This is an important issue. Our library staff identified all the issues
you cite, plus a couple of others, and readers have subsequently made the
same points. We could lobby the manufacturers as a profession about the
issues that we have identified. It is clear that players should be designed
for people with sight and dexterity problems, but beyond that the needs of
VIP people are for them to define. Have you considered asking your local
elderly organisations what they think?
I think that the CDs and CDRoms are the best technology available and it is
our duty to supply it to the VIP reader whatever the current state of the
technology. Middlesbrough bought SW on disc as soon as it became available.
I also think that the problems are technological in nature. We can't stick
numbers on CDs as we do with cassettes. Approaching the matter as a tech
problem will help more people than library users. The unabridged CDs
themselves are designed for use by blind people and the manufacturers have
moved toward an industry standard with regard to 3-minute banding. As with
tapes sound cues for the blind are already built in, except for the banding
as yet, though the way forward would seem to be with audible cues, but this
would be a matter for hardware and software manufacturers.
I would add 2 issues to those you cite. 1. Manual dexterity: people with
physical problems handling the discs , e.g. arthritis; and 2. Technological
availability/antipathy. Some people, particularly the elderly, may not have
the CD Players, or not wish to get them.
Better boxes would go some way toward helping the dexterity issue. The
technological availability/antipathy problem must be one for the user. At
one time tape players were rare, but are now built into most radios,
including clocks. The same is true for CD players. Blind and visually
impaired people have already come up with solutions to many of the problems
faced by blind people using equipment designed for the sighted. These
latter problems are essentially for VIP people themselves to tackle,
especially the recently-VIP, e.g. the elderly.
Alan Sandham, Delivered Services Librarian (aka Special services),
Middlesbrough Libraries and Information
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