Hi Travis and others
I have no argument with what you say about the device itself, apart
from there have been times when I just have not been able to tell
whether or not the Shuffle was actually functioning, i.e. had enough
power to function - the light does give this info to a sighted user.
That apart, it's not the accessibility or otherwise of the device
itself that is the problem in my view, but rather the software that
allows importing of files. Itunes on the Mac is extremely difficult
to use; Itunes on the Windows platform is better but I still have
problems quickly and consistently putting files onto the Shuffle.
WinAmp for Windows has a plug-in that allows you to see the Shuffle
as a separate device and this usually works. But there have been
times when I've thought files had gone across, or the Shuffle had
been synchronised or updated correctly and found there was nothing on
the Shuffle at all - probably because older files had been deleted
but the update process had not completed properly.
From an access point of view, itw as immediately apparent to my
sighted son that the files had not gone through (I'm using the
Windows WinAmp and Itunes software here).
Having tried several devicces, including the old Archos JukeBox
recorder (bnow with RockBox and therefor some quite good speech
output), but am still seriously thinking about buying something like
the Book Courrier, purely and simply for the immediate feedback given
by the built-in speech synthesiser for not only menus but also names
of files on the system, etc.
Each to his own, and to be fair different devices serve differing
purposes as you say. My 20GB Archos is fine if I want my whole
collection of music with me, but bulky. The Shuffle's great for
taking on a walk, but still not always quick and reliable for me to
transfer files to in a logical way.
I have not yet, by the way, tried the suggestions with the Shuffle on
the Mac - that's the next step :)
On 29 May 2006, at 01:04, Travis Siegel wrote:
Useful/useless is often a function of the user. My guess is that
the folks who think the shuffle is useless are the ones who *need*
to see what they're looking at. It's not that the shuffle isn't
useful, it's that they don't want to take the time to learn it.
Simply using a visual system allows them to not bother actually
learning anything, they can simply follow the prompts on screen,
and thereby have full access to the device.
I still submit that the shuffle is accessible 100%.
Why?
Because it allows to access *all* of the functions of the device
without sighted assistance, and we do it exactly the same way a
sighted person does. If this isn't an accessible device, then my
guess you'll never find what you call an accessible device.
Usefulness is simply a subjective judgment, and if sighted folks
call it useless, that doesn't mean it's not accessible. There's
lots of programs I don't use, because I find them useless, but
others both have no problem with them, and consider them essential
tools. That doesn't make them inaccessible, it simply makes them
not useful for me.
I don't think we need a flowchart for this one.
How many times have blind folks complained that a device couldn't
be accessed either at all, or in the same way sighted folks do,
then along comes the shuffle, which does both, and still folks are
calling it not accessible. I fail to see what's inaccessible about
it. Sure, you can't see (or hear)the title of the songs, but guess
what? The sighted person using the shuffle can't see (or hear) that
info eithher. I for one am greatful anytime a device becomes
available that's accessible, even if it is accidental.
Plus, according to sale figures on the shuffle, I'm thinking a
*lot* of sighted folks find the shuffle just fine for their purposes.
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