Hi Jim, I find your argument mute. As most computers are not design for the blind or sight impair. Sure they can be modified for use with the blind. The Kindle or iPad are not meant for use of the blind or sight impair. The speech-to-text capablities are more a gimmick and just allow for someone to hear the text while doing something else. Now real invention would be a touch screen with tactile feedback. That would really help the blind and sight impaired. I know such screens are technically possible, but I assume that it is not profitable to put them into computer screens. regards Keith. Am 28.01.2010 um 17:42 schrieb Jim Adcock:
"VoiceOver" Screen Reader?
Not too sure what they mean by that. The Kindles have taken heat and basically gotten drop-kicked off campuses for lacking basic "accessibility" features such as having the built-in text-to-speech be able to speak the operating system part of the display. So, for example, in theory a blind or restricted sight student could "read a book" using the Kindles text-to-speech -- except such a student has no way to navigate the Kindle to select that book to be read in the first place! And increasingly publishers are denying screen reader access to their books due to the "audible books" licensing problem.
"Accessibility" is such a standard part of modern computer design that I would have a hard time believing that Apple would screw the pooch on that one, but then the question becomes one of licensing of the books re text-to-speech on the part of the publishers -- which then runs into the audible books buzzsaw that Amazon ran into. You would think that someone, Congress maybe, would step into this mess and mandate "accessibility" of e-books -- at least for those citizens reasonably requiring this feature -- certainly low-sighted people, but then the issue becomes do you allow access to those claiming dyslexia for example?
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