Amidst speculation of the future of the Oratio screen reader for Blackberry phones, we checked in with Humanware's Michel Pepin to get a status report on current and future developments. While support for current devices running version 5 may be lagging, we are told that version 6 will be a different story, fueled in part by a partnership between Humanware and Research in Motion.
According to Pepin, "The keep us ahead of the game we have entered into an agreement with RIM to work
on Oratio development for unreleased devices and version in order to have all fixes
and changes found during testing of Oratio and implemented in the BB O/S prior to
the devices release. This represents a major improvement as it will provide us with
the tools to act faster and bring Oratio support to selected BB devices as they or
shortly after they are brought to market." Pepin also clarified Humanware's relationship with Code Factory, brought into question by recent posts on the Blackberry Access mailing list by stating that Code Factory has a dedicated staff member working with Humanware on the Oratio project and on future developments. BBAccess's Carlos Palomino posted an earlier message citing sources stating no new devices would be supported until 2011.
As for the support of current devices and the introduction of Oratio, Pepin offers the following: "HumanWare (Humanware's objectives with Oratio has always been to try to support QWERTY keyboard devices, however we never claimed that we would support all of them as they are brought to market. I may have been too open in the past to mention which devices we were testing Oratio on however I never claimed in any communication that these devices would have Oratio support. Humanware's mandate in this project is to provide an accessibility solution to BB device which we did with the Curve 8520. I understand this is a year old device and the mobile world evolves at a speedy rate with the introduction of newer and more powerful devices and at HW we will keep working on bringing Oratio support to selected QWERTY Keyboard devices however each device as its own specifications which means that Oratio support for a 5.0 device does not automatically mean that all QWERTY keyboard 5.0 devices can have Oratio support. Each device needs to be tested as they behave differently given their features and network type." According to Pepin, Much of the difficulty has come with developing a screen reader for a new platform (Java ME).
Category: Cell PhonesWow, is this guy's title the chief of question evasion? Oratio is laughable, and will continue to be until the situation actually does change, and the first thing they need to do is be up front with the blind community. After that, start focusing on the os and not the devices in particular. Finally, stop making vague promises about the future and deliver something. Oratio had been promised for years before we saw it and, when we finally did, it didn't live up to most of Humanware's hype. So you'll forgive my skepticism in not believing their promises of a better future at this point. How much does anyone want to bet they'll bump the price up by a couple hundred bucks along the way, like they've done with every other current generation product they have?
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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.
