Some weeks ago, I told you about a software program designed to help blind people to 'see.' You can check the details at Computer-drawing program allows blind to 'see'.
This article is about a project which wants to help everybody, even people without disabilities. Here is the beginning.
An Italian inventor built the first typewriter to help a blind countess write legibly. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone because his wife and mother were deaf. The remote control was invented for people with limited mobility. Today's office scanners evolved from technologies created to make talking books for the blind.
[I must admit I didn't know these facts.]
From the typewriter to the remote control, special access tools developed for disabled individuals eventually become conveniences for everyone.
Stanford University's Archimedes Project is working to make information accessible to everyone -- not just individuals with disabilities, but also the elderly, those who can't read and just about anyone else who uses computers and information appliances.
The Archimedes Project is building accessible technology that outperforms other commercial products so "non-disabled people will want it," said project leader and co-founder Neil Scott.
Source: Kendra Mayfield, Wired News, July 22, 2002
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