Spotted on Twtter, Talking lamp-posts will help blind people find their way. IF YOU heard a lamp-post talking, you might think you were going mad. But speaking signs have been springing up to help blind and partially-sighted people. Newcastle is one of the first places in the UK to pilot the RNIB React Talking Sign...
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According to Slashdot , there is now a Bionic Eye Telescope To Treat Macular Degeneration. This visual aid actually goes inside the eye. It sounds a bit frightening, actually, but exciting at the same time. External vision aids are bulky, often uncomfortable and easy to lose or break. This one avoids all those issue. If you...
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Notes from a small field posted a neat idea for iPhone accessibility a couple of years back. He proposes an accessibility mode, where the iPhone (or any touch screen device) engages a very simple interface for the disabled. A while ago, I posted about a similar concept for the desktop computer, but that has...
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Speeding up a recording used to make it sound like Alvin & the Chipmunks. Growing up, I had a cassette player for the blind that had a variable speed playback control. Being a kid, I used it mainly for entertainment value. Fun was...
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As seen on Mac-ccessibility, there are some engineers at University of Washington’s AIM research group working a neat project to make mobile devices with touch screens, like the iPhone, more accessible to blind users. Slide Rule: Making Touch Screens Accessible to Blind Users Shaun K. Kane (iSchool), Jeffrey P. Bigham (CSE), and Jacob O. Wobbrock (iSchool) Exploring...
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Last week’s tech section reviews the state of e-book readers in A Walk Through a Crop of Electronic Readers. THE release this week of Amazon’s Kindle 2 has put electronic book readers in the spotlight. Its proponents celebrate the ability to store thousands of titles on a single lightweight device; the access to newspapers, magazines...
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Spotted today on Slashdot, Amazon Releases iPhone Kindle Software. “The Amazon Kindle 2 just started shipping last week, but Amazon surprised everyone late on March 3rd by placing the Amazon Kindle software for the iPhone in the Apple App Store. With the Whispersync technology you can now keep your Kindle and iPhone ebooks in sync...
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Today Amazon announced that it was surrendering to the Author’s Guild – Amazon Backs off Text-to-Speech Feature in Kindle – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com. The new Talk To Me feature, a form of text to speech, in Amazon’s Kindle will be disabled at the whim of the publisher. How many publishers will not exercise...
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As seen on the Talking Books Librarian, the American Foundation for the Blind’ is conducting a Survey on Small Screen Visual Displays at http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?Mode=Survey&SurveyID=101. Taken from the website: AFB TECH, the technology arm of the American Foundation for the Blind, is currently working to establish standards to improve the readability of small screen visual displays, and...
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Fliq Notes is of my favorite iPhone apps. Not only is it versatile and useful, but it’s also quite colorful. This app is designed allow you to, organize and share your notes. in other colorful and intuitive interface which is remarkably accessible. Fliq Notes is part of a suite of applications, both for your...
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I keep all my contact and calendar information on Google. Google is convenient, ubiquitous and easy to use. when I brought my new iPod Touch home, I was excited to set up my e-mail, contacts and calendar on the device. Setting up my e-mail went smoothly enough. The difficulty begin when I tried to...
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Last week, Google announced that its Book Search would be available for iPhone and other mobile device users. I like to read, so I thought I would see how it works and how accessible it is. I looked at another e-book reader, Stanza, in an earlier post, so I will look at the differences. As...
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The NY Times, along with every other news source, is reporting on the new version of Amazon’s e-book reader, the Kindle.Buried among all the other changes is one important accessibility feature: text-to-speech. According to the Times: Giving Voice to the Kindle: The Kindle 2 also has text-to-speech built in. “Any book, blog, magazine or personal...
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