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September 23, 2005
Accessibility and Recorded Books
TAP Information Services (on behalf of the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center and the Alliance Library System) conducted an accessibility study of Recorded Books downloadable audiobooks (available through NetLibrary) to test the product's usability for blind and physically disabled users. The results were mixed--some people found the process easy and stress-free while others found it cumbersome and overwhelming. From the executive summary:
The content website, the digital rights management system, and Microsoft’s Windows Media Player software presented substantial accessibility challenges for a large portion of the group of volunteer testers.
I'll go out on a limb here and say that users without sight or other physical impairments would have the same problems with the software and the DRM, though perhaps not to the same degree. Particularly with DRM...that is not a "disabled user" issue, but rather a "disabled product" issue.
September 23, 2005 | Permalink
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» Accessible Audiobooks, DRM and Consumer Voice from ebyblog
I follow Joe Clarks blog which tends to be about type and accessibility. His posts on accessibility can be a bit inflammatory but I tend to almost always agree with him or at least see his point. A recent post of his was on TAPInformation’... [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 24, 2005 12:22:38 PM
