Greg, Your suggestion as to how to input braille in a touch system is,
in my opinion, not all that far fetched. Is it possible, without
revealing any long-range plans of Apple's, that this may have been
tried out? This, of course, I realize, would be sheer speculation on
yours, as well as mine and others' parts. If this is, in fact, the
case, there is promising results in the long-range scheme of things.
Richie Gardenhire, Anchorage, Alaska.
On Sep 10, 2008, at 10:38 AM, UCLA Bruins Fan wrote:
good to know! :)
On Sep 10, 2008, at 10:40 AM, Jessi Rathwell wrote:
hmmm. I'd think it would come back to you pretty easilly. I
switched over to qwerty too and hardly braille at all, but I had to
do some brailling for my job this summer and I found it came back
pretty quickly!! I'm definitely slower at it than I was, but I
don't think I've really forgotten anything save for maybe a few
contractions lol.
On 10-Sep-08, at 8:48 AM, UCLA Bruins Fan wrote:
what if you don't read or write braille well, though? I am an
extremely slow braille reader and often make errors when I try to
write on a standard braille writer (I haven't done this in years
because computers turned out to be the solution for me and I use a
qwerty keyboard exclusively) I am sure there are otherrs like me
who have basically switched from braille to computers over the
past 10 years and who no longer use braille on a regular basis.
So, your solution might work fo some, but there would have to be
some kind of alternative for people used to standard keyboards, I
would think. Interesting idea, though.
.
On Sep 10, 2008, at 8:13 AM, Greg Kearney wrote:
Let me try this idea for accessible touch systems on you. How to
make the touch screens accessible is a big issue with no clear
solution. As more devices adopt this interface something will
have to be done however. Here is one approach to the issue:
Braille input for touch screen devices
Braille is the international standard for reading, and in this
case, writing employed by the blind. Braille offers a possible
method of interacting with and controlling touch screen devices
such as the iPod Touch and the iPhone. Braille is a corded entry
system made up of six positions of the fingers.
Touch screens could be programed to detect the various
combinations of finger presses and their relationship to each
other and then act accordingly. This combined with text to speech
output would permit the blind user to control a touch screen
device.
When in "braille input mode" the user would enter in grade one
braille commands to which the devices would respond with speech.
For example consider the task of choosing music to play.
The use would enter the word "play" in braille on the screen
followed by taping the "space bar" in this case the double press
of two thumbs at the bottom of the screen to activate the
command. The system would respond by announcing the first song of
the cover flow selections. The user would then do a "N" and a
double tap of the space bar to move forward and a "B" to move
backwards through the list. When the use found the song he wanted
a double tap of the space bar would activate the choice.
The use could limit the listing by providing the play command a
name for example "play haydn" would limit the search to music by
Haydn.
Similar interfaces could be done for phone calls in the iPhone. A
user could issue a command "call bob" the unit would respond with
a list of users with bob in the name the user would then use the
"N" and "B' commands to move through the lists until he finds the
one he wants to call and then issue a double tap of the space bar
to place the call or a "info" command to read the information
about that person.
By using grade one braille we can avoid the issue of expanding
contraction and make the system easy to use even for blind users
who might not otherwise be braille users. Braille would permit
the blind user to enter information into the phone. An added
benefit is that braille entry would permit even sighted users to
type quickly into a touch device much as if they had a keyboard
attached to the device.
With the addition of Braille Apple would be offering the least
expensive and most capable braille device ont eh market today
when you consider that similar devices for the blind have costs
well in excess of $1000. In addition it would offer a fast data
input method for the sighted as well.
Well that is all for now.
Greg Kearney
Curtin University Centre for Accessible Technology
www.cucat.org
