Hindsight · review build · data not yet validated

Handhelds read aloud any digital document

Ray Kurzweil, Books and essays, 1999, published 1999-01

These reading systems are equally adept at reading the trillions of electronic documents that are instantly available from the ubiquitous wireless worldwide network.

Source

Verdict

hitTwo blind graders agree (D7, rule D16). Not in the audit sample (D11).

Grader A: hit

Reading systems for blind users read electronic documents from the network in 2009: the iPhone 3GS (June 2009) shipped with the VoiceOver screen reader for web pages, email and other content over wireless networks, and desktop screen readers had done this for years. 'Trillions of documents' is rhetorical, but the capability was real and shipping.

Test: Feature test: at least 50% of new units of a mainstream device class include a screen reader: iPhone 3GS and later iPhones shipped VoiceOver as standard from June 2009.

iPhone 3GS (Wikipedia) (2009-06-19): VoiceOver was introduced as a standard feature on the iPhone 3GS.

Grader B: hit

The phone-based KNFB Reader ran on a Nokia N82 that also ran a screen reader, and by 2009 the iPhone 3GS added VoiceOver; blind users could have electronic documents and web content read aloud on handhelds.

Test: Capability test: shipping handheld products reading electronic text by 2009.

Wikipedia: KNFB Reader (accessed 2026-09-28): Original camera+PDA reader $3,495 (2006); Nokia N82 version $1,595; iOS app $99 in 2014, Android soon after; reads documents, screens, ePubs.

All captured fields

rank: 51
kind: decade_prediction
section: Disabilities
subject: Handhelds read aloud any digital document
target year: 2009
timing: in
position: Chapter 9, "2009"; item Disabilities 4 in Kurzweil 2010, p. 46
confidence: high
note: Wording as reproduced by the author in "How My Predictions Are Faring" (2010); book page not given there. Subject label is the essay's own item heading.