Something incredible could just be around the corner…
Busy day? Me too. I’ve literally been in meetings back to back. But somehow in between it all I managed to send some flowers to someone I’d had an argument with; do my food shop; send a few emails sorting out my plans for the weekend and research someone famous so I didn’t seem stupid in front of a friend and finally book some meetings.
And I did this all on the internet. I don’t need to tell you that the world has irreversibly changed because of the internet.
What I do need to tell you that – is that whilst it would take you 30 minutes, it took me an hour to complete those tasks using my voice reader software on my Iphone, which I’m lucky to have. Without it – it’s unlikely I would have been able to do any of these simple things and that’s the case for thousands of visually impaired people in the UK today.
Accessibility on the internet is an after thought
The way a visually impaired person navigates the web is much like having a limitless amount of doors in front of them but not know what’s behind each one of them. To get to where they want – they have to open each one and look. And then having to go through the entire catalogue of doors again to find the next thing on their list.
It prohibits them from exploring and making the most of all the opportunities the internet offers. But imagine if they could sit down and say out loud (and yes, just like Star Trek);
“Computer – please find me the Guardian job pages.” And the computer says…
“Guardian job page found. What type of job are you looking for?”
Or, “Computer please send an email.”
“To whom shall I send it.”
“Everyone.”
“What shall I say?”
“Come to my house for my New Years Party…”
“What time should they be there?”…
How incredible and life changing would that be? Well that’s what we at RLSB, want. A fully conversational internet experience that will open up the internet and all it has to offer to partially sighted and blind people.
How can we make it happen?
We are already on the road to the conversational internet. Apple’s Siri on the new iPhone, is the latest wave of this evolution. Increasingly people will speak to the web whilst cooking, jogging or just getting ready to go out. Voice control and readers have been around for a while – but we want to take it a step further. Cook up a revolution in the way we interact with the internet.
“Voice technology, if designed with sight loss in mind, could open up the internet to millions of blind and partially sighted people globally.”
Given the complexity of these needs, any solution would have immediate mass market appeal, helping to accelerate technology and levelling the internet experience between those who can and cannot see.
The challenge
We propose to develop an application that enables websites to become fully two-way conversational experiences. Users will chat with the web, gathering the information they need to perform the transactions they want, for example finding out about relevant services, meeting people or checking their bank balance.
What needs to be done?
- Create a working group of brilliant minds to help us make it work. If you are particularly brilliant and would like to help then please email us at conversation@rlsb.org.uk
- Find the funding.
- If this is something you think would like to donate to and be part of the conversation then click here
- If you’re an organisation that would be interested in partnering us to deliver this then please email us conversation@rlsb.org.uk
Most importantly of all – how will it change lives?
If you are visually impaired, then tell me what this idea would mean to you – I’d love to hear what you think and what you would use it for.
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