A blog about universal and accessible design

Showing posts with label polio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label polio. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

speaking of iPhones (or at least touch screens)

From the NY Times: Google's Phone Apps for the Blind, and Everyone Else.

Pretty much a classic Universal Design scenario-- two engineers (one of whom is blind) at Google develop an option on a phone where the touch-screen does not require you to look at it (wherever you touch becomes the "center"). Presto, it works for everyone who is trying to do stuff on a touch screen without looking at it, like while driving.

It makes sense when you design interfaces to think of a broad group of users. The Amazon Kindle, which seems like such a great product for blind/low-vision users, has an audio option but not an accessible interface (voice prompts, etc). Opportunity missed, PR screwed up. (hat tip)