I was not thinking of text to speech playback but I suppose that
would be possible with an accessible iPod that could read it's menus.
I was thinking more of uploading DAISY books which have recorded
audio such as those from NLS or RFB&D.
Greg Kearney
On Jan 14, 2007, at 12:05 , Josh de Lioncourt wrote:
Daisy playback, or any sort of text reading capability on the iPod
would be an absolutely wonderful addition, for sighted and blind
users alike, I think. The problem, of course, is that iPods don't
currently have the horsepower to deal with TTS, I think. Now, if
iPods began to ship, like the iPhone, with a stripped down version
of OSX running them, then that completely eliminates that problem.
So, in future, this might be a very real possibility. In fact,
given what we now know about the iPhone, I think it is a very
likely one.
Greg Kearney wrote:
Could be. I know there is a push to make sure that all the
applications that ship with OSX are compatible and that's a lot of
applications when you think about it.
I would like to add a couple other items to my list if i may
1. DAISY playback in the OS. Just as MacOS X now detects and plays
audio CDs and DVDs I would like to have the MacOS detect and play/
navigate DAISY digital talking books. These are going to be
released by the National Library Service and Recording for the
Blind. DAISY has lots of advantages over other audio book formats
not the least of which is it is an open published standard.
2. DAISY playback in iPods. Sort of goes along with the playback
in the OS. One of the problems that educators of profound dyslexic
students have is getting them to use the adaptive technology such
as DAISY. Daisy playback devices just don't look "cool" a problem
solved by having DAISY playback in iPods. DAISY also provides lots
of features that other formats do not such as navigation to
chapters and pages skippable notes. Bookmarking and so forth.
Greg Kearney
On Jan 14, 2007, at 08:14 , Access Curmudgeon wrote:
I agree that the mere specter of liability can be enough to get
corporations to do the right thing. One of my favorite Jim Thatcher
quotes is that IBM long gave lip service to disability issues, but
Section 508 made IBM take accessibility seriously.
http://www.bestkungfu.com/archive/date/2004/08/web-accessibility-
litigation/
Here's some RDF thinking for you: Why wasn't iLife 07 and iWork 07
announced at MacWorld? This is first omission of those products
in at
least three years, since iWork was introduced, longer for iLife. Is
this not suspicious?
I do not think there is a literal Accessibility Evangelist as a
person, but I am hoping that perhaps the basic notion has been
raised
the level of fundamental internal requirement. (This fantasy is
based
entirely on Jobs mentioning voiceover at the past WWDC, I am
grasping
for straws here.) Apple has a strong reputation for not releasing
products until they are ready. Maybe, just maybe, VoiceOver
compatibility is one of the things holding up this year's release of
iWork and iLife.
