Access on Main Street

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

Researchers in Germany have come up with a pretty cool piece of technology: measure the facial muscle movement as someone is silently mouthing words, translate that into the equivalent sounds, and send the results via phone or other device. We have a lot of questions–first off, how does it measure tongue movement to distinguish between, say, “pat” and “bat”?–but we still see the potential of this as an augmentative communication method.

Ubergizmo: Lip reading technology unveiled

A few months ago, we had an interesting discussion about ways to force users to take typing breaks to avoid repetitive strain injuries. Here’s a solution to the opposite problem: Write or Die, which checks to see if you’re meeting your writing goals. If you’re taking breaks too often or for too long, it performs the punishment you’ve selected, from changing the text color to even deleting what you’ve written. Could we get Don’t Write or Die, which would have the same punishments if you don’t take a break?

OhGizmo: Write or Die makes you write or…else

Not content to ban suggestive iPhone apps from their store, Apple has decided they can also ban apps based on “minimal user functionality.” So the quirky utility that might just solve an access problem–like the air blower–won’t be available via the most central app resource. Not good.

Gizmodo: Apple rejects app for containing minimal user functionality

The next step in telephony: magnetic rings that can be used to perform a variety of functions using gestures without requiring any contact. The MagiTact app will work with phones that have built-in compasses. Not released yet, but we’ll look forward to it.

MagiTact hands-free phone control makes multitouch seem absolute

We’ve previously discussed the benefits of running augmentative communication software on mainstream platforms, such as computers and iPhones, over having monopurpose AugCom devices. Cost efficiency is one argument; normalization another. But in the middle of this month’s moving Esquire interview with Roger Ebert, a striking advantage emerged: the broad functionality of mainstream tech permits creativity of expression in a way that developers of specialized devices might never foresee.

“This time, the anger [over Disney's deletion of videos honoring Gene Siskel that were linked from Ebert's website] lasts long enough for Ebert to write it down. He opens a new page in his text-to-speech program, a blank white sheet. He types in capital letters, stabbing at the keys with his delicate, trembling hands: MY TRIBUTE, appears behind the cursor in the top left corner. ON THE FIRST SHOW AFTER HIS DEATH. But Ebert doesn’t press the button that fires up the speakers. He presses a different button, a button that makes the words bigger. He presses the button again and again and again, the words growing bigger and bigger and bigger until they become too big to fit the screen, now they’re just letters, but he keeps hitting the button, bigger and bigger still, now just shapes and angles, just geometry filling the white screen with black like the three squares. Roger Ebert is shaking, his entire body is shaking, and he’s still hitting the button, bang, bang, bang, and he’s shouting now. He’s standing outside on the street corner and he’s arching his back and he’s shouting at the top of his lungs.”

Esquire: Roger Ebert, the essential man

We’ve commented before on a few hardware-based strategies for finding lost keys, remotes, etc. “Where Is My Phone,” however, is an iPhone app that lets you find your…iPhone. It responds to your whistle (so it’s hands-free) with either one of its preprogrammed noises or with your sound recording. Since it’s response is user-specific, we’re hoping you can substitute a different sound if you’re whistle-impaired. We also assume it’s TSR, unless you plan in advance to lose your phone. All this for a buck; not bad.

ShinyShiny: Whistle and your phone will respond: the Where is My Phone App