Day 2 at CES featured some TV, some audio, some speech and a nice little company making nifty headphones.
OK, so I sort of surrender to the TV juggernaut that is CES with a visit to Panasonic. But, this is a blindness access story and not a (super high-def, screen as large as my garage story).
In the September 2011 issue of AccessWorld, I wrote a commentary about the future of accessibility in light of the ever-shifting flow of technological advancement.
In March, during our Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute, I was preparing a presentation demonstrating the built-in accessibility of Apple's iPhone and iPad devices when I heard about a new money identifier app: the LookTel Money Reader.
I dropped by my local Apple store on Sunday to see if the iPad might really be as cool as it sounded.
Well, it's as cool and cooler. I asked the salesman to turn on Voiceover, the built-in screen reader, for me, and he did and handed me the device.
If you're visually impaired and you've gone shopping for home or personal electronics in your life, you already think something is weird here. Screen reader built in? For free? Salesperson who knows it? Knows how to turn it on?
Good news on the cell phone front. This week, AT&T Inc. announced their new partnership with Code Factory and their initiative to increase usability for wireless customers who are blind or have low vision. AT&T will now offer the screen reader and magnification software, Mobile Speak and Mobile Magnifier, on select Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60 phones.
