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As someone who has promoted the Universal Design concept for decades, I was taken back by a Futurism video I saw on the Blitab braille tablet. It is billed as “The World’s First Tablet for the Blind”, but that’s not true, and it’s arguably not nearly the best either. That title, in my view, goes to the Apple iPad with all of its accessibility features, but more on that later. This short article explains my concerns with the Blitab product and the company developing it, because they don’t seem to understand their market or target user. I urge any of my blind friends to challenge me on this assertion in the comments below.
VOICE DESCRIPTION – Here’s a transcript of the text that displays over all the pretty images, because a blind person can see neither. … The first ever “iPad” for the blind is here. [Note that it’s NOT an Apple iPad.] Blitab features smart liquids that create bubble-like tactile pixels on the screen. Text fines from USB and web pages are converted directly into Braille code. The tablet’s screen is able to display up to 15 lines at a time. Its special screen technology can also produce tactile maps and images. [Now that’s something iPad can’t do.] Blitab is expected to cost $2800 and is projected to ship later this year. [iPad starts at about $200.]
Nonstandard Platform
Blitab relies on braille rather than screen readers, and that makes the device expensive, because so much proprietary technology had to be developed. Creating any nonstandard platform also limits the number of 3rd party apps that can run on a device, and that also limits the user value – so you pay more but get less. I seriously question the need for a Braille tablet at all, except maybe for someone who is both blind and deaf and thus can’t hear the spoken words of a screenreader. That’s because all of my blind friends tell me that Apple iPhones and iPads are their favorite devices.
Apple’s iPhones are accessible to blind people out of the box, starting with the 3GS. They come complete with a screen reader, “VoiceOver”, and print enlarger “zoom”; and even without tactile buttons, dozens of apps make use of these accessibility features. Pat Pound, one of my blind friends, described 70 of them in Accessible iPhone Apps, a guest article published here five years ago.
The Benefit of Platform Standards
Before standards are established and mass markets develop, designers often have to build products around proprietary hardware and software platforms. That requires them to do most of the work themselves. Such was the case with medical tablets from Intel-GE Care Innovations, GrandCare Systems, and Waldo Health. While their early work gave them a first-mover advantage, their proprietary designs increased product costs, minimized third-party app development, and limited market penetration.
If they were to start over from scratch, I expect these companies would instead build apps for the Apple iPad, or Android-based tablets, and sell services to people using devices that they already have and use daily, and not selling them a proprietary new device just to use their service. Given the popularity of Apple products among blind people, I’m surprised that the Blitab went with braille instead.
Universal Design Principles
Well before retiring from IBM in 1999, I was well aware of assistance technologies; and when attending conferences on the topic, my message to developers was that they could reach more people, deliver more value, and make more money by designing products for everyone regardless of size, age or ability. That’s because we all have disabilities in our lives. Some of us wear glasses to correct our vision, for example, and others wear hearing aids. Even sighted people may be temporarily blinded by bright lights or have to fumble their way through dark rooms, so some of the simplest assistive products have been developed that are widely used, such as photosensing sensing night lights that turn on at night and off in the day.
Yvonne and I now live in a Del Webb age-limited retirement community where Universal Design and wheelchair accessibility is a big selling feature. All of the homes are one-story models with wide doorways and lever handles instead of doorknobs. Sidewalks rise gradually to the entry to avoid the need for stairs; and even though that feature is associated with the elderly using a cane or walker or the physically disabled in a wheelchair, it’s just as helpful to new moms with babies in strollers or road warriors with wheeled luggage. These Del Webb homes are a great example of smart design that works for everyone.
Accessible Web Design
A few years ago I spent several days at the SXSW conference in Austin promoting accessible web design in the Knowbility booth. In the process I gained a new perspective of how Modern Health Talk appears to a blind person using the JAWS screenreader. You can watch and here an example of this screen reader in a video included here. From visiting the blitab.com website, it seems that the company lacks any significant understanding of blind users, because their website does not seem to be very accessible. Again, please comment if you disagree with any part of this article or see benefits of Blitab that are not clear in the intro video above, on their website, or in this next video below.
The post Blitab Braille Tablet for the Blind – Is it needed? appeared first on Modern Health Talk.