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I got so excited when I read this headline because I thought there was a product I could get for the 80 year old blind lady I work with that would allow her to

I got so excited when I read this headline because I thought there was a product I could get for the 80 year old blind lady I work with that would allow her to read her email by talking to her computer, but alas it's just for shopping. Computers are presently absolutely terrible for the visually impaired and there is no product I can find that even begins to address it. As the article said screen readers right now are ass backwards, it might read to you, but you still need to be able to see move the mouse and do anything with it.

cmaury 11y ago
Sorry for the let down. I feel her pain. We're working on it, and should have something for her soon. Email is definitely high on our list of tasks that need a conversational layer.
melling 11y ago
Yeah, but you have to build a business that makes money first. It's still a step forward. Every time someone solves a problem with voice, it becomes easier for the next person. Some in the hacker community are working on voice solutions to help program with off the shelf programs, for example: https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/programming_by_voice.org https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/progra... Someone could probably use the same solution to help the visually impaired. Throw in the new motion gesture technology, like that by Intel: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/realsense-overview.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-tech... And soon we'll all have more natural ways to interact with computers.
- zokier 11y ago
  I have no real knowledge, but I imagine that gesture interfaces would be massively worse than keyboard for visually impaired because the lack of tactile feedback.
  - melling 11y ago
    you can provide audible feedback when you move your hands. Many gestures don't provide anyone tactile feedback. Move your hands or fingers then something happens on the screen. Google's new chip could probably help interpret a series of gestures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0
  - stevetrewick 11y ago
    Not necessarily. Successfully thinking about this stuff requires stripping interactions all the way back to their intent. The intent of either a key press or gesture is to change some state and the intent of the feedback is to communicate both the change and the new state. The tactile feedback from a key press is at best only a small proportion of that. You get to know you mushed a key, but not what (if anything) it changed. Assistive tech using keyboard input will generally fill in that gap with voice feedback. Gesture input with haptic and audio/voice feedback should be usable in some scenarios. I'm currently working on a couple of iOS apps in the fitness space that have this as a key part of their UI.
bitshiffed 11y ago
Completely agree. My brother recently lost his sight. I've been working on tools to address some smaller, specific pain-points for him; but general purpose computing without vision is beyond frustrating...
- paulryanrogers 11y ago
  Have you looked into NVDA?
RubenSandwich 11y ago
While their first offering is for shopping they are also producing an SDK to help other develop similar interfaces: https://github.com/ConversantLabs/SayKitSDK https://github.com/ConversantLabs/SayKitSDK.
sp332 11y ago
Apple's UX has been pretty impressive, although I've never tried to use it full-time. http://www.phonearena.com/news/Blind-man-demonstrates-the-effectiveness-of-the-iPhones-accessibility-features_id29200 http://www.phonearena.com/news/Blind-man-demonstrates-the-ef... http://www.siriuserguide.com/siri-dictation-guide/ http://www.siriuserguide.com/siri-dictation-guide/ You can either dictate an email, or record a "voice memo" and email the sound. http://www.cnet.com/how-to/voice-dictation-is-now-done-in-real-time-on-ios-8/ http://www.cnet.com/how-to/voice-dictation-is-now-done-in-re...
randomgyatwork 11y ago
Blind users don't need to use a mouse, they can use (tabbing or double swiping). This is why web accessibility is so important, and while relatively easy to implement the basics, most developer seem to skip it or forget it. Screen reader accessibility can be archived by coding pages in clean and standards based HTML. alt attributes are basic, but often are missing or have unclear text. Form elements need to be properly labelled, links need clear descriptions etc. I agree that screen readers aren't the greatest technology, but the truth is developers of websites and applications aren't doing their part to make their products accessible.

cmaury 11y ago

Sorry for the let down. I feel her pain. We're working on it, and should have something for her soon. Email is definitely high on our list of tasks that need a conversational layer.

melling 11y ago

Yeah, but you have to build a business that makes money first. It's still a step forward. Every time someone solves a problem with voice, it becomes easier for the next person. Some in the hacker community are working on voice solutions to help program with off the shelf programs, for example: https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/programming_by_voice.org https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/progra... Someone could probably use the same solution to help the visually impaired. Throw in the new motion gesture technology, like that by Intel: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/realsense-overview.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-tech... And soon we'll all have more natural ways to interact with computers.

zokier 11y ago
I have no real knowledge, but I imagine that gesture interfaces would be massively worse than keyboard for visually impaired because the lack of tactile feedback.
- melling 11y ago
  you can provide audible feedback when you move your hands. Many gestures don't provide anyone tactile feedback. Move your hands or fingers then something happens on the screen. Google's new chip could probably help interpret a series of gestures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0
- stevetrewick 11y ago
  Not necessarily. Successfully thinking about this stuff requires stripping interactions all the way back to their intent. The intent of either a key press or gesture is to change some state and the intent of the feedback is to communicate both the change and the new state. The tactile feedback from a key press is at best only a small proportion of that. You get to know you mushed a key, but not what (if anything) it changed. Assistive tech using keyboard input will generally fill in that gap with voice feedback. Gesture input with haptic and audio/voice feedback should be usable in some scenarios. I'm currently working on a couple of iOS apps in the fitness space that have this as a key part of their UI.

bitshiffed 11y ago

Completely agree. My brother recently lost his sight. I've been working on tools to address some smaller, specific pain-points for him; but general purpose computing without vision is beyond frustrating...

paulryanrogers 11y ago
Have you looked into NVDA?

RubenSandwich 11y ago

While their first offering is for shopping they are also producing an SDK to help other develop similar interfaces: https://github.com/ConversantLabs/SayKitSDK https://github.com/ConversantLabs/SayKitSDK.

sp332 11y ago

Apple's UX has been pretty impressive, although I've never tried to use it full-time. http://www.phonearena.com/news/Blind-man-demonstrates-the-effectiveness-of-the-iPhones-accessibility-features_id29200 http://www.phonearena.com/news/Blind-man-demonstrates-the-ef... http://www.siriuserguide.com/siri-dictation-guide/ http://www.siriuserguide.com/siri-dictation-guide/ You can either dictate an email, or record a "voice memo" and email the sound. http://www.cnet.com/how-to/voice-dictation-is-now-done-in-real-time-on-ios-8/ http://www.cnet.com/how-to/voice-dictation-is-now-done-in-re...

randomgyatwork 11y ago

Blind users don't need to use a mouse, they can use (tabbing or double swiping). This is why web accessibility is so important, and while relatively easy to implement the basics, most developer seem to skip it or forget it. Screen reader accessibility can be archived by coding pages in clean and standards based HTML. alt attributes are basic, but often are missing or have unclear text. Form elements need to be properly labelled, links need clear descriptions etc. I agree that screen readers aren't the greatest technology, but the truth is developers of websites and applications aren't doing their part to make their products accessible.