@bootstrapc I found out answers to questions I had re: how people without sight people did random things from this funny guy named Tommy Edison who is blind. He's actually included in this article which goes into more detail re: how touch screens are navigated: http://www.businessinsider.com/h...
@bethmccrea Thank you very much for sharing this. I haven't read it yet but at quick glance made me think about how annoying this must be for people. People that see can get instant feedback (hovers, characters shown on keystroke, etc.) I can't imagine how difficult this must be but I think this article will provide some insight. As a developer I admit accessibility is an after thought/or no thought... which annoys them even more.
@bootstrapc Glad to help. A number of years ago, I color-coded a document & presented it to a higher up...who I then found out was color-blind. He could differentiate some colors, but not others so the document was useless. I work on the product side & because of that experience, I try to keep visual impairment/problems in mind. If you add up the numbers of people who fall into these categories (blind, colorblind, older, etc.), it's not a small number. And simple things can make a big difference with accessibility (e.g., underlined or bolded links may not look as sexy, but if someone is colorblind to the colors used for a particular link, how else can they tell something is a link).
@bootstrapc by using Voice-Over: you can go from icon to icon by swiping, selecting by a single tap, and clicking by double tapping, voice over actually reads everything you are currently on; people who are depending and using this technology are mostly pretty damn fast using it
This is impressive (watch the video). The app describes objects/people/etc in audio. Examples:
- It can identify a woman throwing a frisbee
- Tell you how much money you're holding (one vs. five dollar bill)
- Read nutritional info
- Even describe images people share on Twitter (but can it do GIFS? 🤔)
This reminds me of one of the most popular apps in the early days of Product Hunt, Be My Eyes, which takes a human approach to the same problem.
@rrhoover Nice! Love seeing companies build products like this to help people. A company like CloudFactory might really be able to help them help others. 😄
https://www.cloudfactory.com
It's incredible how the shift to AI and voice interface is drastically advancing the UX Designers approach to this type of app! At Venture Beats Mobile Conference, yesterday, I was talking to a guy from Amazon about using visual interfaces to recognize contacts for LinkedIn, etc. This has great application even beyond visual impairment, so it's really good to see Microsoft thinking about very real problems.
My only complaint is how unnatural the voice sounds. It's about the only thing Siri has been destroying the competition at.
Great cause and impressive execution! My only question is - how much do you have to actually be able to see to use it? It seems like a lot of features hinge on seeing what you're doing with the app but I would love to be wrong.
@katologic You use the phone's OS level Accessibility controls like "Voice Over" to navigate the UI of the app. Here is a cool marketing video Apple put out showing how a blind user navigate's their phone with this feature - https://youtu.be/0-EEPydo2SU
Great product! I believe that the internet companies like FB, Google etc should invest more to make internet more accessible for people with disabilities.
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