Last night on Radio 4 (UK) I heard an article about digital radio and the blind, with the complaint that whilst radio is a natural medium for the blind, digital radios aren't very user friendly for the visually impaired . This would require a bit of technology for the digital radio (less so for the conventional type) but I see it as a large tunning dial that when pressed in adds a tone depending on where you are on the frequency scale. The same feature could be adapted to use a text reader to read the digital display aloud if pressed and held with no turning
-- dare99, Feb 06 2002

I heard the same prog. The main compaint seemed to be that much information was posted on an LCD panel that could not be read by a blind person. They mentioned the idea of pushing a button and chucking the contents of the panel through a speech chip on the programme.

The tuner dial would need a different approach on digital radio. As I understand the DAB standard, the radio channels are virtual so you don't actually tune into a frequency -- you just pick up a load of data and choose the channel you want to listen to.
-- st3f, Feb 06 2002


"Voice" Indicator & User Voice Actuator for dialing in.
-- thumbwax, Feb 06 2002


If the assumption is that the operator knows what frequency they want, just give them a Braille keypad to punch it in on (or in on which to punch it).
-- phoenix, Feb 06 2002



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