BIOS access for blind users?
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From: Brian Gaff on 2 May 2010 07:04 Well its the same with tv sets. Do you know of a current digital tv whose meus and program guide can be set to speak straight out of the box? Brian -- Brian Gaff - briang1(a)blueyonder.co.uk Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff' in the display name may be lost. Blind user, so no pictures please! "ShadowTek" <ShadowTek(a)invalid.invalid> wrote in message news:slrnhtpn13.g7.ShadowTek(a)shadowtek.localdomain... > On 2010-05-02, philo <philo(a)privacy.invalid> wrote: >> >> >> >> there is a patent for it >> >> http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7308405.html >> >> >> but I could not find one in existance > > That one only addresses accessability via audio output, which is of > little benefit to people with Ushers, who have both sight *and* hearing > loss. > > Even so, I hope Mr. Rose follows through on his patent. > > > Now that we are well into the Information Age, with billions of people > on this planet, it seems a little odd that this basic need hasn't yet been > addressed by someone. > > I guess I'm just impatient.
From: philo on 2 May 2010 07:11 On 05/01/2010 08:57 PM, ShadowTek wrote: > On 2010-05-02, philo<philo(a)privacy.invalid> wrote: >> >> >> >> there is a patent for it >> >> http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7308405.html >> >> >> but I could not find one in existance > > That one only addresses accessability via audio output, which is of > little benefit to people with Ushers, who have both sight *and* hearing > loss. > You specifically said "blind" in your post you made *no* mention of "blind and deaf"
From: Brian Gaff on 2 May 2010 07:17 Cast your minds back to the mid 1980s. The zx Spectrum had an add on called the uspeach. It was made by a company called Currah. it cost nearly 30 quid, and could speak to you from the keybaoard. With very little extra software it could have been great. So its a scandal that we sit here in the second decade of the next centruy without speech being standard option on all appliences. Brian -- Brian Gaff - briang1(a)blueyonder.co.uk Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff' in the display name may be lost. Blind user, so no pictures please! "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG(a)soft255.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:GqoAMuQ0sT3LFwdY(a)soft255.demon.co.uk... > In message <slrnhtpeao.o9c.ShadowTek(a)shadowtek.localdomain>, ShadowTek > <ShadowTek(a)invalid.invalid> writes: >>Are there any motherboard manufacturers that make some sort of BIOS >>interface that blind users can utilize? > > (I've glanced at the Rose patent mentioned later in the thread. I, too, > hope something comes of it - though the flowchart figure 2 has a possible > error in it - it still seeds to address "the synthesizer" even if one is > not present.) > > The idea of an accessible BIOS, which is still a VH "add-on" for something > that is visually-designed, set me thinking: what would a computer designed > _from the start_ for unsighted people look like: probably different in > shape. Then I thought, I suppose all the "note-takers" and so on answer > that question. But do any of them have an accessible BIOS, or do they > still have to be connected to a monitor to access that? > > Is there a pretty common operating system for the unsighted (like Windows, > Linux, or MAC are for sighted - I know all of these have some level of > accessibility, but they're visual to start with), or do all the note-taker > manufacturers "go their own way"? > -- > J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar(a)T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf > ** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously > outdated thoughts on PCs. ** > > "I do not feel obliged to believe that the God who endowed me with sense, > reason, and intellect intends me to forego their use". - Gallileo Gallilei
From: Brian Gaff on 2 May 2010 07:18 A lot of the problem of why its not been done is where the design work comes from. The far East. They are very much behind on blind awareness, indeed, some societies still hide their blind people away as it is considered a blight on the family. Nuff said. Brian -- Brian Gaff - briang1(a)blueyonder.co.uk Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff' in the display name may be lost. Blind user, so no pictures please! "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG(a)soft255.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:GqoAMuQ0sT3LFwdY(a)soft255.demon.co.uk... > In message <slrnhtpeao.o9c.ShadowTek(a)shadowtek.localdomain>, ShadowTek > <ShadowTek(a)invalid.invalid> writes: >>Are there any motherboard manufacturers that make some sort of BIOS >>interface that blind users can utilize? > > (I've glanced at the Rose patent mentioned later in the thread. I, too, > hope something comes of it - though the flowchart figure 2 has a possible > error in it - it still seeds to address "the synthesizer" even if one is > not present.) > > The idea of an accessible BIOS, which is still a VH "add-on" for something > that is visually-designed, set me thinking: what would a computer designed > _from the start_ for unsighted people look like: probably different in > shape. Then I thought, I suppose all the "note-takers" and so on answer > that question. But do any of them have an accessible BIOS, or do they > still have to be connected to a monitor to access that? > > Is there a pretty common operating system for the unsighted (like Windows, > Linux, or MAC are for sighted - I know all of these have some level of > accessibility, but they're visual to start with), or do all the note-taker > manufacturers "go their own way"? > -- > J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar(a)T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf > ** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously > outdated thoughts on PCs. ** > > "I do not feel obliged to believe that the God who endowed me with sense, > reason, and intellect intends me to forego their use". - Gallileo Gallilei
From: J. P. Gilliver (John) on 2 May 2010 07:28
In message <hrjmo4$vu4$1(a)news.albasani.net>, Brian Gaff <briang1(a)blueyonder.co.uk> writes: >I think, in this day and age, given the low cost of volume production, the >basic system in all computers needs large text with contrast on all system >level operations like boot menus, and bios settings, plus a speech option. > > If this was done, then why not also insist that operating system >installation is also completely accessible. I doubt its that hard to do on >basic levels. It might add a few pence to volume produced items, that is >all. [] > The fact that the ones meant for the blind still cost huge amounts compared >to the others, seems to have escaped folk. > What is needed is a few class actions taken under imaginative interpretations of the appropriate legislations (DDA is it in USA?). Trouble is that those like Microsoft will, I think, respond to any such action in a reflex manner, without actually thinking it through, and few if any disabled bodies (let alone individuals) have deep enough pockets to see it through. > >I think touch screens are the next problem to be tackled. > Well, they're just coming in for sighted users: the parallel development of accessibility _ought_ to happen. (What's the betting it doesn't, though.) > >We are, in many ways being left to rot. > > Brian just let me put my soapbox back in the cupboard > Yes, it probably wouldn't hold my weight ... -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar(a)T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf ** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously outdated thoughts on PCs. ** "I do not feel obliged to believe that the God who endowed me with sense, reason, and intellect intends me to forego their use". - Gallileo Gallilei |