Hi all. I agree with Chris to a point. We have more accessible programs than in the past, however, things could be better. I approach things with the saying, if you want to attract flies, it's better to use honey than vinegar. We need to convince manufacturers of software and other electronic devices to add features that not only the blind could use, but other people as well. I have three examples of this thinking.
I remember when the Kurzweil Reading Machine first came out. It was amazing that a machine in the mid 70's could take print from a book and convert it to speech. The speech wasn't the best, But it was useable, and for the nice little cost of $50,000 you could get one. As the years went by the KRM went down in price, and, last I heard, when it was around you could get one for around $6,000. Now, go ahead a few years to the PC. Someone thought that, rather than storing papers in files, they could be scanned as images into a PC and be read that way. Then someone had a thought. Maybe this person saw a KRM, and he or she thought, "Wouldn't it be neat to convert those images into text files which could be edited?" and, BANG! OCR came to a PC. In late 1990 or early 1991 I got OmniPage for my PC, and I was able to do OCR on the PC. I had better vision than now, but I think I was able to use the software with little effort. Then, a few years later, assistive technology comp anies like Kurzweil came out with OCR solutions for the blind. Kurzweil isn't cheap, but for a little over $1,000 you can get it. Another great example of what I'm talking about is the iPhone. In this case, Apple went the opposite way than OCR. They put VoiceOver on the phone specificly for the blind, and those of us who used the phone thought that it was nice to have speech out of the box, and not costing anything for it. Next, Siri came along, and both sighted and blind found it nice to ask Siri questions and get a response from the iPhone. Now, I see this option as a bonus, especially when Hey Siri is on, which has the phone listening for you to say "Hey Siri" and the phone then waits for your question. This is specificly nice for drivers of vehicles who shouldn't look at the iPhone when driving in traffic at a high rate of speed. Finally, I'd like to report on another device that has become more accessible, and that's TV. This includes the Apple TV, and other streaming content. Some cable providers have implemented speech to access their content. In fact, this week I got a laptop from Spectrum. Some of you out there might say this isn't a good solution, but I'll point out a few things about it. First, you can stream live content to the laptop, and there are quite a few channels available. Second, there's a guide that you can access to learn what channel is shown, what's currently on the channel, and what's coming up. Finally, the laptop has a SAP option that you can activate, and, if the station has SAP available you can turn it on. I haven't found a show with DVS, but one is on Fox tonight, and I'll tune into it to see if it is described. Also, if you should decide to go the laptop route, don't believe that you have to use the mouse pad to access things. The software works perfectly well wi th a keyboard. As I said, this option may not work for some, but, since I'm the only one in the apartment it works well for me. My point for this long message is that things aren't perfect, but they could definitely be worse. When I talk to manufacturers about accessibility, when possible, I mention how a feature would benefit both the blind and sighted. Siri is such a thing, and, so long as companies remember to give verbal or tactile feedback, we'll have accessible items. That's all I can think of to write. For those of you frustrated with what you're using, I can sympathize, and hope you get a working solution that you're satisfied with. If not, consider what I've said. Tell companies how it would benefit them to make something accessible, and if possible, show them how not just the blind, but everybody could benefit by this improvement. Have a blessed day and don't work too hard. Kevin Minor and the amazing Jilly, Lexington, KY _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/archive%40mail-archive.com. For subscription options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com List archives can be found at http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com
