09th Oct 2005
iPod Accessory For The Blind?
My daughter and I picked up a couple of books to feed her voracious appetite for words (Eldest and Inkspell). We then ambled over to Dempsey’s to feed our own appetites for Beer (me), Roy Rogers (her), and various cooked animals.
Somehow the notion of the Harry Potter iPod came up, with its engraved crest and Audiobooks. We started wondering how the blind use iPods …
One of the gadgets I have is an iTalk. Imagine something like that capable of speaking menu items. Someone with little or no vision could use an iPod by pausing on menu items for a second, and the device would read the name of the playlist, artist, genre, song, etc. It would be text-to-speech navigation.
Sophia and I think it would be straightforward (though we haven’t the hardware tech chops to back that up!). Seems like a device you could plug into the top of an iPod, that could retail for under $100. Hey, Belkin & Griffin Tech - go for it!
