The new Kindle Fire was released this week to a fascinating mixture of responses, pundits thought it was great, apple Fanboyz derided it and the blind community attacked its lack of access for the visually impaired with righteous indignation and anger, this following the same community lauding Steve…
Blog posts in General
The Kindle Fire, changing the gameplan for access ?
Posted September 30, 2011
Access for All? It’s a never ending story,
Posted April 18, 2011
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to travel to Orlando in the American state of Florida for a major assistive technology conference. The conference was a success despite the hotel catching fire and a tornado touching down in town whilst I was there: never a dull moment in the world of access t…
Happy Birthday Twitter
Posted April 8, 2011
Mirrored from Digital Qatar
People all around the world will be celebrating the 5th birthday of Twitter this week. Here in Qatar, tweeps (term used to describe Twitter users) will be getting together at Aspire Park for the Doha Twestival. Like many others I can’t remember how exactly I worked prior …
Tasbo 3 - Noisemaking Ads
Posted December 5, 2010
Ok so ive been busy and its been a littlew whil since I have written a blog. But I want you all to get as mad as hell, stand up and shout - "I hate web ads with annoying sound effects" Im going to give this Tasbo to two in particular, the first is to the ubiquitous IMVU, I can live with the vaguely …
Tasbo 2 - www.sketch.com.uk
Posted July 25, 2010
For those who haven’t come across the concept a while ago I proposed an “Anti award” I guess with a view to naming and shaming, not simply for products or services that were in accessible (there would be too many) but for those vendors, developers, manufacturers etc who seemed to take a deliberate e…
Apple - My Cheri Amour - I hate you
Posted July 2, 2010
Ok I have to confess Im a little Bi-Polar about Apple, maybe schizophrenic is a better term. They have some great technology and have made great advances in builidng in access technologies that work really well out of the box. Voiceover on the iPhone is all that one Blind Friend needs - no extra cos…
Kill Accessibility - Another Response
Posted May 29, 2010
I read with great interest a recent post by Gary Barber on his Blog entitled Kill Accessibility. Its the sort of nicely provocative Blog piece that appeals to me - and unusually for me with my ongoing attention defict, I read it all the way to the end.
Gary's piece makes the point that most developer…
Gary's piece makes the point that most developer…
Workshop on Expanding Disability Access with Wireless Technologies
Posted May 19, 2010
Ok now this is worth a watch - its an important event as the FCC recognised the importance of wireless and mobile technologies for people with a disability. It reflects my own experience in both the UK, europe and the Middle East which suggests that the key battle ground for accessibility is…
and so the time is near and so I face the final curtain .......A personal review of the last 10 years
Posted April 30, 2010
As I leave AbilityNet in two weeks I thought this was a good time to look back at what weve done and the things that im most proud of from that period. Im going to look ahead to the potential of the next stage of my career in another Blog.
One of the things in which I take most pride is in the develo…
One of the things in which I take most pride is in the develo…
The ethics of pirating ebooks you already own - a continuation
Posted April 10, 2010
I read with interest the article by Randy Cohen on Gizmodo (see link above). In which he argues that whilst it may be illegal to download an ebook without paying for it, it isnt unethical, as long as you own a copy that you have purchased from a bookstore with money going to author and publisher. In…
Enabling Technology - Time to stir things up
Posted March 27, 2010
Now hear me out, but let's be honest, quite often accessibility is a bit boring. We are all well meaning people and committed to social change and all that stuff. But when it gets down to it, when you really get down to it, we are all just a little bit geeky. Im sure that when the creators of "Big …
Things that make you go hmmmmm - Paying through the nose for AT
Posted March 16, 2010
As anyone who reads my blog knows, I get irate about stuff. At the moment my pet rant is the cost of hardware. Its not just the cost that riles me, its the comparitive price from specialist suppliers versus mainstream. Disabled users trust the specialists, trust them to understand their needs and re…
Putting YouTube AutoCaption Feature through its paces
Posted March 6, 2010
I saw the announcement from YouTube that the initial trials of the machine genrated captions had been well received so they were making the service available to all users. Great timing, I was just working on completing my first videocasts for YouTube using xtranormal state to create a virtual animat…
Lets hear it for the BBC - Accessibility and the Future
Posted March 4, 2010
Lets be honest it cant have been a great week to be an employee at the BBC. Closing radio stations, public outcry and hidden in the press the announcement that the web team would be cut.
Now im not going to argue the merits or otherwise of the need to reduce their output, I happen to listen to 6Music…
The State of the Internet - and accessibility
Posted March 1, 2010
Interesting perspective on the current use of the Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo
Now this is quite interesting showing the scale of use of the internet, especially social media and rich media. We can see the discrepency between countri…
Glove Controllers for Rehab
Posted February 22, 2010
AT of the Week - Potential New Service
Posted February 21, 2010
I was thinking the other day about what can I do to help make access technologies more widely available. In the past I've worked with large IT companies to help integrate free and open source technologies into gold build systems for schools and companies, and Ive supported the work of Raising the Fl…
Introduction to AAC
Posted February 14, 2010
This slideshare is from my colleagues at Enable Ireland
Introduction to AAC
View more presentations from David Banes.
Welcome to my Personal Blog
Posted February 14, 2010
Hello to anyone who comes this blog. For those who dont know me I work as Director of Developmnet at AbilityNet in the area of assistive technology and access technologies. For the past few years Ive managed our web 2.0 presence and developed our online communities. More recently Ive wanted to talk …
Some thoughts on Apple
Posted February 14, 2010
Why do I not love apple products - its not rational I know - I admire their build, their interface, the clarity - all of that stuff, but for some reason I dont love them
I was sitting here looking at my Ipod today, its silver and shiny and plays back music, shows me my videos photos all sorts of th…
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