Gerard, Vickram,
From my experience I know that Braille is a physically read language. It
is read by feeling the raised dots on a surface. Eg: On elevator buttons, a
series of dots on each button.
I fail to understand how a touch screen display can work here.
Regards,
Srikanth
On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 9:17 AM, Vickram Crishna <vvcrishna(a)radiophony.com
On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 12:11 AM, Gerard Meijssen <
gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hoi,
I do not know exactly how Braille works but if a character in a
standard script can be represented by Braille characters in stead,
then all it seems to need is a method for us to replace the existing
Unicode character with the Braille Unicode character. As we already
have WebFonts functionality it seems to me that what is needed is a
conversion before the characters are send to the user. When this is
done, we can show you the Braille characters on your screen.
What works for persons with visual challenges, who have been trained to
use Braille typing, is the sequence of simultaneous keypresses that
translate into language characters (there are Braille variants for
non-Roman scripts). Since the visually challenged person cannot see the
screen in any case, the display is not the point. This particular solution
allows the touchscreen to accept multiple fingertip contact as individual
characters, and of course, for the screen to switch smoothly between screen
reading (TTS) and data entry.
When a Braille keyboard is used, what is needed is to convert the
Braille sequences to whatever script / language is used before it is
actually saved.
+1
I am convinced that there are many developers
both in India and in the
rest of the world who are able to take on this challenge and have a
proof of concept in a week.
Remember it has to be integrated with the TTS used by the device. There
are several out there, with different kinds of 'voices', a major one I know
about being Festival (FOSS), but at the Conference, several persons
referred to eSpeak. An important related piece of work is to augment the
existing TTS' with Indian languages, also (for English) with Indian
accents.
Thanks,
GerardM
On 24 November 2011 22:12, Pradeep Mohandas
<pradeep.mohandas(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
hi,
We were happy to have people with visual challenges challenging our
interactions with them. I, personally, was challenged at at least two
points
in the conference although I thought I had been
sensitized for such
interactions.
We do have an online feedback form for the Conference but wonder
whether we
can have more ways to reach people with visual
challenges and the aged
for
feedback on how the Conference treated them and
how we can improve our
communication of the Conference (in future) to them.
Thank you for bringing up this point, Vickram.
warm regards,
Pradeep Mohandas
User:Prad2609
________________________________
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:45:03 +0530
From: vvcrishna(a)radiophony.com
To: wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Braille/touchscreen integration
Several persons attending the recent WikiConfIndia 2011 drew attention
to
the need for greater ease of use for persons with
visual challenges -
Barry
Newstead referred specifically to this need,
commenting that in
general,
usability improvements for persons with special
needs pay off for the
community at large.
This recent development at Stanford
http://www.springwise.com/lifestyle_leisure/braille-writing-software-touchs…
describes how visually impaired persons with
Braille skills can
interact
directly with touchscreen devices. What is very
striking about this
solution
is that it does not involve tactile feedback, as
one might expect.
Instead,
once switched to Braille mode, the screen senses
multiple finger
placement
and translates that into the expected Braille
codes (see the video to
understand this, if you are unfamiliar with Braille typing).
To echo Barry's comments made at WCI2011, I think a certain amount of
such
out-of-the-box thinking could go a long way to
creating an interface
that is
intuitively more approachable than the present
wiki editor.
--
Vickram
Fool On The Hill
_______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l
mailing
list Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To
unsubscribe from the
list /
change mailing preferences visit
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
_______________________________________________
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
_______________________________________________
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
--
Vickram
Fool On The Hill <http://communicall.wordpress.com>
_______________________________________________
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
_______________________________________________
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit