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Designing an OS for Blind/Deaf Users?
Sushant Bhatia asks: "I work for a team developing technology for individuals who are blind and I have had the opportunity to use some screen reading software and while there have been leaps of progress it is still quite tedious to use, and not at all user friendly. One of my managers recently posed an interesting question for me: 'How would you design an OS from scratch that would target individuals who are blind and/or deaf?' What about inputs such as keyboards or refreshable Braille devices?"
I would start with the US government's recommendations for app development for people with disabilities. Most apps written for the Fed have to be section 508 compliant, which helps ensure that they'll work with screen readers. Keep in mind though that from my (limited) experience, 508 compliance is more than an art than a science - you know, you get something that's kinda sorta 508 compliant.
http://www.section508.gov/
Tristan Yates
While not part of an OS designed "from scratch" for vision-impaired individuals, Apple VoiceOver is the first such functionality of its kind to be included for free with a commercial operating system. It's a fully integrated screenreader and accessibility interface for Mac OS X, and is tightly integrated with both the operating system and its APIs, and is extensively supported in several common applications.
As for hearing-impaired individuals, the task is much easier, as the primary interface to a computer is already visual. However, visual alerts and features that would correspond with otherwise audio-only events have also been integrated by Apple in Universal Access.
In addition, Universal Access includes features that assist individuals with motor impairments as well.
While it may be an interesting and informative exercise to think about the types of things you'd do if you were going to "build it from scratch", it might be more productive to think about how these capabilities could be added to existing commodity operating systems, such that the technology can continue to be affordable and easily supported.
blinux.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Oralux is a Knoppix live-CD to facilitate access to GNU/Linux for the visually impaired. The Oralux user interface is based on Emacspeak or Yasr, and has FLITE and EFM (Festival/MBROLA version).
My four year old daughter is legally blind, but she is learning how to use a regular computer just fine. It's amazing to watch. In the mean time, I'm working on having the government buy a really large plasma display to 'facilitate' my daughter's learning environment. :)
The open-source mp3 player OS Rockbox includes a "Talking Menu" option that will read back commands, playlists, and song/file information. It's very useful for blind users, as well as sighted hands-free/driving use.
Da Blog
Okay, "haha" about the Deaf jokes. As a female (gasp!) Deaf computer user (abuser?) what I need is a captioning feed for videos. Popular news sites routinely feature video news clips but they are meaninless to me without knowing what is being said. How about some captioning? Too expensive? It sure seems so because I sure as hell never see it. As for Braille, not all blind people know Braille and legally blind people usually have *some* sight and prefer to utilize their sight as best they can along with screen readers.
Braille consists of raised bumps. "Inverting" them, i.e. turning them into dents, renders them essentially unreadable.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
There's always SSH, remote desktop, and equivalents...
http://brandonbloom.name
Man, if they ever develop such a thing,
You mean, something like this? There are a variety of one handed keyboard designs, the most common of which are chorded keyboards. The primary issue is that they require a lot more training than a standard 104-key keyboard. Most people wouldn't bother with such training, but in the case of blind users, many already go through various special training. (e.g. Braille, sign-language, etc.)
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Geeze, you're right, that thing is $900 for "standard" and $1000 for "professional" (read: expensive for shitty windows platforms, more expensive for the non-crippled windows platforms).
This is certainly not aimed at some guy who codes for a hobby and wants to keep coding after losing his eyesight in a tragic BOFHball accident. It's clearly aimed at companies looking to not be sued by handicapped people.
It's called Archy. This OS is a redesign of the command line with a focus on habit-forming, not navigational use.
The LEAP technique for quick positioning would make it better for blind users than a traditional CLI where users can't easily scan the output of a command. In Archy, users can touch-type the destination point and have it read in loud voice, instead of having to hear the whole text.
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Applied Minds has created a topographical map that works like that. Not pressure sensitive, I think.
You may not need video drivers, but some people are legally blind but can still see a little. I had a history professor who could not drive and had mr. magoo glasses. He had to hold up tests and quizes up to his face to read them, but he still functioned. He would have great difficulty using a screen most of the time, but it would still be useful to have video for certain things.
Also, I do a website for a blind business owner. He has his secretary look at the site, etc. Sometimes she looks at his computer to help him. In that case, basic VESA video support would be nice. Interesting thing is that he actually coded his original website before i took over. He still does updates. Not to bad at html actually. He has some trouble with css properties but i think thats understandable! In this case, he lost his sight during his teens so he has an idea what a box is or colors.
I personally think a linux or bsd would be a great base and then a totally customized X11 system with a specialized window manager would do the trick. The real time would need to be put into the navigation system, web browser, text editor and word processing software. It would be nice if someone thought outside the box and made other types of software like accounting software (quickbooks type stuff) etc. I'm amazed what a blind person can do.
The guy uses windows with some very expensive software. He told me it was 20,000 dollars for a dell customzied with the software. The reason is that the software isn't expensive, but customizing it for the setup need by that person is. If someone could design an interface that allowed the blind person to migrate settings or do it themselves it would save them a lot of money!!!!!
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Uhh... wouldnt it be easier to just add speakers?
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