-free; the uploaded data is then transferred to the pooch’s Facebook account for further examination. Theoretically, this could be adapted to exchange information between people who would have difficulty presenting or interpreting business cards because of physical or visual disabilities. It’s also a green solution to everyone’s problem of hanging on to cards and remembering their relevance.
“Please listen carefully, as our candidates have changed”
Voting machines have to be accessible to people with different disabilities. Most of the times the manufacturers slap on a voice output system for blind voters and a dual switch scanning solution for physically disabled voters, then call it quits. Results are not always pretty.
Now “Prime III”, an Auburn University prototype, tries a speech recognition system that covers both blind and physically disabled voters. You listen to the choices over a headset. Each candidate is assigned a random number. To vote for that candidate, you say that number, not the name, for privacy reasons.
We’re guessing that this may not be optimal for some voters with hearing, cognitive, or speech disabilities. But at least it’s a new idea. And it also points up the multimodal reality: no single interface will work for all users.
SpeechTechMag.com: Mock Election Showcases Voice-Enabled Voting Machine
Not getting our vote
The Pew Center sponsored a usability review of state websites providing election-related information, and found that on a scale of 1 to 100, the average overall usability score was a discouraging 58. Ten percent of the score was based on minimal accessibility implementation (use of ALT attributes, color contrast, Skip-Nav links, scalable fonts, and color indication of visited links), and the average there was only 49. Oof.
Pew Center: Being Online is Not Enough: State Elections Web Sites (PDF)
The Hand to talk
The Hand is a remote controlled panel with pictures of seven common hand gestures, ranging from encouraging to rude; press a button on the remote and the corresponding gesture lights up. Could be a simple communication device for people who can’t read or speak–we couldn’t see the remote buttons, though, so we don’t know if they’re labeled with numbers (ambiguous) or miniature versions of the gestures (very helpful).
Curb undercut
Presented as a reminder that accessible voting–among other things–needs to be thought out holistically; not much good to be able to vote outside if you have to go inside to let ‘em know you’re there. Reminds us of a towel dispenser labeled “ADA Compliant” that we once saw mounted at a height that we couldn’t reach from a standing position, never mind its availability to a chair user.
