If I understand this 2D bar-code technology correctly, information
would be distributed on paper printed with a high-resolution code.
The major advantage is that one can achieve a much higher information
density than with common printed paper. The disadvantage is that it
would require a computer and high quality scanner to read it. I doubt
that people who read braille but don't have a computer would regard
this new technology as an advantage.
As a blind computer user, I would personally prefer to receive
information electronically. I will guess that this is likely to be
the opinion of most computer users. If information must be mailed, a
disk would be required, so the cost to the sender would be a bit
higher. However only a very high-volume information disbursor
(i.e. junk mail distributors) are likely to achieve significant
economies of scale.
Although I see little way this technology might be useful specifically
as a method of providing information to blind people, it would be a
significant advantage if it became a standard feature included with
all printed matter. A blind person with a computer and scanner would
have access to that information without OCR errors. If in addition
there were coding standards that included non-textual information
instead of just pictures of that information, this advantage would
become huge.
John Gardner
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Dec 02 2012 - 01:30:04 PST