[laptop-accessibility] Blind and visually impaired users

Sun Apr 20 18:37:17 EDT 2008

A young adult I hang out with LOVES my XO.
She had her left hemisphere removed at 3 months old and damage to her
right hemisphere has caused her to only see out of a quarter of one
eye.  She is legally blind, but HATES technology or anything that
might suggest that she can't see.  She has mobility limitations, no
use of one hand, and slight cognitive impairments as well.

In some ways, the XO is perfect for her because it's not as
intimidating as a "real" computer.  It sits on her lap and is perfect
for one handed typing.  Funny -- her whole life, everyone has been
trying to find her big keyboards because of her mobility and vision
impairments, but the XO works so much better!

However, the small text on ported applications is a major issue for
me.  I can make the text bigger in firefox, but I don't know how to
make the tool bar in an application like gmail larger. This also goes
for tuxpaint, simcity, and many other non-native applications.  The
native applications are somewhat better.

As sugar evolves, developers might want to consider color and sound
cues that would take up little space but provide navigational context.
 For instance, the X that marks the cue to exit an application could
be red and mousing over could give a subtle tone, low and
non-distracting.  That tone could differ from the tone you might hear
if you mouse over the "keep" icon.   I've tried testing screen readers
(as opposed to simple text readers) and I could not make sense of the
chaos of sound as every single option was presented to me in a
computerized monotone.  Sounds and colors would help early learners
and learners using sugar in non-supported languages.

Alternately, the navigational tones could be built into a screen
reader and give the user the option of turning off the speech and
simply using tones for navigation once the learner associates tones
with the action. Sugar seems to be about simplifying the interface --
why not apply that simplification to an alternate interface?

I was told that "no one in the blind community uses a mouse anymore"
when I suggested this to someone.

Great, but a kid in Peru who gets his first computer through OLPC and
is blind doesn;'t know he's not supposed to navigate via mouse.

Other cues that have been successful with some visually impaired
people I know are "rumble" cues from a joystick or a wii remote.  I
doubt this is built into the XO, but it's a an example of how many
other resources are available to us as we build an interface for
blind/visually impaired users.  Instead of being stuck in translating
what is on the screen, I think we could really reinvision how and why
info on a screen is relayed to a user who does not / cannot rely
solely on visual cues.

What about a sonar type sound that helps someone determine the
position of a cursor based on the changing frequencies and pitch?

All of these ideas can be beneficial for any user as well.  I notice
that good learning programs are multi-modal -- the information isn't
presented in just one way. Adding tactile, auditory, and even stronger
visual cues to sugar will benefit the whole community,

Lesley Thacker
On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 11:00 AM,
<accessibility-request at lists.laptop.org> wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Introduction (Per)
>   2. Re: Introduction (Mel Chua)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:28:30 +0200
> From: "Per" <Reisender at online.de>
> Subject: [laptop-accessibility] Introduction
> To: <accessibility at lists.laptop.org>
> Message-ID: <004a01c8a171$41503110$15b2a8c0 at buschc9988c30e>
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>        reply-type=original
>
> Hello There,
>
> My name is Per and for 15 years I am blind. I live in a rich country
> (Germany) and I would like to help to improve the chances for blind persons
> from developing and newly industrializing countries. You do a very important
> work and I would like to promote/support your project within the realms of
> my possibilities.
>
> I want to point you to another web resource for blindness related issues of
> the XO and the OLPC project. It could perhaps be a place to collect
> information for interested blind persons, their teachers and supporters,
> explained in a plain manner.
> http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/OLPC
> Unfortunately, I am not a developer/professional and my English isn't good
> enough to write a lot with eloquent formulations, but I will try my best and
> other persons perhaps want to contribute in the future as well.
>
> Google's announcement of the open Android platform was the reason for
> another initiative, which was and is inspired by the OLPC idea:
> http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Letter_Initiative
> Mobile technology could be a revolutionary chance for the many blind or
> otherwise handicaped people around the world but it must be accessible and
> affordable.
>
> Last but not least, I would like to help making Wikipedia and thereby all
> Mediawiki based Wikis fully accessible for blind users. I believe, Wikipedia
> is the most important common information platform on the internet and it's a
> perfect resource for learning:
> http://www.epractice.eu/blog/154
>
> My dream is an independent and multi-lingual Blind Wiki which is optimized
> for screen reader software and the needs of blind users and blind admins:
> http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/Blind_Wiki:About
>
> If you want more info, please let me know. You can contact me via private
> mail or at Blind Wiki.
> Best regards, Per
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:10:07 -0700
> From: "Mel Chua" <metamel at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [laptop-accessibility] Introduction
> To: "Discussion of accessibility on the OLPC"
>        <accessibility at lists.laptop.org>
> Message-ID:
>        <c3e7b4e00804190010x3b09b016i494b1dffb39c4539 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Dear Per,
>
> Thanks for your suggestions, and for the links to all the great resources!
> I've added them to the accessibility page resources on blindness at
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Accessibility#Blindness_resources. The others on
> this list might have more ideas on how to follow up in working directly with
> blind students to make the XO better fit their needs - is anyone here
> working with visually impaired students who can test things out and give
> feedback if developers are willing to step forward on implementation?
> (sorry, I've been out of the loop lately...)
>
> -Mel
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