Dear Arnthor,
I manufacture professional audio equipment (not for field recording) and I=
=92m embarrassed to say that my software control panels (Java for Mac, Wind=
ows and Unix, iOS for iPad) are not accessible to the visually impaired. Th=
ey=92re not even very good for the colorblind, as I use color a lot for ind=
ications. I make a tactile control panel that could be operated by a blind =
person but it=92s very expensive and its status and menus are purely visual=
.
I=92m guessing it would cost about $10,000 to write code for a visually imp=
aired mode. I don=92t know where that would come from, I=92m a small busine=
ss. Just thinking out loud.
-Dan
> On Nov 22, 2017, at 9:48 AM, Arn=FE=F3r Helgason =
is [naturerecordists] <> wrote:
>
> Dear all.
>
> Please take a few minutes to read this message.
>
>
> I have to say that after having looked through the variety of portable
> sound recorders, recently on the market, I get more and more worried.
> It seams as the modern technical trend is meant to serve the benefits of=
> some people but not all.
> It is already a known fact thas some visually impaired or blind people
> are excellent recordists. Recently some, if not all recent models of
> sound recorders have touch screens instead of tactile (raised) buttons.
> An other fact is the menu system. Through the menus all kinds of things
> can be controlled - the type o files, frequency settings, file
> structure, formatting etc. Most of these things are unreachable by blind=
> persons.
> Some producers (in fact I only know about 2) have installed speech into
> some of the menu systems but not the whole systems. Olympus and Sound
> Devices can be mentioned in this case, but the systems with the speech
> only give limited access to the information.
>
> In 2007 I bought a Nagra Ares BB+. The reason was the structure o the
> menu system which made it almost possible for me to keep control of most=
> of the settings needed for the most frequent setups. When I complained
> about the silent menu system I was told that Steavy wonder could cobe
> with it.:)
> I still favour this recorder as a high quality soundproducer.
>
> Recently I bought a Zoom H6. Some recommended an F-8, but there were too=
> many elements which were not usable for my purposes o field recordings.
>
> Now my statement is this:
>
> The American foundation of the Blind has been fighting for a better
> access of blind and visually impaired people to the world web. More and
> more people now reach the age when their sight will decrease. Some of
> them might be in our group of field recordists.
> Shouldn't they love to be able to carry on with thei recordings?
> What about the companies, producing recording equipments?
> Arn't they violating the human rights by not taking into consideration
> the needs of a ever growing group of people with reduced or no vision at=
> all?
>
> I must say that my contacts with some of the companies have been quite
> positive. Thus Zoom has made it possible for me to work with some
> settings by providing scriptly information about the necessary steps,
> even though it happened last Saturday that I did something wrong so that=
> a whole recording was an Mp3 224 kb instead of a WAV 24 bits and 48
> Hertz. Fortunately my sighted wife helped me to restore the propper
> settings.
>
> Let us join together to create a better world for all o us.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Arnthor
>
>
>
>
>
>
> http://hljod.blog.is
>
>
> ---
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>
>
> ------------------------------------
> Posted by: =3D?UTF-8?B?QXJuw77Ds3IgSGVsZ2Fzb24=3D?=3D <=
imnet.is>
> ------------------------------------
>
> "While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
> sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause.
>
>
> ------------------------------------
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