When everything is streamed online - will we all be able to use it ?

February 2nd, 2009

I read this story with some interest - in the age of digitail TV - UK broadcasters are committing to streaming all of their content online

See article

Now this only makes my ongoing schizophrenia rear its ugly head - am I pleased / am I worried ?

(Ok maybe its only lack of decisiveness rather than any underlying pathology)

But its perhaps indicative of the ongoing stresses and strains we see as new technologies evolve without real care taken to ensure they are accessible to all. There are already a number of providers offering streaming content. The problems of keyboard access to youtube are well documented - but equal problems arise with a number of the media streaming services for on demand TV.

It should be a great opportunity - modern computers have a host of features to maximise access to content, magnifiers, on screen keyboards etc etc - But poor design of the players, even when embedded within accessible webpages is an ongoing problem.

I know there are lots of people out there creating great scripts to help, but really is that the long term answer ? We shouldn’t be relying on talented and committed programmers developing scripts to overcome the problems of initial poor design

So what do you think ? Which of the streaming servcies do you use - and with what results ?

Im off to see if Lost series 3 is available on demand