A decent sort
We hear a lot of complaints from clients about their clogged Email inboxes–especially from folks with cognitive disabilities, who may be unsure what’s reasonably safe or not to open, who may have unreliable spam filters, or who may simply be overwhelmed. Enter the Priority Inbox feature for GMail, which prioritizes your inbox based on “who emails you the most, who you reply to the most, keywords taken from the emails you open most often, and how a message is addressed.” Users can also “train” the feature by indicating when Priority Inbox made a miscall. Not a full solution, but a likely helper.
Tweet spot
Roger Ebert (again) on the value of Twitter as augmentative communication:
“Twitter for me performs the function of a running conversation. For someone who cannot speak, it allows a way to unload my zingers and one-liners. One of the problems with written notes and computer voices is that, by their nature, their timing doesn’t work. I used to have good timing. Now in real life a conversation will be whizzing along and a line will pop into my head and by the time I write it down and get someone to read it, the moment and the context will have disappeared. Often everything will grind to a halt while I remind people what I was referring to.”
Deja vu all over again
Coding kvetch: A perusal of the Apple Developer notes for designing websites to be compatible with the iPad shows that one of the guidelines discourages exclusive use of mouse-specific event handlers such as mouseover and mouseout. Instead, they encourage use of Safari-specific DOM Touch events. Would it be possible for us to all get along on a universal scale by using hardware- and browser-independent event handlers such as onfocus and onblur?
Guten ’nuff
Project Gutenberg is a long-standing project that transfers out-of-copyright books into electronic text formats–usually classic fiction, but there are some oddball gems scattered in as well. Now comes word that some fraction of these titles will be available through the iBooks store for iPad users from the get-go, presumably compatible with the built-in VoiceOver screen reader. So for the first time, people who are blind or have learning disabilities will be able to access The Story of Crisco at the same time as everyone else.
Wired: iBooks Store Loaded with Project Gutenberg Titles at Launch
Get fresh with us
Among the many things AoMS believes in is fresh produce, so we’re pleased to see the Fresh Code barcode system being proposed. As the fruit or veggie deteriorates, so does the code; if it’s past its edibility date, the barcode won’t work at checkout. Could be a great help to people who can’t thump a melon or effectively interpret the color of a banana, as well as those who don’t remember or never learned that some cauliflower is supposed to be purple.
Ubergizmo: Fresh Code ensures that you’ll get your veggies fresh
Production code, 2010 style
Here’s an interesting use for QR codes: Fandango, the movie ticket service, now has a mobile service that will send a code to your mobile phone. When you get to the theater, a scanner reads the code. No more paper to manipulate or remember, letting everyone get to the popcorn line that much faster. If the scanners are self-service, let’s hope some attention is given to accessibility in terms of height, providing guidance as to where to place the phone, etc. And if it’s a success, we’ll look forward to seeing similar implementations for other types of tickets.
One ringy dingy
We understand the ringtones that soothe a savage breast, and the ones that let teenagers hear sounds that old men of 25 would miss. But the Japanese Ringing Tone Library has come up with a tone that is supposed to…clear your sinuses?! Reluctantly, we guess it might be useful for people who can’t blow their nose in traditional ways, but we’re also interested in what else is up the JRTL’s sleeves. “Ringtone makes your skin beautiful” is one announced project; we’re hoping for something like “ringtone stops your back from itching.”