Speaking Browser -> Speaking Paper?
An article intrigued me today on C|NET:
http://news.com.com/High-tech+photos+give+new+meaning+to+talking+pictures/2100-1041_3-5954367.html?tag=nefd.lede
This article covers a technology being developed by Zanetti Studio, which allows speech, or other audio, ot be attached to a printout using a specially manufactured printer. The prime goal of the device is to allow users to attach annotations to digital photographs that are printed out. The technology prints a magnetic strip along the photograph that can be scanned through a device to have the audio "read out". HP are also working on a similar technology, which uses a mobile phone to read out the annotation when placed alongside the paper.
What this means for accessibility is impressive. No longer do the blind have to rely on braille output from their printers, and can now experience as rich a hardcopy as users do with rich web-copy. We can spend time putting ALT tags on images, and other meta data designed to help users identify the context of an image in content, but when it gets printed out, this may get lost in the translation. This technology will open the door for speaking content, speaking meta-data such as ALT tags and I feel will level out the field of rich content between users of varying abilities.