大象传媒

Blogging on the go

• By Paul Crichton
• 24 May 07, 10:53 AM

A new tool to help people keep their blogs up to date whilst on the move could also have a positive impact for accessibility.

provide a service that lets you use your mobile phone to dictate blog entries, or even to comment on other blog entries and it works with a number of blog platforms like , and . Which is pretty funky, even to an old-timer like me. How many times have you been to a gig, or the theatre or an inspirational lecture (old-timer, remember), and been bursting to tell the world about it on the night bus home?

But aside from that, the service also has some clear accessibility benefits. For people who prefer talking to typing because of mobility issues, dyslexia, learning difficulties or just because they do, this could be a really attractive service.

Voice Recognition software has improved steadily over the years to the point where it is threatening to break into the mainstream. We鈥檝e got speech-to-text software on computers, music and sat nav systems activated by voice in cars, and now this from SpinVox. It may be a while yet before we can talk to the DVD player, or the vacuum cleaner (how I long for that day) but this emerging technology could provide genuinely useful universal solutions.

The SpinVox service is currently free, and if you want to try it out, all you have to do is sign-up and enter a few details. When I spoke to them this afternoon, they told me that it costs no more than a standard mobile call.

One unfortunate thing is that the sign-up form on the website is protected by a CAPTCHA, which is an image of text used to foil electronic spam programs. This is invisible to screen reader software, making it impossible for visually impaired users to submit the form. Hopefully, once SpinVox catch on to the universal appeal of their service, they will address this issue.

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