is technolust the enemy of universal design?
interesting article about touch screens and the blind.
oh yea, most definitly. look at all those tiny cell phone keypads.
we do new things because we can, and not because we should everyday.
Well, can we at least agree that there is no such thing as universal design? Especially considering that subjectivity is an impossible metric to measure?
With that said…I give full props to all the small keyboard, touchscreen building tech companies that keep pushing and trying new things.
I, for one, hope we never find the “Utopia” of Universal Design…how boring would that be?
Touchscreens enable an insane amount of UI flexibility, even if they may not be the most “universal” solution NOW. With advances in haptic feedback, flexible screens, etc. they could be a far more fulfilling universal solution than any of the other more hardware centered physical solutions that might fit the same bill.
“If ease of use was the only valid criterion, people would stick to tricycles and never try bicycles”
-Douglas Engelbart
I think touchscreens could actually be better for the blind, but you have to think differently. Obviously targeting buttons is impossible. But what about drawing gestures with your fingers? What about sliding your finger over controls and feeling haptic-vibrations and hearing sounds (even audio reading out the name of whatevers being hovered over.)
But the point is that these accessability features need to be built in.