Hi Dark,
Yeah, touchscreens can be nice once you get use to them. I didn't find
them as difficult as I thought they'd be, but there apparently not for
everybody. Like everything else in life it all depends on how much
effort, time, and energy you are willing to commit to learning the new
interface.
The best way I can describe it is cane travel verses a dog guide. With
cane travel a blind person uses his/her cane to stay in contact with the
world around them such as the tree lawn, walls, staircases, parked cars,
etc. With a guide dog the dog avoids polls, trash bins, parked cars,
and just about everything a blind cane traveler is taught to use as
landmarks. The difference between a keyboard and touchscreen is similar.
With a keyboard or keypad there are buttons and keys in the same place
that a blind person can use to orient himself or herself with. With a
touchscreen it is a flat plastic surface with no physical landmarks to
orient the blind user. Instead a blind user must use his/her memory and
mental image of the screen layout to point at a specific area of the
screen and tap the correct icon, menu option, etc. On the iPhone, at
least, it helps that you get some verbal feedback as to what you are doing.
This is nothing more than a hunch but I'm guessing people who are having
trouble with touchscreens have a very poor sense of spacial orientation.
They have difficulty visualizing the locations of things on the screen
and aren't sure where to put their fingers to activate a certain icon
etc. They are easily confused by the user interface because they are
unable to form a mental image of the screen and how it is laid out for
the sighted user.
Cheers!
On 4/21/2012 12:55 PM, dark wrote:
I must admit I'm planning on an Iphone myself when my laptop busts,
since these days I just need something portable, and there are more
and more really awsom sounding games for it.
I understand there will be a learning curve, but actually I will
probably use games to help me with that, for instance playing text
games to learn about screen navigation, the same way that playing
online web games got me familiar with site navigation.
Of course, I've not tried one yet, so I might be jumping to
conclusions, but from the sound of it touch screens are the way to go,
and I'm intreagued by the idea of one that works with screen reading.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
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