From: dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: ada and computers
Date: 29 Sep 92 01:49:14 GMT
Reply-To: dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)
Originator: wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com

Index Number: 24541

There's an ada-law list which you may already be subscribed to.
Additionally if I read past posts on this list correctly the
concerns with gui's and speech synthesis can for some of the blind
population go into psychological areas.  The reason for this is
that being sighted is not a knowledge based situation but more of
an experiencial situation.  Those who are congenitally blind for
example only know of colors through associations with other words.
If I am any reliable example of the congenitally blind experience I
can tell you that we don't normally think in color since we haven't
experienced it it doesn't make sense to waste mental band width on
it.  Now those of us who did come into the computer revolution with
speech synthesizers have had less than 30 years to do it while the
sighted community had much longer to go from medieval communication
methods to the computer age say about 200-300 years and that much
more time to become acclimated to the necessary changes.

So there's naturally going to be adjustment problems.  Most of our
interface has been through character based communications with
speech synthesizers since the speech synthesizers aren't
intelligent enough to describe graphics in words yet and because in
many situations computers have neither the speed or memory required
to run such a program with additional overhead that this
descriptive capability would require.  One of the reasons this is
the case is that dumb speech synthesizers have been marketed (those
synthesizers that use the computer's memory instead of bringing
their own onboard memory with them).  Some smart synthesizers are
on the market but for the most part most synthesizers are dumb.

I was with a sighted friend yesterday and she was trying to use her
microsoft mouse with drhalo3 for the first time.  She was
complaining that the mouse was entirely too sensitive.  Earlier
speech synthesizers didn't support mice and some still don't.
Another concern I have with relation to gui's is that they'll be
very nonstandard and this on top of the color problem will give us
the possibility of getting something done but without sighted
assistance never really knowing how well it was done.  When the
sighted assistance comes in and gui's are considered an essential
job function your independence vanishes on the work site.  In fact,
for insurance sake the gui work you are given in the beginning will
probably be delegated to sighted co-workers in the future for these
reasons.  If it will be possible to use a language like postscript
to construct other files some of the work may be able to be done.
Then there's the problem of perspective as in painting.  You see
for blind to competently work in and with graphics they must know
and have experienced the same kind of visual experiences
you have that makes it possible for you to do your work as well
as you do it.

For example drawing a human face on paper does not work if you
trace a design that is close to what you think a human face is.
You have to start by drawing an egg shape and then go from there.
My grandfather was an artist so that's the only way I even know
that much and I'm rather certain if you stopped several blind
people on the street and asked each of them how to technically draw
a human face they probably couldn't tell you.  WhY?  Well the
congenitally blind never did that and even if they had done it they
would have had to take the word of someone who was sighted as to
the quality or lack of quality of the finished work.  Maybe I'm
missing something, but not that many blind people that I know of
have really gone deeply into the windows type environment yet or if
they have they haven't shared their experiences on this list yet.

<dashiell@nadc.navy.navy.mil>
I majored in programming not typing!