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282 points elsewhen | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.27s | source
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miki123211 ◴[] No.41912058[source]
It feels like mainstream technology is slowly replacing most if not all accessibility devices, and I think that's a really good thing for those who need them!

This already happened to blind people. We used to have color testers, specialized audiobook / ebook players, GPS devices, text scanning / OCR machines, devices for banknote recognition, barcode readers, talking scales, thermometers, blood pressure meters and so on, all as separate devices, all extremely expensive. Nobody really had or carried all of these at once, though most people had at least some, it was just too expensive and impractical.

Nowadays, while those devices still exist, all you really need is any smartphone (even a low-end Android will do, though iOS is much better for this use case IMO), a free screen reader, which both OSes include by default, and a couple of free / cheap apps. Things like talking scales can be replaced with accessories connected over Bluetooth that don't technically talk, but that expose the measurements to your smartphone screen reader.

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1. tim333 ◴[] No.41914711[source]
I was thinking that with ebikes. If you have problems walking but still enough coordination not to fall off a bike they are good.