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NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > APPLE IPAD TO CURE CANCER, END WORLD HUNGER
BRAILLE INTERNET STILL YEARS AWAY FROM IMPLEMENTATION
August 26 2010
Washington, D.C. – Perhaps one of the most remarkable things about the human species is our ability and desire to better the lives of those less fortunate. From a pure Darwinian perspective, the type of perspective that all other species of life on this
planet share, our efforts to help people who are disabled or informed in some way weakens the species and is anathema to our long term survival. In the human animal however it is the compassion that we show for others that makes us better, it is that which betters the species rather than weakens the gene pool.
Those efforts have allowed people with severe disabilities to lead not only effective lives but also very productive lives. Beethoven was deaf, King Tut suffered a cleft palate yet those afflictions did not hurt their lives and they ended up changing history. These people were not cured of their ailments, they learned to adapt to them and live their lives despite the infirmity. Perhaps the best example of the ability to overcome such difficulties is the success we have had in allowing blind people to live normal lives. In a natural environment blindness would mean certain death, but in the human world people live long and successful lives in the dark. However they have not conquered all aspects of the modern world, most notably the internet, which continues to provide a perplexing issue for researchers trying to implement Braille into web code.
“We’ve been trying for years. About a decade ago we believed we would have had this thing licked by now but that hasn’t happened. I remember people even saying that we would have it by the time HTML 5 launched but that certainly is not a possibility anymore. It’s really frustrating,” said Braille coder Mike Cavanaugh. “As a blind person myself I find it very frustrating having to go onto websites and have this mechanical voice read aloud to me. Not only is it slow, it’s a reminder of the gap between the sighted and the un-sighted and it is exactly that we are trying to change.”
Many websites also prove difficult for language readers to discern due to coding variances.
“Obviously we would need to create a new kind of monitor but first we need to create
the software that will allow that kind of access. Right now people are left splaying their hands across these flat panels and that really does nothing. It’s not only that websites change so frequently, it’s that you can’t get past the glass,” continued Cavanaugh. “This separates blind people from the experience that sighted people take for granted and that is exactly what we have been trying to fight from the very beginning. Blind people should be able to live their lives as sighted people do and not be singled out because they are blind. The whole point it to level the playing field and make us feel normal, because we are normal.”
Most experts believe the likelihood of Braille internet is years away if not unachievable.
“It’s a strange thing because this is one area where blind people are at a real disadvantage. We have been able to do so much to make them feel like normal people but here we sighted people have something that they can never have. I guess in some ways that makes you feel like a big man, but it’s still kind of unfair,” said Scrape TV Technology analyst Ken Kevins. “I mean I’m all for lording it over people when I am better than them but I also like an even playing field. It’s not their fault that they are blind and they should have the chance to behave like normal people. I guess, I mean I’m not blind and don’t know any blind people so it really doesn’t matter much to me.”
Early experiments with Seeing Eye dogs resulted in a lot of wasted doggy treats.
Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent
NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > APPLE IPAD TO CURE CANCER, END WORLD HUNGER
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