I strongly believe that there is a burgeoning market for what might be called intermediate accessibility in product design. Too often, the term accessibility is related only to those with profound lack of access. When we think of people in need of accessibility, we think of the profoundly deaf or blind and those restricted...
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Twitter directed me to a post on Yanko Design which led me to this neat discovery, an accessible tactile case for the iPhone and iPod Touch. From the designer: invisual – a tactile Silicone case for the Apple iPhone 13 November, 2008 used with an app store application, designed in mind, for the Blind and the Visually...
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Last Week’s Personal Tech section in the NYTimes featured a nifty new product, ClarityLife C900 Amplified Mobile Phone. The C900 is designed for the more senior among us, but is equally useful for the visually impaired. The phone only has four buttons on its face, each is large and easy to find and use....
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I am creating an Amazon Listmania list, Lov Vision Gadgets, for all those nifty little things that I fund unexpectedly helpful as a visually-impaired person. This is not a list for those expensive low vision aids. Instead, I want to highlight items not marketed for the visually impaired, but are still quite useful. The...
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Inspired by a fellow visually-impaired photographer on Flickr (see the image of Sandra on the right), I went to my local outdoors store and bought an LED headlamp, the Tikka Plus, from Petzl. The headlamp is great for reading! I have been using booklights to supplement ambient room lighting for a while now, but...
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Most of the ways people find this blog is through web searches. One of the most popular search terms that bring visitors here is “high contrast cell phones” that directs them to this post. Surprisingly, to me anyway, this is the first entry that Google lists for this search term. However, my post is...
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Spotted on Device Daily: Touch Sight Camera Allows The Blind To Take And Touch Photos The Touch Sight, a concept camera from Samsung, is a great stride forward for visually impaired photographers with little of no vision. Instead of an LCD screen, it has a Braiille display that can present the image in a 3D...
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Slashdot is running an interesting piece on a new accessible technology in development; GM Researching Windshields For Old Drivers. It seems like a cool idea that would benefit all drivers, not just older ones. I really appreciate seeing developments in technology oriented towards accessibility like this one. Maybe one day, this will allow partially sighted...
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David Pogue over at the NY Times has addressed our main issue in his blog: Gadgets With the Blind in Mind – Pogue’s Posts. A look through the comments so far (over fifty as of now) shows quite a range of responses from ignorant trolls to many insightful contributions. It is worth reading the...
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Here is a nice review of iPods, other digital music players and related software from an accessible perspective: Portable Player Portal Main Page. I am interested in Rockbox, which has a voice-based interface, but it does not allow for Audible.com playback. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider buying me a cup...
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