It's very interesting chatting to him and then thinking that how most people use computers, create files etc. is quite a barrier for someone with no vision.
Ostensibly the rot set in with GUIs, but it's not really that simple, because if it weren't for GUIs I don't think the mainstream computer revolution would have happened. And much as I like my *nix shell, there are plenty of day-to-day things that just aren't practical with terminal based applications.
(I once had an interesting conversation about GUI concepts with someone who did what we'd now call Computer Science before he went blind in the 1960s. His understanding of the fundamentals was fine, and of the new things that computers had been applied to as technology progressed, but - other than a vague idea of mice - he'd missed everything after "select an item from the list on the screen by pressing a button" in UI terms. Which is more or less where things have been stuck for people who can't see, until the rise of Siri et al.)
It's fascinating talking to him about his perception of what IT does for him (and realising how much better it would be if there was a larger market).
Kudos where it's due to the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia on this one. By making iThings accessible from the ground up, they've made VI-accessible technology mainstream (with the associated compatibility and cost benefits) without anyone really noticing. Why use a clunky Windows CE PDA when you can have a shiny new iPhone that does the same stuff and more for half the cost?
Unfortunately, for serious work, Windows and Jaws still seems to be where it's at. Voiceover on OSX doesn't cut it, apparently.
