The Blind Struggle As Gadgets Proliferate Sat Apr 23, 8:38 PM ET By VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Writer
As technology has evolved, it's become lighter, smaller and more portable. For most people, that makes it more convenient. For millions of blind and vision-impaired people, it's anything but.
Jay Leventhal, who is blind, still fumbles with the tiny controls on his iPod but has given up on the kiosk in his New York office building that lists all the tenants.
For Leventhal, even laundry has become a task requiring the help of a sighted person. The washers he uses now take smart cards instead of quarters, issuing instructions on a digital screen that he can't read.
"The biggest barrier for blind people is access to information, and more and more information is being made available through different machines that aren't designed for people who can't see," says Leventhal, editor in chief of AccessWorld: Technology and People with Visual Impairments.
Blind people need a way to communicate with the machines that surround them, he says, from automated tellers to ticketing machines at train stations and airports.
Leventhal and other experts on assistive technology say there's no reason that can't happen. The technology exists in voice chips, image processors, cell phones, cameras and personal digital assistants.
Someone just needs to put it all together.
(see the rest of this story here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=562&e=8&u=/ap/vision_tech
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