Blind Inventor Makes Web Accessible
From: BBC News - 06/06/2006
By: Geoff Adams-Spink (Age & disability correspondent)

A new device that will make internet content available to blind people
without the need for computer skills is to be launched in a few months' time.
The SpeakOn gadget has been developed by Chris Mairs, a blind entrepreneur
who has founded an assistive technology charity called A-Technic.  

The device will be able to access MP3 music files, radio stations, podcasts
and website content normally available only as text, like online newspapers.  

Mr Mairs says blind people currently have to use assistive technology called
a screenreader to interpret what is, essentially, a visual concept.  

"To use a screenreader you have to understand the visual paradigm - what
dialogue boxes are, radio buttons and all the rest," he told the BBC News
website.  

"That's the wrong model as far as I'm concerned - what you really want is a
model that is intrinsically orientated towards a one-dimensional audio
stream." 

'Technologically frail' 

The SpeakOn is being developed in two phases. The first is to produce a
simple interface for people who already know how to use a computer.  

"You don't need to know that it's a computer. People would maybe consider it
to be more like a radio or a tape player" say Chris Mairs from A-Technic. 

In the second phase, this technology will be built into a box that should
retail for around $565.  The device is being specifically designed for
visually impaired people who are, in Mr Mairs' words, "technologically
frail".  

"By this I mean the sort of person who doesn't have the expertise to use a
computer." 

It is hoped that the SpeakOn will appeal to people who want access to
information but who are reluctant to acquire a computer.  

"You don't need to know that it's a computer. People would maybe consider it
to be more like a radio or a tape player," said Mr Mairs.  

The SpeakOn will have a simple keypad with about 12 keys, each of which will
be easily distinguishable.  

These would be used to navigate up, down and through lists.  

Mr Mairs says the concept would be a "tree model" where the user browses
through a list of options and, having selected a particular option, would
then go through to the next level.  

"An example would be a directory of newspapers. You find the newspaper you're
interested in and then you might find the sports pages, then a match report
about your favourite team." 

Hardware development 

But the SpeakOn is very unlikely to provide access to all internet content -
what is planned is more like a "walled garden".  

Mr Mairs says that being able to render the content of so many websites in a
sensible form would not be technically feasible.  

The first phase of the project is now going into trials and will be given to
a larger number of people over the next three months.  

The next phase will require some hardware development which A-Technic hopes
will be completed later this year or early next.  

The box will require a broadband connection and the developers hope to link
up with a service provider that can offer a complete support package.  

"One of the issues, if you plug the box into a broadband connection, is how
do you resolve a problem if the connection stops working and you don't have
computer skills," said Mr Mairs.  

He hopes that a service provider will be able to manage the box remotely in
order to overcome this.  

If successful, the SpeakOn should help to tackle the problem of digital
exclusion which affects some older and disabled people.  

Read the entire story at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/5038590.stm

Contributed by Jamie Arasz Prioli

Links:
A-Technic
http://www.a-technic.net/

Lifestyle access for the disabled
http://www.iee.org/Events/turing.cfm
http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/Events_subweb/special/TuringLecture.php

Digital lifestyles for disabled people
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/closeup/mairs_lifestyle.shtml

Blind tech exec knocks down walls for disabled
http://news.com.com/Blind+tech+exec+knocks+down+walls+for+disabled/2100-1041_3-6051188.html

IT accessibility gap for disabled widens
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/4444

SpeakOn Overview
http://www.a-technic.net/speakon.htm