Technology

Access IT magazine - May 2008

Summary: Learn more about access technology through our monthly magazine about IT.

Highlight's from this month's Access IT

  • Macros for easy text selection in Word
  • Microsoft announces support for ARIA
  • Improved accessibility from O2
  • Firmware update for Victor Reader Stream
  • Code Factory launches V3.40 of Mobile Speak for Symbian phones
  • TextAloud announces integration with iTunes
  • User-friendly internet radio station
  • Walk Talk Tours - New audio MP3 tours
  • The Rough Guide to Accessible Britain
  • Vibrating, braille-enabled cellphone invented in Japan
  • Solutions in a box? The Orion Web Box internet radio
  • An accessible and highly usable webmail service
  • Toshiba Regza 37XV505: Reveal the off switch
  • Accessing technical products - What's around the corner?
  • UN ratifies disability treaty

From the cutting room floor

Articles we just didn't have space for this time!

The offline cost of an online life

The next time you want to search for something on the web try using Blackle instead of your usual search engine. The page looks remarkably like Google and queries are fed through to Google, but there is one obvious difference - the page is mostly black.

Heap Media, the Australian company behind Blackle, claims black pixels take less power than white and so using its search saves energy. It believes that small things matter when it comes to reducing our energy use, limiting our CO2 output and reducing the likely extent of global warming as a result of human activity.

Siafu: a shape-changing laptop concept for the blind

Dvice.com shares news of the Siafu (curiously named after terrifying army ants), a concept laptop by designer Jonathan Lucas of Long Beach, California that would give people with impaired vision the tactile input they need to fully use a computer - from writing Word documents to navigating the internet. Rather than relying on a display, the Siafu takes advantage of Magneclay, which is a synthesized oil-based material that takes on different shapes as it responds to electrical fields. In this way Magneclay can mirror the front page of Google or turn into a full braille keyboard.

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Content author: technology@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 20/11/2008 11:13

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Diane's story - Diane Clark, 47, was diagnosed with diabetes in her teens and with diabetic retinopathy when she was 25. She received regular treatment and eye tests. “I missed one appointment. This resulted in me losing more of my sight than I would have done if I'd have gone. If you have diabetes then you simply can’t afford to miss having a regular eye test.” Open Your Eyes campaign