I have to thank Forensic Focus for a lot of help along the years, but definitely for introducing me to one individual. Through FF I was able to connect with an IT professional who was a forensic hobbyist and is blind. Since the date of my first post he has created his own custom linux distribution with popular open-source forensic tools, assisted my student, and given me a wealth of knowledge with his experience.
Just to clarify any limitations, as a hobbyist this gentleman works with TSK, codes forensic tools, uses a hex editor, etc. Now I know that there is a difference between a hobbyist and a forensic examiner, but it's impressive nonetheless. In an age of increasing data and complexity, being able to visually see something will not have it's same value. How about proper usage of hashing (file, sector, block)? Facial recognition algorithms? Wouldn't that help with visual hurdles? I really don't know.
Humans never cease to amaze me. Rock on.
On the note of having to listen to a computer rattle off screens and screens of data, have you ever been around a blind person and watched them work with digital media? The speed at which they can listen and comprehend spoken word is impressive to say the least. I have a few friends that are blind (unfortunately not CF examiners) but watching them interact with their cell phones or computers… The speed at which the machine speaks the on-screen text to them is easily 2-3 times the speed at which a normal person talks.
And on their visualization skills, I have also witnessed them able to think outside the box and speak abstractly much easier than your standard-visioned individual. I say welcome to the vision-impaired CF examiners of the world, and am very excited to see what specializations they can bring to the field (hopefully I'll be able to encounter one or two of these individuals at a conference in the next 5 years and pick their brains on their expertise) D
Dizi