Arnthor,
I agree with you that the move to menu-driven controls is making operation =
by visually impaired recordists harder.
One person that you might want to get in contact with is Mr. Greg Lukens at=
Washington Professional Systems in Wheaton, MD. Greg is blind, but he is a=
lso one of the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to audio syst=
ems, from simple to quite complex. He=92s got some of the best ears in the =
business as well. He does audio mixing for some major live PBS TV specials =
in addition to his sales acumen through his WPS business.
He=92s not a field recordist, he=92s much more of a studio and remote perfo=
rmance guy. But when I visited his home studio earlier this year, he was qu=
ite adroit in his control of a PC-based DAW system. So he might have some k=
nowledge of what tools may be lurking out there to assist accessibility.
And if it can be done on a PC, then there may be ways to port some of that =
to a Raspberry Pi or other processor to get a better-controlled portable op=
tion.
You should be able to contact him through Washington Professional Systems, =
but if you prefer I can forward your message to him and see if he wants to =
respond to you directly or through me to this list.
=97Flawn Williams
> On Nov 22, 2017, at 8:34 PM, wrote:
>
> 1a. Ne recorders and visually impaired recordists!
> Posted by: "Arn=FE=F3r Helgason" <ar=
>
> Date: Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:48 am ((PST))
>
> 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 <http://hljod.blog.is/>
>
|