Screening Displays for Low Vision Access: A Look at Popular Audio Players and Book Readers
By Huffman, Lee; Blubaugh, Morgan; Reuschel, William; Access World, Vol. 10, No. 6Publication Date: November 2009
Article reports on an examination by the American Foundation for the Blind’s Technology and Employment Center (AFB TECH) of small visual display (SVD) interfaces embedded in 7 digital audio players and e-book readers. Characteristics examined included font size and type, contrast level, and screen resolution. Display measurements were taken and compared for the Sansa Fuze, Microsoft Zune, iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPhone, Sony eBook Touch Reader, and the Amazon Kindle. The authors contend that, because of the amount of variance in the characteristics of the SVDs examined in these devices, it would be difficult to specify which display is the most accessible for people with low vision. Some devices, including the iPod Nano, use high contrast with small fonts, while devices such as the Microsoft Zune have large characters with fairly poor contrast. The two book readers examined, the Amazon Kindle and the Sony eBook Touch Reader, have a type of display that allows for a large and adjustable font but use a black on gray color scheme that was found to have very poor contrast. Resolution was not deemed to have as large an effect on low vision accessibility as contrast or font size. With a grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, AFB TECH is developing standards for display characteristics of SVDs similar to those of large displays such as computer monitors and televisions.
Published by: AFB Press (Website:http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=46)
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) (Web Site: http://www.afb.org )
Link to text: http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw100603
