New Linux PDA For Blind People

[W. Nick Dotson]

OK, for those foolish enough to try it, maybe a rationale, "post disaster or terrorist act, one can't see the screen because of smoke, so one still needs to be 
able to access the device to seek rescue".  I'd respond, do you really think people would be rational enough to remember what to do, and to function that 
way when they're used to thrashing around with a mouse.  But, if you want to beat your silly heads against a wall, there's one "best for all" defense.  While 
in fantasy land, anyone want to suggest another befiting the ideal of societal mandates in the post Reagan/Thatcher/Bush/NeoCon era of "I got mine 
bugger-off".  (grin)

Nick


On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 20:23:39 -0600, Glenn at home wrote:

 Ten years ago, I'd said that the government should not mandate accessibility 
 into software, but now, it would be so cheap, when the price was spread out 
 over the cost of the product to the general public, that I now believe that 
 it should be law, that a device needs to be usable with and without a 
 screen.
 I mean, it may have a screen, but it should be just as easily usable if the 
 screen was covered.
 I'm guessing it might cost a dollar or 2 over the cost of any particular 
 product using software, if it was mandated.
 Glenn

 ----- Original Message ----- 
 From: "Lorenzo Taylor" <lorenzo at taylor.homelinux.net>
 To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
 Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 2:14 PM
 Subject: Re: New Linux PDA For Blind People


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 The voice in a blind-friendly mainstream product should be no problem for a
 sighted person.  If they don't like it, they don't have to turn it on.  It's
 that simple.  The concept I'm going with here is that a blind-friendly 
 product
 won't make a company much money.  This is the excuse given by all the 
 companies
 out there who are making tons of money off the government agencies and blind
 people themselves who can make the sacrifice it takes to buy such a product. 
 So
 why not make the mainstream product blind friendly at no cost to the 
 consumer?
 The voice could be turned off by a sighted person if he/she doesn't like it, 
 or
 better yet, it could be very easilly turned on by a blind person if he/she 
 needs
 it.  Voice synthesis is extremely cheap to implement now, so it wouldn't 
 cost
 the manufacturer any additional money to make it work, and it wouldn't 
 reduce
 the functionality of the device.

 As for the open source mandate in MA, I think it's a good idea.  It's the
 proprietary nature of screen readers for the unfortunately most popular OS 
 that
 makes it difficult to work with for some blind people.  The screen readers 
 for
 Windows are based on proprietary technology and for the most part only work 
 with
 proprietary technology.  This is changing slightly, but not enough.  This is 
 what
 makes blind people think the state of MA is doing a bad thing by trying to 
 cut
 costs by switching to a superior open source technology.  Just think what 
 the
 state was doing when they forced everyone to use Microsoft formats, or 
 Microsoft
 forced the state to use their formats, whichever you like.

 Lorenzo
 - -- 
 Keep American Idol great! Vote for Mandisa!
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