Text Me Not

When text messaging first burst onto the scene, I thought, "Well, I'll never do that." I did briefly picture a strange parallel universe where mobile phone users, sick of tapping tiny keys, spoke into their phones that converted their voices into text messages, and then would send the text message to another phone which would, in turn, read the message aloud in a Robby-the-Robot voice. Luckily for society at large, we have not yet reached that level of laziness.

Still, texting has become one of the most common forms of communication, and those of us who live between the world of the visually perfect and the completely blind (who have Braille devices for texts) face a dilemma. On the one hand, we want to participate in the world as somewhat normal people, and normal people send out the occasional text. On the other hand, if we send out a text message (which is relatively easy), people might get the wrong idea and text us back. We're left with a tiny message on an electronic screen, and if we don't happen to have a CCTV or a friend who can read it, we're momentarily illiterate. Plus, these things are supposed to be private, right? What to do?

Well, for starters, there's technology. The problem is that technology for people like us moves very slowly. Many of my friends have made the perfectly logical assumption that my phone can read texts aloud, just like my PC at home reads documents and web pages. It does not. I'm not entirely sure such a product exists. If it does, please post something about it - I'd be suriosu to look into it. All I could fins on the web were people asking of such a product exists... a lot of them... which seems to indicate that there's a market.

The biggest surprise to me is that, of all companies, Apple seems to be ahead on this one. They've added their VoiceOver program to the iPhone, an they have a pretty good zoom too. I don't happen to own one, and it's hard to test it out in stores, but at least they're trying.

iPhone Vision Accessibility

For the moment, though, I am mostly texting-incapable. It's not high on my priority list, but it does seem like a pretty easy gap to fill. So what's the deal, phone makers? Low vision product manufacturers? Get on the ball. When you figure things out, send me a text.

Or not.

iPhone = Guide Dog?

Maybe. Someday. I don't need a guide dog, but sometimes I wish I had one anyway. Dogs are awesome.

Anyway, my friend Amy drew my attention to a great New York Times article about T. V. Raman. I had never heard of Mr. Raman (as the Times so politely refers to him), but I've heard of most of his innovations in accessibility. I had no idea the same person was responsible for all of them.

For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can't

I'm particularly grateful for my computer's ability to read PDF files aloud. It comes in handy all the time.

As for the iPhone that can tell you which direction to walk in, it's probably not that useful to me; I don't have any problems getting around. I do like that my new iPod talks to me. It tells me what songs it has, what's playing, and what menu is up on the screen. It's awesome. I named it Hal.