So why shouldn't the blind be able use graphical menus? Well,
obvious, they can't see the menus that they're using. Is this a problem? Yes,
but not an unsolvable one. As I mentioned before, pointing the mouse in a given
direction is a pretty natural motion. Furthermore, my current implementation of
Circle Menus can already easily tell which menu option the mouse is nearest to.
So why not attach a digitized voice module to the Circle Menu that will sound
out the words on each menu option. With this system a blind person can figure
out which options are available in a given menu by listening to it. For
unfamiliar menus, the blind user will have to listen to half the menu options
(on the average) before they hit on the right one. The same performance is
expected for a list-based menu if a voice module was attached to one. However,
in the case of a familiar menu, a blind user will have a high probability of
pointing the mouse to the correct menu option without the need to listen for it.
However, in a list-based menu, hitting the correct option on the first try is
very unlikely and thus performance will be severely reduced for blind
users.
One note before you decide that this is a great
idea: although it seems like Circle Menus are pretty friendly for blind users,
remember that most Graphical User Interfaces are not, meaning that the blind
would find it quite difficult to bring up a Circle Menu in the first place. But
that's a practical issue that hopefully may be overcome one day.