Domain: humanware.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to humanware.com.
Comments · 7
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Re:What about
Braille displays are comparatively low resolution, and can be driven in software over serial, USB, or Bluetooth without specialized hardware. (The exception might be older TTY/TDD systems, which use some...eccentric encoding schemes that are of very limited compatibility with many computer modems)
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Re:What's the problem with keyboards?
You mean like this?
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Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.
In fact, such devices exist: the BrailleNote is a portable computer with a Braille 'screen'. Among other things (wireless internet, bluetooth, voice memos, word processing) it e-book reading as a feature. (I have never used one myself - I am sighted, and can barely struggle along in Braille - but a blind friend of mine has one.)
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Re:Kindle lacks navigation for visually impaired
how about provide a braille e-book reader? If somebody made one Amazon would probably support it.
like this? http://www.yankodesign.com/2009/04/17/braille-e-book/
or this? http://www.gizmag.com/go/5876/
The tech is almost there, perhaps the DOJ would front some MONEY to Amazon to make a kindle compatible braille reader based on one of these technologies? Of course then the people that hand-type braille pages at $$ per page will resent being out of a job...
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Re:Digital Talking Book player activation
The VicetorReader Stream will do text-to-speech on any text file without activation and without the buyer having to prove a disability.
I looked up what kind of "text files" the VictorReader Stream takes. It turns out the Stream takes DAISY, an XML-based mark-up defined here. But to make a text file from a PDF without OCRing it, you need the "copy text" privilege. If a PDF file is encrypted and its access control section has "copy text" turned off, and a PDF reader passes the text of the PDF to a text file or the clipboard, the PDF reader becomes a circumvention device distributed in violation of the DMCA.
how is the VictorReader Stream any different from the Kindle?
For one thing, Kindle has an on-device bookstore.
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Digital Talking Book player activation
So is a Macintosh computer, which has a built in screen reader which anyone can activate a "specialized device" that are "available only by prescription to people with a qualifying disability"? No of course not. Yet it has text to speech able to read books or anything else for that matter.
As I read the statute, PDF is not a "specialized format". If a PDF file is encrypted and its access control section has "read aloud" turned off, and a PDF reader passes the text of the PDF to NSAccessibility, the PDF reader becomes a circumvention device distributed in violation of the DMCA.
The makers of talking book players are happy to sell the devices to anyone who wants one, disabled or not.
Sure, you can buy the Digital Talking Book player. But you can't activate your device without the NLS authorization number, and you can't get one of those without an examination by a "competent authority".
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Re:why not braile output?
something like this would do the trick braille reader.