> Last FM made accessible?
- 14 Nov 06, 08:03 PM
Ok, not so much an accessible web 2.0 website, but an application that helps to make it accessible.
Last FM is a classic example of a web 2.0 project. It tracks the music (or “scrobbles” as Last FM put it) that you listen to on your computer or iPod. The name of the songs you listen to are then sent to Last FM, who use the data to compile charts, make recommendations of other tracks you might like, and create personalised radio stations.
Good news comes in the form of the SpeakOn tool. This is a program that runs on your PC and is a speech enabled environment for listening to various media, and released by a-technic, a charity specialising in technology. Even better news is that SpeakOn is free.
Last FM provides a player to download and use that has been described as, “not easily accessible (if at all) to screen readers” by a-technic, hence the development of the application. With SpeakOn, you can listen to the Last FM radio stations.
This is completely accessible and isn’t dependent on a computer screen – in fact you can operate it with an external numerical keypad from the comfort of the couch, much like a traditional remote.
It is not known at the time of writing if you can only listen to the Last FM radio stations, or if the tunes you play with SpeakOn are tracked and sent to Last FM to help build the stations, charts and recommendations.
If you've used the SpeakOn tool or Last Fm and want to comment on their accessibility, we'd love to hear from you.
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