Today marked the release of the Apple iPhone SDK to developers, and the announcing of the iTunes AppStore. What many people do not realize is that this SDK will now make it possible for blind and visually impaired users to go out and buy an iPhone.
Now that developers can develop full applications with a formal SDK, users can run applications that utilize more hardware functions like the accelerometer. If Apple were to build a version of VoiceOver for the iPhone, then users with vision problems can simply tilt the iphone to navigate menus, or use gestures on the screen to type text. While the phone is tilted, the screen reader would announce the next selected item, paragraph, or link. while using symbols on the screen for text, the screen reader would read off the letter or character the person had just drawn.
This is still a very young concept, but if people want to see it formed, then I will start putting the wheels in motion for it to become a reality in June. Please leave comments with your thoughts on this idea.
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2 comments:
Well spotted, I noticed the ramifications also. I like the idea of tipping the screen, snazzy idea.
We obviously need VO built in, or atleast able to call. One thing I was looking at, as an alternative is one handed typing using the chord concept. I don't know if there is any standereds out ther, but i recall something about one handed brailing. If that is an option for input that would be great making the iphone so much more powerful than just a phone/media player. It can be a full note taker, now wouldn't that be amazing.
I went to a seminar yesterday at the Honda formulae 1 garage which considered the future of comunication, the use of vertual machines for processing, the centralisation of large amounts of data with devices to ask and fetch through very fast wireless secured networks. On of the guys there was the editor of a large IT magazine, a quote from one of the speakers:
"IPhone is the way forward, devices, or devices similar will be what everyone is using in the future."
So, yes lets get this in motion, the abilitys of the system are exciting now with the sdk, not frustrating.
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