Hi listers. I will be sending this to any relevant lists where
there may be any like-minded people interested in participating
in the development of a program whereby blind people can access
their local bus or train timetables in a more user-friendly
manner than is currently available at metre websites, or even in
bulky Braille documents.
My idea is to create a program which either possesses copies of
the current timetables within it, rather like the GPS mapping
model, or has a search tool whereby it can locate the relevant
timetable on the Net and then translate the whole, or part of it,
into readable answers to various questions. For example, I would
imagine the software being programmed to ask the user the
following information:
bus name/number
read whole timeable or part?
search between which times?
Which day: Monday to Friday, Saturday,, Sunday and public
holidays?
stop locN/street name?
If we're really ambitious, the program could also give route
descriptions of the various buses and trains.
Now my reason for approaching the BN list. Although I am anxious
to see if this program could be developed for computers with
speech, I'd really like it to be BrailleNote friendly, since the
whole point of it would be to have timetable information at our
finger-tips while we're on the go. It would save having to carry
around chunky Braille documents for us Braille users. Therefore,
I have started with this list and disondered whether any of our
really smart cookies would be interested in putting their heads
together to see what they can come up with.
Unfortunately, I often have plenty of creative ideas for
furthering BN software but haven't the least idea how they can be
achieved. However, I think this is something which would really
enhance independent travel, particularly with the GPS as well.
This would be a chance for HumanWare to lead the way in
developing software which others may also adopt which would
ultimately be of benefit to more blind people than simply use the
BN.
As I said at the beginning of this message, I will be posting
this message to other relevant lists. I will also approach
universities where this idea may be taken up as a worthwhile
challenge for students. However, it would be wonderful if our
more ingenious BN users who do beta testing and have done so
program developing of their own like Alex, could possibly put
their heads together on this one.
I apologize for the repetition but I'm very excited about this.
Please don't tell me it's impossible. I'm sure that where
there's a will, there's a way, even if it means carrying the
timetables round on an extra card, like the dictionary/thesaurus
software.
Cheers!
Michele
___
Replies to this message will go directly to the sender.
If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a
copy to the list as well.
To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
