Gadgets and Devices That Talk

For the mainstream person living in a regular environment, one can easily say that talking gadgets and devices could be seen as a novelty and for most kids with regular vision, one can also easily say that they would look upon talking gadgets and devices as nice to have toys.  For blind persons however, the story is very different.  Talking gadgets and devices play a very huge role in our lives and I am going to take the liberty of introducing you to just a few of these wonderful inventions. 

 

Starting with my kitchen:  My microwave speaks; allowing me to hear various buttons as I press them.  I can set the time, choose the number of minutes that I need in order to cook my food, and so on.  I use a talking timer, a talking clock, and a talking scale.  In my home office, I use a talking computer that speaks what's on the screen to me; by character, word, sentence, paragraph, and by page.  I can set my parameters to have text announced, spelled, and with or without punctuation. 

 

I also take advantage of other talking gadgets and devices such as:  A talking language dictionary, a talking thermometer, a talking calculator, a talking color detector, plus more.  Last year, I added three new and wonderful talking devices to my arsenal.  A device that doubles as both an MP3 player as well as a book reader, plus a talking CD player and the greatest winner for me was the purchase of a cell phone that contains software that enables me to hear what keys I press, listen to input as I update my address book, listen to music, plus much more. 

 

There are several other interesting gadgets and devices out there that I would like to own some day but for now I would like to make mention of them.  A GPS unit that talks, a label recognition device that can read labels on boxes and cans, a device that can read printed pages and does it through a cell phone that has been outfitted with special software, and a PDA that has been especially developed for blind persons.  

 

You may be asking yourself this question by now:  What does it take to make a device or gadget talk?  Very simple.  Through the development of software better known as access software.  You can learn much more about all of this by visiting www.humanware.com, or www.independentliving.com, or www.nfb.org.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and encouraging you to go out there and tell the rest of the world that yes!  Blind persons do indeed use talking gadgets and devices to help them with their daily lives.