Blind and want to use a smart phone?

Yeah, just like the title says. Oh, want me to throw something else in? The phone is a touch screen on top of it. Nope, no joke, been using one for a few years now. And the most important thing is that I paid no more for it than anybody else did. Yes, I am speaking of Apples iPhone.

Many blind people today on the go are answering calls, sending text, updating face book and twitter and finding any information they need while living an active life. There are even specialized apps for the blind that cost no more than apps everybody else uses. Apps that scan money and tell if it's a 1, or a 5. There are apps that give your location while walking. In a strange place? no Problem just ask Look Around. I will break down some of these apps in a later post, but I bet you've already learned something you didn't know. That's the goal here.

The iPhone comes with a screen reader called Voice Over built into the operating system. With modifications in how the touch screen works, VoiceOver allows blind or sight impaired people to navigate the screen using what are called flick gestures. For example, let's say you want to know what todays weather is. As a sighted person you would simply touch the weather app and read. As a blind person, this is what would happen.

1. Press home to make sure you are on the home screen. If it says search iPhone, then press home again.
2. Touch the top left of the screen, you should hear messages.
3. Use your finger and quickly flick from the left side of the screen to the right. Keep doing this until you hear weather. Now, with one finger, double tap the screen anywhere. You will hear sounds and the phone will then talk. Take 2 fingers and quickly flick from the bottom of the screen to the top and guess what, VoiceOver is now reading the screen and all information to you. You now know your current weather information and the forecast.

Do you want to read a book your friends are reading? Hey, no problem. Is it in the iTunes store? Good buy it there and then open your iBooks app. VoiceOver will read the book to you from start to finish. hey, don't worry about reading it all at once, just close the app and next time you want to read just open iBook and do a 2 finger flick down the screen. VoiceOver will start reading right where you left off.

With a little practice, you can even send pictures to your friends. Just point the phone at the area you want to take a picture of and wait for the phone to say auto focused. Press the volume button and listen for the click. You might not be taking perfect pictures, but your friends will know what your talking about when you describe it. You can even post your pictures to Twitter, face book, send them by text or even email. It's all easy to do with just simple flicks of your fingers on the screen.

The sad part about this technology is that apple never advertises it. As a matter of fact, very few people who work for them even know what it is. Some of them don't even know it's in the products. For example, I went into the Victoria AT&T store and asked the sales person about VoiceOver. They started telling me all kinds of things about Siri. I looked at the guy and said your talking about Siri, I want to know about VoiceOver. He tried to convince me that siri and VoiceOver was the same thing. All I can say is that I'm glad I knew better because I would have fallen for the line of trash he was giving me.

There are very few things that I can't do on my iPhone that others are doing. Not all apps work properly with VoiceOver, but this isn't Apples Fault. The creators of the apps need to make them work, not Apple. Myself and a few blind people have written to app makers and most of them are more than willing to make their apps work with VoiceOver.

Hey, I even know a few sighted people who sometimes use the VoiceOver technology. If a sighted person is interested in playing with it, or wants to turn it on for somebody else who can't see, here are the steps. Just remember one important thing. Once VoiceOver is turned on, the touch to open becomes touch to highlight and then double tap to open.

from the home screen tap settings. Now tap general. Then tap accessibility. Now tap Voice over. Then where it says VoiceOVer off, tap and it will change to on. The phone will start talking at this time.

Look a little further down the screen Where it says Voiceover practice. Touch that and listen for the phone to say VoiceOver Practice. Now double tap the screen anywhere. You are now in practice mode and anything you do the phone will respond with what that action does. Try double tapping the screen with 1, 2, 3, or 4 fingers. Try this with double, single, triple or 4 taps. Make sure the taps are quick.Also try quick flicks up, down, left or right on the screen with 1, 2, 3 or 4 fingers. Guess what, you now know almost all of the commands to navigate the phone without looking at the screen once. There are a few more commands you will need to know if you want to do more advanced things. But, what you know now gives you more information than you need to use the phone in a simple way.

This information is good for the iPhone, iPod and iPad. For more info, go to http://www.apple.com and click on the accessibility link.

For information that on apps that work with iDevices and Macs, go to http://www.applevis.com Note that this is an independent site not connected to Apple in any way. The site is run by blind people, and posts made to the site are from blind people who use the products mentioned. The site not only tells you of products and apps that work, but those that have been tried and don't work. Applevis has also been known to gather signatures and write to app makers in order to make their apps more accessible for blind users.