Instapaper auto adjusts contrast based on time of day
Instapaper is a neat little iPhone app that lets you save websites for future perusal. What’s interesting about its latest release is that it lets you enter your location, and adjusts the text/background contrast from dark-on-light to light-on-dark around the local time that the sun sets. Since we all need more contrast as we age, could you also enter your birthdate and have the contrast auto-adjust for that too?
Shine on you crazy keyboard
Hmm…spend $2,400 on an Optimus Maximus keyboard, or spend $10 for fluorescent keyboard labels that will at least let us pretend we have an Optimus. The Glowing Keyboard Stickers could be useful for some people with low vision, but we wish the letters/numbers were in large print.
The Skype’s the limit
Skype announced that they’re working with LG and Panasonic to bring VoIP capabilities to selected TV models…the same day that we got an email from a woman looking for a Skype access strategy for her older parents overseas, who find computers too complex. Nothing like well-timed idea convergence.
New wrinkles in TV for elders
Here’s a new 32 inch LED TV with minimal, easy controls — the remote only has 6 buttons. The price includes installation and personal support. It even turns itself off if it thinks you might have drifted off. This thing is not only perfect for TV, it should point the way for other bright designers looking to simplify their products to snag some seniors and others who appreciate ease of use.
“Senior-Friendly” TV Ears TV turns itself off at naptime, has Jitterbug-style remote — Engadget
Talking with my g-g-generation
AARP and Microsoft just published the results of a (small) market survey of 50-60 year old Boomers and their attitudes towards technology. Although assistive features didn’t seem to come up by name, the inevitable Boomer self-centric world view resulted in a call for features that modify themselves to the user’s changing needs rather than the other way around. (We love one respondent’s comment on voice recognition-enhanced appliances: “I don’t really care if it talks back. Although I certainly don’t want it to have an opinion.”) As our needs get increasingly changinger, we hope this attitude smoothly transitions into calls for larger print, buttons that require less force, and other good design practices already acknowledged in the accessibility field. And since 1/3 of the US population will be 50-plus by next year, developers should start to pay attention if they hope we buy as we get old.
AARP/Microsoft: Boomers and Technology: An Extended Conversation
The turn of the SQ?
We wrote several days ago about the Dream Screen, a limited Internet access device that might find its niche in a senior/accessibility arena. A portable device with even more potential is the Lighthouse SQ7, which provides a web browser, easy access to Facebook and Twitter–AND voice recognition capability. As always, we’re skeptical about the ability of the last-named feature to accommodate all users, but even without that the SQ7 could find an audience among those who need or value simplicity in their web access strategies.
Twitteleh
In our ongoing quest to find meaningful uses for Twitter, this morning we ran across a mythic but elder-friendly variation called Twitteleh. With the original program, you’re supposed to answer the question, “What are you doing now?”, but Twitteleh simplifies the 140-character communication process even further by giving you three preset questions about your location, nourishment, and warmth to respond to and send to your mother (so she shouldn’t worry). We were going to viral this for the humor value and forget about it, but then we started thinking about groups of people with disabilities who might actually benefit from a more structured Twitter environment. For example, some people with autism ask the same questions repeatedly, and might find reassurance in unfamiliar situations if they could automatically send their usual questions to off-site family or caregivers and get quick responses. And some people with dementia or cognitive disabilities might find the standard Twitter question too vague to respond to, but could Tweet if they had a more specific or personalized question presented to them. So think about the possibilities. And go put on a sweater.