For those with impairments to their vision and/or hearing, reading can be quite the challenge that one must overcome in life. To assist those with visual and hearing impairments, the use of audio books and Braille helped them read and learn like everyone else. Now in 2020, our technology has evolved greatly and as such, new forms of assistances for the blind and deaf have risen over the last couple of years.
One such application that caught my attention was the Braille Audio Reading Download app (BARD app). It first released for iOS in 2013 and since then, it has seen million and millions of downloads annually, a testament of how much the app is used and how many people are using it every year. The BARD app is capable of downloading from a vast library of books and other media sources and then use electronic signals to replicate Braille or verbally read the book to people. This is a great example of a multisensory reading technology, as the Braille on the smartphone is great for both people who are blind and , and the audio is good for the people who are blind. By offering multiple ways to have a person read as well as a vast reservoir of material to read from, the BARD app is an example of an ideal multisensory reading platform, and will continue to be so over the years.
As successful as it is, however, it is important to acknowledge the challenges and limitations that BARD is currently facing. BARD is used on smartphones right now, which may cause some accessibility issues for people who do not have access to a smartphone. However, if we move a platform like BARD back to something that works on something else, such as Braille books or tape recordings again, it becomes much less available since those are in limited quantities and require travel to an external place such as a library. This clearly highlights a conflict in accessibility and availability in the BARD scenario, and is something that needs to be taken into consideration whenever designing such multisensory apps.