Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Question about technology that improved accessibility (self.Blind)
submitted by JoeyBox1293
Hello all,
I apologize if this isnt the right place. but,
I have a question, or request. Preferably for the 'older' Blind redditors out there. Im currently writing a brief informative speech for my college class, and I decided to do it on how things have improved through technology for visually impaired people. For example video games have become more accessible using surround sound, auto-locks, and read back menu systems.
Through first hand experience, What have you noticed has become a lot easier due to the advancement of technology?
I apologize if this isnt the right place. but,
I have a question, or request. Preferably for the 'older' Blind redditors out there. Im currently writing a brief informative speech for my college class, and I decided to do it on how things have improved through technology for visually impaired people. For example video games have become more accessible using surround sound, auto-locks, and read back menu systems.
Through first hand experience, What have you noticed has become a lot easier due to the advancement of technology?
BlueRock956 2 points 3y ago
The iPhone kicked open the flood gates to accessibility. Voice Over is the screen reader that helps us navigate the touch screen, and gives us access to all kinds of apps.
samarositz 2 points 3y ago
GPS tech has changed everything for me. Knowing what street I'm on and how many blocks I need to walk to get to my destination has made me an independent traveler. Before, one would have had to memorize a rout before setting off on their own.
JoeyBox1293 [OP] 1 points 3y ago
Holy shit i didnt even think of this. Amazing! I found my 3 things! Reading, traveling, and video games!
affirmedatheist 1 points 3y ago
The neat thing is, they’re all at different stages in their development of accessibility.
Reading was probably the first of the three to be more accessible. Traveling has been slower to adapt, but it’s really come quite a long way, it’s a matter of closing the gaps.
In many ways, by comparison, video games are still very much early days in terms of to improve accessibility.
There are a lot of games where I could probably play about as well as I did before my issues with my current level of vision (which is pretty poor and worsening) with two simple additions: talking UIs and high contrast modes. Extra in-game zoom levels wouldn’t hurt either, but the windows magnifier does actually work even when in games, so I can work around that.
Reading was probably the first of the three to be more accessible. Traveling has been slower to adapt, but it’s really come quite a long way, it’s a matter of closing the gaps.
In many ways, by comparison, video games are still very much early days in terms of to improve accessibility.
There are a lot of games where I could probably play about as well as I did before my issues with my current level of vision (which is pretty poor and worsening) with two simple additions: talking UIs and high contrast modes. Extra in-game zoom levels wouldn’t hurt either, but the windows magnifier does actually work even when in games, so I can work around that.
bradley22 2 points 3y ago
The first time I used Seeing AI to read something, I can’t remember what it was, was amazing!
Reading machines were these big bulky things and were loud, now that OCR tech is on our phones it’s amazing.
Reading machines were these big bulky things and were loud, now that OCR tech is on our phones it’s amazing.
JoeyBox1293 [OP] 1 points 3y ago
Hell yes.
JoeyBox1293 [OP] 1 points 3y ago
Thats sounds incredibly annoying. Im glad that somewhere, someone smarter created an easier lifestyle for you
codeplaysleep 1 points 3y ago
The first time I read a book on an iPad, it was kinda life-changing. I prefer my Kindle Voyage these days, but the fact that I could read a book, in high contrast, in any font size, without having to hold or carry an enormous large-print book was pretty wonderful.
I used large-print books through middle school and they were physically enormous, heavy, came in multiple volumes, and were cumbersome to use. Having a tablet to read on back then would have saved me so much physical discomfort.
I used large-print books through middle school and they were physically enormous, heavy, came in multiple volumes, and were cumbersome to use. Having a tablet to read on back then would have saved me so much physical discomfort.
JoeyBox1293 [OP] 1 points 3y ago
This is awesome! Im gonna look into this more. Thank you
codeplaysleep 1 points 3y ago
I wish I could find you some pictures of the old large print textbooks. They may be better now (or just replaced with ebooks), but they were really unwieldy. Some of them were 14x17in. Others were a more manageable 9x12, but they were thicker each page was a 2-page spread in the book, oriented so that you'd open the book with the spine toward the top of the textbook.
A single school textbook would be anywhere from 4-8 volumes of those.
I actually had issues where I sometimes couldn't read the large print books, because the book was so large that I couldn't physically get close enough to the part of the page I was trying to read.
A single school textbook would be anywhere from 4-8 volumes of those.
I actually had issues where I sometimes couldn't read the large print books, because the book was so large that I couldn't physically get close enough to the part of the page I was trying to read.
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