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British elections use a tactile voting device. Described here

I think you should ask some blind people, not Slashdot people.

A friend is blind, and could certainly afford anything, but I'm 90% sure he has an Android phone. It's certainly not an iPhone, it's possible it's a less-smart-phone.

The British Royal National Institute for the Blind was top in my Google search, there's probably an equivalent in your country.

Why not just refer to information from some local organisation of blind people? There's this survey of accessible mobile phones in the UK, but surely there must be something similar for the USA.

not in the UK. The RNIB are currently pursuing any bank that uses CAPTCHA that has no accessible alternative because it breaches the Disability Discrimination Act. Of course, if you supply a plain text version then the attackers will use the path of least resistance. Also, another problem that the DDA gives us is that customers are not compelled to declare their disability - so any accessibility options have to be provided at runtime - not some sort of setting at the bank.

I was a consultant at a large UK retail bank and we were going to use a type of picture/CAPTCHA on the online banking solution. Except that the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) consultancy operation basically told us that if we went ahead they would be forced to "go to the newspapers" and also would consider taking action under DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) legislation.

It's really important to consider (in the UK at least) that around 10% of the online population will not be able to see or draw images clearly on a computer screen and therefore, whilst graphical authentication is fantastic security for most of us - it does not work for all of us. As soon as you present a 'way out' for those that cannot see as well as the average human, you have introduced a loophole in your security system and the investiment in CAPTCHA or imagery is threatened.

NB: in the UK, under DDA we have to provide "a reasonable alternative" for disabled users - however, the strength of the RNIB lobby is really turning that into "You must not discriminate in any way against a sight impaired user" - so by making it impossible for impaired sight users to use this strong authentication from TFA is in fact discriminatory against them...

rd

Well ok, not mine exactly but my wife's.

She has both anterior and posterior uveitis. Primary treatment for these is steroid injections directly into the eye. It treats the swelling but the side result is nearly immediate and total cataracts. So she's also had lens replacement surgery in both eyes. Next up is laser surgery to remove secondary cataracts. False lenses will collect material in the eye as a film which has to be removed periodically with a laser. Oh yeah, she's also <35 years old.

All that, and she still has about 20/25 to 20/30 vision.

So it's my gut feeling that you'd have to screw up pretty darn bad to have a lasik procedure go awry. I agree with your advice to shop around - there are good and bad eye doctors out there. But if someone does as you suggest and do their research and pick a good one they shouldn't worry about anything bad happening. I'm sure it's "Bob's discount lasik center and donut shoppe" that is throwing off the averages.

If you are blind, you can apply for a Blind Concessionary Licence at 50% of the full licence fee.

Isn't it just radio at this point?

"Intelligent" design?

Just one look at the human blood sugar control system should dispel that concept straight away.

Type 2 diabetes is running bloody rampant.

You Yanks over the pond are predicting 1 in 3!

No backups, no warning systems, no nothing until you are pissing out your calories every 10 minutes.

You are right bollocksed by then! You won't live to see your grandkids, or if you do live, you won't SEE them, cuz you'll be blind!

http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/docume nts/PublicWebsite/public_rnib003653.hcsp

No arguement from me - I was just pointing out that vision or hearing were not necessarily necessary. On the HK side, she lost her sight/hearing at an early age (about 18 months according to here), so it could be agured that the early sensory input was needed, but I think there are a number of "blind from birth" counter-examples.

An MP3 player with a good button layout might be good, but you need one that doesn't really rely too much on being able to read the screen. An iPod might not be very good because that jog wheel might not be much use. I think the Neuros might be good option.

You can download a lot of talking books from the filesharing networks like eDonkey, and AFAIK it would be legal as long as you also bought the hardcopy. The RNIB site has links to some more legitimate suppliers.

BBC Radio 4 lets you listen online to most of their programmes from the last week, and they have a lot of dramas and book readings (and some great comedy). Unfortunately it's currently in RealMedia format, but that is due to change.

Lastly, if any of your friends are web designers, encourage them to follow the WAI guidelines otherwise she might not be able to access their websites (not that she will neccessarily want to, but it's always good to get more people interested in accessibility).

PS. Tell her 'Hi' from Slashdot!

"Just give me the damned content (if you have any) in plain HTML.

Umm, if you were blind, you wouldn't be saying that.

Umm, look at the following web site that talks about designing sites for blind people. Look at what they say about flash for example (near the bottom).


http://www.rnib.org.uk/digital/hints.htm

From the RNIB

It looks like the UK will be leading the way with this, although I'm surprised its not being pushed at a European level.

For more information on this issue, the Royal National Institute for the Blind, in the UK, publish these guidelines:

http://www.rnib.org.uk/digital/hints.htm

The people in Salt Lake should be ashamed of themselves.

Braille was developed by Louis Braille, who could hear, and was male.

Hint: we don't call it "keller."