Twenty-two-time Grammy winner Stevie Wonder has led the music industry in experimenting with technology to create new effects. In an interview with Popular Science, Wonder says he’s frustrated by the lack of accessibility in touchscreens and other technological innovations. He urges technology companies to consider the needs of people with disabilities as they develop new equipment and software.

Wonder, who is blind, presented Vision-Free awards to 19 companies at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

An excerpt:

Q: Do you think the huge advances in technology in the past ten, twenty years have made life easier or harder for people who have any impairment? Or has it been a mixed bag?

WONDER: I think it’s definitely made life easier. But if you’re going to make products easier for a person who can see, to have this more convenient, then make it accessible for the person who is blind or deaf. I hear manufacturers say, “Oh, we forgot about that,” or “Oh, that’s interesting.” Well, think! Make your products a convenience for everyone. Be an all-inclusive company.

Q: Do you have top pet peeves for some of the new technology out there that doesn’t do that, that misses the point of being inclusive?

WONDER: A lot of the things with a touch screen. It’s impossible to use.  So if you’re going to do that, then maybe provide some kind of overlay that will allow accessibility to the product for users who are blind…

I think the more that people understand and are able to have information, then the more possibility that someone will find a key to peace.

Earlier post here.

(Reuters photo)

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 1:37 pm and is filed under blindness/visual impairments, celebrities, deaf/hard of hearing, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.