Re: tactile output?

I think some of the potential of what we have been trying lies in the encouragement we offer to people to adapt readymade gadgetry for such purposes.

Often, we have ideas, some good, some impractical. Generating such ideas sometimes comes from witnessing the difficulties faced by ordinary people, for instance huge numbers of people who are around our age or older, in using consumer devices that are increasingly becoming necessary for daily life.

I am fairly sure that if more people who are accustomed to using smart devices reach out to such people around them, more and more ideas will emerge, and some may not just become popular, but that popularity will in turn drive the development of smartness in ergonomically and aesthetically sensible gadgetry.

I guess that doesn't exactly answer the question, but for instance Arun's adaptation of a simple cheap mouse to hook up a sensitive switch and make it computer-ready is something just about anyone with a soldering iron can do, at a cost far lower than waiting for us to make one specially. 

Also helpful sites like lifehacker often have nice ideas about using everyday gadgets, not at all aimed at accessibility, but quite simple to see how this can be done, to sort out one problem or another.

For me, working in this area has taught me, far more than any textbook could do, how truly unique each one of us really is. In turn, I have learned to be suspicious of any and all 'efficient' one-size-fits-all thinking, which is in turn a paradigm of today's industrialised and consumer society. 

Vickram

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

_______________________________________________
India-gii mailing list
[email protected]
http://india-gii.org/mailman/listinfo/india-gii