

Ask HN: How do I get in touch with technologically savvy blind people? - tonteldoos

I have an idea for making digital devices more accessible for blind and poorly sighted people, at a fraction of the cost of current devices. However, not being either, and not knowing anyone that fits the criteria, I'd love to chat with a technically minded person (or a few) on the viability of the idea.  Any suggestions or contacts, HN?
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Hrundi
I've started working as a developer for my country's government (Argentina)
very recently.

I discovered that each and every website I build must be fully supported by
screen readers and it must be entirely accesible.

There's this blind fellow that sits right next to me, with the task of
checking out every single thing I do, in order to verify it works correctly
for him.

He's very smart and a gadget freak. He walks around with his iPhone everywhere
and loves to dabble in discussions with us about current technologies.

I'd be glad to hook you up. I'm not familiar with his English skills, but I'm
willing to bet he'd do alright in a conversation. If not, I can surely act as
an intermediary if that's ok for you.

Let me know!!

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zafka
I worked for a company that built products for the blind. I did a quick search
on the optacon, a product I did some work with, and came up with this site of
a user: [http://www.blindcanadians.ca/publications/cbm/6/support-
opta...](http://www.blindcanadians.ca/publications/cbm/6/support-optacons-
revival) The company I worked for became "freedon Scientific". THis company
makes a variety of enabling technology.

I work with a couple of pioneers in the industry, I would be glad to either
check out your idea, or pass it on to my friends.

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10dpd
Unfortunately FS have created an expensive ($1k+) piece of software that is
difficult to learn. I commend the OP for having the vision to innovate in this
space.

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zafka
I am not real familiar with "Jaws" which is what I think you are referring
too. I had worked for the company that had been called Blazie Research. Blazie
made "laptops for the blind", their products used a Z80 processor and a
hardware based text to speech. The premium model had a braille output that had
either 20 or 40 braille cells that were driven with piezo transducers. When I
started we were tasked with building the next generation model based on the
StrongArm chip. It was a very cool project that was lost in a venture capital
based merger.

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tubbzor
At my university there are ~3-5 CS/ACT majors who are legally blind and very
tech saavy, so maybe check there too as I'm sure they'll have some interesting
suggestions

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nekopa
There was a story here on HN about a dev who spent a week 'blind' to test his
website accessibility. A few blind developers showed up in the thread, maybe
try to contact them. (I tried to find the thread but couldn't, will update
this if I do)

Edit: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5020421>

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wglb
Hap Holly, KC9RP. Blind since birth, long time ham radio operator. His website
is <http://www.therainreport.com/abouthap.shtml>.

Ham Radio has a long tradition of connection with blind or otherwise
"handicapped" folks.

~~~
tonteldoos
Thank you! :)

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jt2190
The Accessibility Internet Rally in Austin used to have someone from the
University of Texas as a judge. I think he worked at the disabilities studies
lab. <http://www.knowbility.org/>

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tonteldoos
Thank you for the comments everyone!

I will be following up on them, but just need to do a bit of research (based
on some comments below) to make sure I don't ask silly questions :)

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deftnerd
Old friend of mine, Chelsea, would meet the criteria. Contact info at
<http://mashable.com/people/chelsea_stark/>

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wesbos
Hit up @Jennison and @kevinrj on twitter — I've seen them both do talks at
conferences and they really know what they are talking about.

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a5ph
Reddit has a subreddit just for that.

<http://reddit.com/r/blind>

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pawn
What's your contact info? I have a friend who meets your criteria.

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varunkho
email in profile

