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Of course if the user is deaf and blind, I'm not sure how they are using a computer to begin with.

braille display

now they're doing audio CAPTCHAs.

Good step for blind people with hearing. Now how do I set up a prepaid mobile phone to read the menus and SMS messages aloud?

And it still doesn't help people with Helen Keller's disability. Anything that can be read by a Braille display can be read by a spambot.

Actually, before reading this article, I hadn't even thought about applying this type of technology to myself. Thanks for the eye opener MrIcee. But it is true. As we get older, this type of technology is going to become all to personal. I should really have considered it before, since I'm near sighted with over 13 points of loss so far. (If my glasses weren't this new carbon stuff, my glasses would be a little short of a 1/2 inch thick on the edges.)

Anyway, the first thing that came to mind was a vision of Sneakers, a movie from 1992, that included David Strathairn as Whistler, who was visually impaired. He read Playboy in Braille, and had a great box that let him read what was on the computer screen. It's not quite the same but I found something that can do the same thing. http://www.deafblind.com/display.html Unfortunately, these refreshable Braille displays are EXTREMELY expensive. I've been finding prices of about $5,000 to $12,000. They are also prone to breaking down.

By the way, does anyone know how hard it is to learn Braille? I've never tried. Is it something I should do now, while younger, or is it easy enough that I shouldn't worry until I go blind?

I also found a couple of solutions.. There is a company that sells both large print keyboards, http://hooleon.com/prod-vis.htm and Braile keyboards http://hooleon.com/prod-braille.htm. (Or you can get them both.)

I also found a couple of software packages that seem to be pretty common for reading text out loud off computer screens.

IBM Home Page Reader http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hpr.html
pwWebSpeak http://www.soundlinks.com/pwgen.htm
Jaws http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_downloads/jaws .asp

And last, but not least, since I am a bibliophile, I had to find some Braille e-books for download. http://library.utah.gov/web-braille.html But you have to be blind to sign up for the service.

Actually, a similar concept is already entering test stages: Retinal Implants (Google search). It uses a microchip to send signals to the nerves in the retina. One could be modified to display an overlay of a signal coming from your PDA. It would be quite an interesting feat. Unfortunately, it looks like this will not be availible even to the rich for several years.

I agree that something like that would be cool not only for PDAs, but for computers, televisions, and anything else that needs to display something for you. The biggest benifit I could see would be for wearable computers. You wouldnt need to have a bulky screen attached to your glasses.

there's no such thing as braille computer monitors

Actually they're pretty common - here is an example of what they look like.

I also know that many visually impaired people use Emacs Speak (which supports Aural Style Sheets for web browsing)

There are a lot more blind people on the internet than you think...

• The Retinal Implant Project useful interesting background on this or a similar operation
• An article on the same at ABCNews (in laymans terms)
• More info here
• Finally, a paper on the chip.