I’m Ghana make you see
Literacy Bridge, a Seattle non-profit, is piloting a $10 device that plays audio files, with initial dissemination in Ghana. One purpose is to spread information, so this will be a usable strategy for people with visual disabilities, especially since the primary control buttons should be easy to distinguish by touch. Another is to improve literacy, so some audio files will be redundant with textbooks, allowing individuals to accommodate their most effective learning style–visual, audio, or both simultaneously. If transcripts are also available for the informational audio, people with hearing disabilities will be accommodated as well. And if people can record their own files, this could even serve as a basic communication device. Given that the World Health Organization estimates a 10% rate of disability in Ghana, we applaud Literacy Bridge for this thoughtful design.
Slashgear: Literacy Bridge sub-$10 audio computer starts education trail
Grameen goes mobile
For once, no cute headline, no snarky prose; this is a truly transformative announcement. Grameen’s new program will provide banking services to a billion of the world’s poorest would-be customers. They will be using a wireless mobile platform, which says a lot about soaring ubiquity and plummeting cost. We’re hoping (praying, really) that some attention is going to be paid to accessibility among all the other righteous concerns.
Obopay and Grameen Solutions Partner to Offer Mobile Banking Services - SlashPhone
Internet, almost no interface
The Question Box provides Internet-based information through a live agent. The user just presses a button on the box, which connects via intercom to the computer-equipped agent, who may be in another town. The user asks a question, the agent does a search, and reads back the result. Designed for communities without computers or connectivity, the Question Box certainly has a forgiving, low-demand interface.
Question Box: the Internet for remote places, no literacy or keyboards required - Boing Boing
When poor design is very good design
Interesting article that covers an aspect of universal design we don’t usually discuss: developing products specifically for people in the most impoverished areas of the world. On the other hand, there is a proven correlation between rates of poverty and disability, and several of the designs mentioned–foot-operated water pumps, text-free training devices–would be right at home in AOMS any ol’ day.
Sticks and phones can break my bones?
We’ve seen mobile phones blamed for many things, some of which may even be true. And this blog tries to keep its attention on technology-improving-access rather than technology-causing-disability. But it’s causal Friday.
It seems that in some parts of Africa, cell phones are spreading faster than the network can keep up. This means that there are places where signals are so weak that you have to climb a tree to place a call. And if there are more tree climbers, there are more out-of-tree experiences. Thus the epidemic of broken bones, especially among elders.