Chicory already is pitching designs for accelerating the processing of video and audio streams, as well as accelerators for converting code written for cell phone chips designed by ARM, the British shop, into code that can be read by Pentiums and other chips.

FORBES: Hardwired

In addition, they depend on an array of specialty devices, such as audio book-readers, color readers, navigation tools, raised Braille labels, special bar-code scanners, and large-buttoned, voice-enabled MP3 players which are prohibitively expensive.

ENGADGET: Qualcomm develops eyes-free smartphone for the blind and visually impaired, calls it Ray