Something like one person for every 250 is blind. It might be small if you’re doing Where’s Waldo, but in the grand scheme of things it’s a pretty significant figure. And every day, the blind have to deal with lame problems like this:
of bringing attention to something that’s actually not so funny.
Now imagine using a computer. How can it interface with a blind person? There are some solutions out there already, but they’re clunky, not ergonomic, and are expensive. They really only start to chip away at the problem. Think about this: there are now more wireless connections in the US than there are people. What if a blind person wants to use one of those wireless touch-screen phones or tablets? Well, this happens:
But now that it’s made, the touch-screen world is accessible to
the visually impaired.
All it took was for one engineer to sit down for a minute and spot the real problem, now suddenly a huge problem is solved. Now, that 250th person can use his or her touch-screen phone, and they can get back into the world of wireless communication.
You should check with Michal Young at UO. He does sound cues on geomaps to help the blind.