A great example of how technology has reduced a lot of barriers to information for the blind was the invention of Smartphones. You can check your mail, read a book, create photos and videos, keep up with your friends on social media, and you can make phone calls too!
The most popular Smartphone in the United States is the Apple iPhone. I will describe the accessibility features of the phone along with a short description of how I use it.
How is the iPhone accessible to the blind and low-vision?
The Apple iPhone uses touch-screen technology to interface with the user. By the user touching or tapping graphics on the screen, the user can communicate with the phone’s software to make it do things. Intuitively, the idea of a device that uses a touchscreen being accessible by the blind might be confusing. Well, it shouldn’t be, and I will explain why.
In the beginning, iPhones were not accessible to the vision-impaired because there was no way for the phone to communicate to the blind user what the graphics/icons were on the phone and no way to let the user know what the phone was doing. That was until Apple built accessibility into the iPhone.
How does the iPhone communicate to the blind user?
As mentioned earlier, the iPhone uses graphics on a touchscreen to interface with a user. This made the phone inaccessible until the inclusion of Apple’s Voiceover screen-reading program. Voiceover uses a synthetic voice to give the blind user feedback on what is on the screen along with enough information to let the user work with the graphics to make things happen.
Apple’s Voiceover comes already installed on Apple’s iPhones and is free. The user only needs to turn it on, and the phone becomes accessible to the vision-impaired.
How do blind people interact with Voiceover on the iPhone?
For those who are used to using an iPhone without Voiceover, interacting with the device can be a little different. For example, a sighted user just single taps the graphic they want to start a program or process. For users using Voiceover, the process involves navigating among the graphics on the touchscreen until Voiceover announces the name of the graphic the user is looking for. Once the desired graphic is identified, the user double-taps the icon to start the program.
There are several methods for navigating the iPhone’s icons using Voiceover and instructions to these methods are easily available on the Internet. The point I want to make is that smartphones and vision impairments do not have to be mutually exclusive, especially when it comes to using Apple’s iPhone.
Do other smartphones have low-vision accessibility options?
The answer is ‘Yes’. I have several vision-impaired friends who love their brands of smartphones because of their accessibility features.
If the iPhone’s methods for accessibility is similar among smartphones, then the blind can also have the independence of information.
John Bailey is an international speaker, author, and TEDx presenter. Check out John’s Reading in the Dark video.
His programs on finding personal and professional success are based on how he has succeeded despite him being blind. John has traveled the world and held several leadership positions.
I am now scheduling speaking engagements for the last half of 2019. I frequently speak to universities, at conferences, about productivity, efficiency, and really the core components of the 5 am miracle.
If you know someone who I should connect with, a boss or an event planner, someone who is looking for a public speaker for their events, have them email me at john@JohnBaileySpeaker.com. You will learn a whole lot more about my programs and how they can help your organization by visiting my speaking page at JohnBaileySpeaker.com.
Apple’s VoiceOver on the iPhone is 10 years old. Released on June 19, 2009. This was revolutionary at the time. As you so eloquently stated, VoiceOver meant accessibility for the blind right out of the box. And the iPhone was still an infant when VoiceOver was added.