interesting artical indeed, and I certainly see the logic.
In fact I was recently presented with an example of this when I read the
user guide for Core exiles on mining which (being written before some access
info was added to the game), tells players to "click the mine icon, ---- it
looks like a red square with a pick coming out"
where as now, there is an icon clearly labled "mine asteroid" with text.
To that extent I agree, adaptation can lead to interesting ideas.
However, there are circumstances where the opposite is true.
i'm thinking here particularly of the wii.
The wiimote is regarded by many people as a great access aide for menue
navigation, afterall, someone with problems pressing buttons or moving
joysticks is much better off pointing the wiimote at the screen.
yet, from a visual imparement point of view, it's a pain in the rear! In
fact, it's the chief reason i've not bought a Wii myself (that and the white
background for the menues).
Now, if Nintendo offered a conventional press to move type menue interface
as an alternative, ---- who else would it bennifit besides myself? would
that group make a large enough demographic to warrent nintendo spending the
time, ---- especially when taking into account both the normal wii menue
users and those with motor imparements who found the facility useful. I did
in fact get comments to this effect, ---- that I was being unfair to
physically impared gamers when discussing this matter on the retroremakes
forum.
what about eye tracking or voice control. Great for people with certain
disabilities, and probably helpful to the general population, ---- but not
for specific other groups.
I'm not saying I disagree with the point of the artical, in fact I think
it's a most intreaguing one, only that because capitalism is an essentially
amoral process, appealing to capitalism in the form of inervation may have
it's down side too.
Then again, as slightly left wing I do freely admit i am suspicious of
commercial moativations generally.
Btw, this actually makes me think of an idea I've had for a while.
Often, i bang Hal on reading something, then go and do something else such
as cooking, sorting laundry, washing up etc (in fact this is why i dislike
hoovering so much, sinse it's too noisy to read or listen to anything while
doing it).
I've often wondered for a while if people with perfectly normal vision would
find a basic program to read aloud a page of text or a webpage useful for
similar reasons, though of course the down side would be that they'd
probably not have a decent voice to do it in.
Stil, it might be a nice litle project to have people more aware of what
working with a screen reader is like, as well as provide a useful functiong
which is currently only (as far as I know), available via a screen reader.
Beware the Grue!
dark.
---
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