Technology and accessibility

It’s something that many do not necessarily think of unless their (or their client’s) target market consists of visually impaired people but it seems the likes of Facebook and one group of Finnish developers are taking it to the next level.

Facebook announced today that they are working with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) to provide a better-suited interface in Facebook to allow those visual impaired users better navigate the site and get as much use (and ease of use) out of the Facebook patform as others.

A group of Finnish developers at the University of Tampere in Finland are attempting to address the issue of bringing Braille to touch-screen mobile phones.

They came up with two methods of presenting Braille. The first requires test volunteers to swipe their fingers across the screen to read each of the six dots in the 2 x 3 matrix in Braille.

The second method generated a sequence of six dots, each 360 milliseconds apart, when the user taps and holds on the character. It turned out the volunteers were more comfortable with the latter option, though not without some learning and getting used to. – source CNET

Take a look at the CNET post for more details about this.