
Google's T.V. Raman: For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can’t - kalvin
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/business/04blind.html
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kalvin
Pretty awesome guy, good article.

'The screen reader is calibrated to speak at roughly triple the speed of a
normal voice. To the untrained ear, the output is incomprehensible, but it
allows Mr. Raman to “read” at roughly the same speed as a sighted person.

...

Since he cannot precisely hit a button on a touch screen, Mr. Raman created a
dialer that works based on relative positions. It interprets any place where
he first touches the screen as a 5, the center of a regular telephone dial
pad. To dial any other number, he simply slides his finger in its direction —
up and to the left for 1, down and to the right for 9, and so on. If he makes
a mistake, he can erase a digit simply by shaking the phone, which can detect
motion.'

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dc2k08
Yeah, I always wondered who was out there doing work like this. I have been
aware of designing sites for blind people and have worked on some so that they
are accessible, but have never actually checked their usability with an actual
screenreader.

It is interesting to learn that his screenreader can read it to him at three
times the speed. I never considered that this would be an option, but had
thought that listening to such great lengths of jagged simulated speech must
be tedious. This has intrigued me to test one out.

Here he is with that braille rubix:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSSLj3KvkbI>

