Hi Thomas,
I think you've hit the nail on the head with me. I've never been sighted and
therefore never been able to really visualise things. It's like even in the
real world, I constantly find myself wondering why cars and pedestrians
don't bother going straight forwards rather than sideways, only to be told,
"They are going forwards". This is also significant in a gaming context, I
think this is why I struggle with games such as Shades of Doom. To be able
to at least think that I could play GMA Tank Commander, I had to listen to
someone else play it and then memorise all the directions, but I couldn't
visualise the world.
Plus, as I said in a previous post, my fingers are constantly in the way so
I can never quite perform the correct action to get it to do what I want,
and that is so frustrating. The amount of times I wanted to chuck my stupid
IPhone out the window was more than I could count.
Regards,
Damien.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <[email protected]>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 12:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] LWorks
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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