User Interface Issues

Janina Sajka janina at afb.net
Wed Oct 3 10:23:00 EDT 2001


This is a very interesting question.

I think you're right about the overhead. But that's only true if each user 
needs to maintain their own.

Far more interesting to me would be an application which would let me keep 
my own data, but also interact with my bank. In several passes at looking 
at banking services online it has become obvious to me that there aren't 
really that many applications out there--maybe half a dozen. The banks 
install these and then tailor their content to reflect themselves--their 
logos, etc.

What I would really like to see is a proxy service that can be trusted 
both by banks and by blind consumers. I think there's currently room for 
this kind of creativity in services to blind and otherwise visually 
impaired consumers. Think of it as sort of like a BankShare. I'm punning 
on Jim Fruchterman's BookShare, of course, which has the blessing of the 
Association of American Publishers. I would think an arrangement like that 
could be made with the bankers as well.



 On Wed, 
3 Oct 2001, Steve Holmes wrote:

> I'm thinking about writing a personal checkbook program for Linux. What
> I'm curious about is what kind of interface would be most appropriate for
> a bunch of blind people out there like myself. I'm leaning towards a
> curses style interface - mainly for the check register but using a web
> browser for the front end sounds interesting too. The only bad thing about
> a web based application is that's a lot of overhead for a single user
> environment - CGI scripts, Apache and all that. What do you all think?
> 
> If I go the curses route, I would be interested in some good jump start
> instruction to get the most out of it. Some of the examples I've seen so
> far kinda overwelme me since I've been used to hand-holders such as Visual
> Basic:). Where might one find some good curses training/instruction?
> 
> 
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-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
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