Christian Heilmann

Posts Tagged ‘brazil’

Alcance by CPQD – an accessible and simple interface for smartphones

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

Accessibility and mobile devices is still and issue that needs solving. Sure, there were solutions for phones around for quite a while that would for example allow a blind person to listen to their phone (a friend I know uses a Nokia N95 for that) and the iPhone is considered by many a really good solution for people with disabilities but the price of the iPhone makes it less accessible for a lot of people.

At Campus Party Recife I gave a talk about Mozilla and the Open web device and got introduced by Felipe Cunha of Telefonicá Brazil to a product called Alcance by CPQD. Here is a quick interview with Felipe about it:

Here are the main points:

  • CPQD built this prototype after doing user testing and research with blind users, the elderly and people with learning disabilities and low literacy
  • The software runs on mid-range Android phones and uses private access to boot directly into the interface circumventing the main Android OS interface
  • Users can swipe on the screen and a voice reads out what app they are currently touching. Double-clicking opens that app with more voice information. Subsequent screens then all are the same size icons (6 per screen)

Here are some screenshots of the device in action:


Alcance by CPQD - start screen
Alcance start screen – no app selected


Alcance by CPQD - selected app
Alcance selected app screen


Alcance by CPQD - another selected app
Alcance another selected app screen


Alcance by CPQD - secondary menu
Alcance secondary app screen

Of course this will not replace a full-on smart phone with all its possibilities but I like the idea and the simplicity of it a lot. Telefonicá is very interested in seeing where this can go and I am pretty sure this could be easily converted to Firefox OS and in HTML5.

What I like most about it is that it was built after doing research with the intended audience rather than yet another protoype that assumes a lot and lands in the “innovation” bin in the company a few weeks later.

It will be interesting to see what else happens with this product. Especially in a market like Brazil where low literacy is an issue this could be a good way to bring connectivity to those who can benefit from it.

Again telling people about evangelising – this time in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

I just arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the upcoming Open Hack Day. The dent to my trip (and my laptop) was that someone dropped my bag on the flight over which means that my MacBook now looks like a hollywood premiere (floodlights from below):

Mac Book display fail

In any case, in a few minutes I am giving a presentation in the Yahoo office here about evangelism in general and how it fits in with the company structure.

[slideshare id=725389&doc=evangelizingbrazil-1225938652275731-9&w=425]