Google Makes It Easy for Blind to Dial on Touchscreens

How could a blind person ever possibly dial on a touchscreen? Really, any ideas? Google engineers T.V. Raman and Charles Chen have developed a system that’s so simple it’s almost embarrassing.

Instead of making the user find the right place to press their finger, the engineers made the software find the user’s finger. Wherever the user touches when dialing becomes 5, and from here things are pretty obvious. Swipe up for 2, down for 8 and way down for 0.

For those watching the clip, skip to about 2 minutes in for the actual demo. And if you’re interested in finding out more about how Google is making Android accessible to those who can’t see a touchscreen, the link at the end of this post will lead you to a bunch more YouTube demos of their Eyes-Free Android Project. [YouTube via NYTimes]