Apple iPad
Apple’s new iPad has had me doing some thinking about its potential impact fro the visually impaired, particularly for blind photographers. Reading an article today (thanks, Dad) about a new e-book reader software, Blio, soon to be put out by a company run by Ray Kurzweil, prompted me to consider a new issue, accessible photography books (and magazines). I rarely read books about photography. The font is universally too small, the books too heavy and there are no audio editions. The iPad has the possibility of changing this.
Blio is supposedly designed to enrich the e-reading experience with audio, video and web content. On a device like the iPad, with its large, high-resolution color screen, we could see the release of more photography-related media. With text-to-speech, we could even see the advent of accessible photography books and magazines.I can imagine looking at full-screen images while listening to the accompanying text. Not only would this a be a great format for re-releasing books by the masters, but this would also be a great format for every photographer with a story to tell. Scott Bourne has already expounded about the iPad’s potential as a digital portolio. On his Photofocus blog post, What the Apple Tablet Will Mean to Photographers, Bournes writes that “(t)he portable portfolio will get an amazing jump-start because of the new tablet, and all the competition that follows it.” The next step is for photographers to publish e-books, through sites like Blurb, for the iPad and the tablet platform in general.
Tim O’Brien is a regular columnist on Blind Photographers. Legally blind, Tim writes about accessibility, photography and, occasionally, both together. You can find out more about Tim on his blog or by following him on twitter.
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