Design for many different types of users is hard enough, just imagine one also need to include the blind. Advocates for the blind always complain about consumer technologies not doing a good enough job of making products accessible. The web, while opening many opportunities for blind people, is still riddled with obstacles.
And sophisticated screen-reader software, which turns documents and web pages into synthesized speech, are very expensive. And fancy flash-based site is not helping. Picture below is a map reader for the blind, pretty cool idea.
A year or two ago, the National Federation of the Blind reached a settlement of a landmark class-action lawsuit against one company whose site advocates found unusable, Target. In the settlement, the retailer agreed to make its web site accessible to blind people. Not sure why they are picked on. The big challenge is that technology is evolving at such a speed that makes it hard to develop proper guidelines. Apple is pretty ahead in terms of accessibility. They’re the first to include a screen reader for the blind on one of their mainstream products.
Google is working on an Android add-on that will make the mobile phone operating system much easier for blind people to use. The API is there, and some basic console work seems to be working already. RIM also have an accessibility API. The traditional mobile accessibility solutions on Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 all require an additional payment of $200 to $350 for a screen reading solution. Mobile screen readers have many technical challenges as interfaces are becoming sophisticated. Touch screen phone is nightmare because of the keyboard as there are too many interactions. One idea is to disable the touchscreen and add buttons with holes etc. I hope we can develop GPS based phones for the blind that can read street signs and directions. I think that is a great idea.
Some universities may not allow the use or recommend Amazon’s Kindle DX in the classroom because they are not accessible by the blind. The Justice Department’s civil rights division are exploring whether Kindles and other e-readers violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. The federation has said that while it appreciates the Kindle’s text-to-speech feature, the "menus of the device are not accessible to the blind…making it impossible for a blind user to purchase books from Amazon’s Kindle store, select a book to read, activate the text-to-speech feature, and use the advanced reading functions available on the Kindle DX.
This is adding another level of challenge for the designers. Amazon is now working on new features such as audible menu system. While I think it is important to make the new technologies accessible to the blind, we need to be flexible and realistic. Not every new product can pass the accessible test, we can wait till the technology matures.
