Apple picker Apple adapts its products to many professions and hobbies in different fields. It focuses on schools, designers, musicians or medical facilities, but one important part is often forgotten - making most apple products accessible to the disabled. Apple is doing a really good job in this area, and many users who would otherwise never be able to work with the latest technologies are playfully using, for example, iPhones.
Blind Pavel Ondra wrote about the fact that a medically indisposed user can easily adopt a smart watch, whose Apple Watch review from the blog Geekblind Zone now with the permission of the author we bring.
Last Friday, T-Mobile lent me a second device as part of the TCROWD project, again from Apple for a change. It is an Apple Watch smart watch, currently the only device of its kind on the market that can be used by blind people. Not counting the Korean startup and his dot watch – a smart watch with Braille on the display – these are not available in the Czech Republic.
The fundamental questions for a blind person are: Is it worth investing in a device that costs slowly as much as a smartphone itself? (Apple Watch Sport 38 mm costs 10 crowns) Will they find a meaningful use for a blind person? I was trying to find an answer to these two questions.
Impressions of the device from a processing point of view
The Apple Watch is the first smartwatch I've ever held. I have the sports version with a 38mm display and a rubber band. I like the style of the device as such, although the size is a bit overwhelming to control. It's really quite a small thing, and when I have to make gestures on the display with more than one finger, it's a problem to properly fit those fingers in there and make it so that the gesture does what I need.
But the watch fits well on my hand, it doesn't bother me at all and it's comfortable, and I've never worn a watch before and used my mobile phone to tell the time, but I got used to it within an hour.
During the first two days, I also dealt with the question of whether to wear the watch on my right or left hand. I usually hold a white stick in my right hand, my left is free, so I thought of trying left-handed control, but after a while I found out that it's not comfortable at all. I'm right-handed, so I'm used to using my right hand.
I have a big problem with the watch, but now in winter, when a person is wearing several layers. In short, it is quite a pain to work through all those layers for a watch, for example to check the time.
But when it comes to controlling the Apple Watch itself, a blind person can do it with two or three touch gestures on the display. Apple's much-promoted digital crown has practically no use for me, and in addition, I find it terribly difficult to work with it, you can't really tell how much you turned it.
In any case, you get used to the watch quickly, it is pleasant to wear, but if you want more comfortable control, you should definitely buy the 42 millimeter version.
Watch from a software perspective
As with iPhones, however, the main draw for the blind is the Apple watch software. From the first launch out of the box, the VoiceOver function can be started in a similar way as on the iPhone, so that a person can set everything himself without the help of a sighted person.
The controls are also similar to the iPhone - you either drive around the screen or swipe from left to right and vice versa, and a double tap is also used to activate. So for someone who has experience with the iPhone, it will be very easy to master the apple watch.
However, what cannot be managed, at least until the launch of the next generation of Apple Watch, is the incredible slowness of everything - from the response of VoiceOver to opening applications to loading various content, messages, tweets and so on. The watch is simply not intended for any more complicated work for someone who wants to handle everything quickly and, God forbid, for example while walking.
Simpler tasks, such as handling notifications from applications, checking the time, dates, weather, calendars, can all be handled relatively quickly, even outdoors. Example: I check the time within four seconds – tap the display, the watch tells the time, cover the display with the palm of my other hand, the watch locks, done.
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And the last thing that needs to be mentioned in this section is the rather weak performance of the speaker. Even if you set VoiceOver to 100% volume, it is almost impossible to work with the watch, for example, it is absolutely impossible to read an SMS on the street.
The control as such is therefore simple and you will quickly master it. However, the Watch is slow, but it is enough to quickly check notifications and check basic things.
Individual applications and impressions
In addition to checking the time, I most often use the watch during normal operation to check notifications, mainly from the Facebook Messenger, Twitter and built-in Messages applications.
Quick responses also work well with Messenger and Messages, where you can send a pre-set phrase like "OK thanks, I'm on my way" as a reply, but if I want to be more sharing, the reply can be dictated with almost 100% accuracy.
In the case that I don't just want to reply, but start writing myself, I solved it by setting the three contacts that I need most often on the friends button, and this made the whole process much faster. I'm not someone who handles hundreds of messages a day, so this route is perfect for me.
Dictation is fine, but unfortunately it can't be used outdoors. I really don't think people are obliged to listen on the tram that I'm going home or that I forgot to buy something; after all, there is still some privacy. Sure, I can dictate a message when I'm alone somewhere, but in that case it's faster for me to pull out my phone and type out the text.
A watch with classic functions that one would expect from a smart watch is fine. Time, countdown, alarm, stopwatch – everything is pretty quick to set up and use. If, for example, you need to stop for three minutes while boiling hard-boiled eggs, you don't need to bring your phone with you to the kitchen, just a watch on your wrist. Plus, add to that the ability to start everything through Siri, in English, and you have a really great use for the Apple watch.
If you are a music enthusiast and have, for example, wireless speakers, the watch can easily be used as a music controller. Either you connect them directly to a speaker and you have music in them, or they can be used as a controller for the music you have in your iPhone. I've been playing around with this app for a while, but I'll admit that it doesn't make sense to me.
Fitness functions are something halfway between useless and such a toy. I've never been good at any major exercise, and it's impossible to run now in the winter either. This is interesting for people who like to measure everything and everywhere. For example, if I want to keep track of how far I am from the train home, how fast I'm walking, what my heart rate is, the Exercise application has proven itself for all of this. And also the fitness part is good for people who like different motivational things. You can set different goals, 30 minutes of exercise a day, for sedentary people, how often to stand up and walk, and so on.
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It is very nice to be able to blindly adjust the main dial down to the smallest detail on the watch. From setting the color of the text to the type of dial to the range of displayed information, everything is clear and accessible. If someone is a toy and needs to play with this week after week, they have that option. On the other hand, I set my watch on the first day and haven't moved anything since.
In addition to news applications, I have tried Swarm, RSS reader Newsify and Twitter. As I have already stated, these applications are quite unusable for a blind person. Swarm takes an hour to load, I only managed to load tweets on the second try and trying to scroll through feeds in Newsify is a horror.
In conclusion, as a fitness device, the watch would be pretty cool if I were that type. It is a really good device for the blind in terms of time functions. If you don't mind dictation when it comes to privacy, the watch can also be used very well for taking messages. And when it comes to browsing social networks or even reading the news, the watch is pretty useless at the moment.
Final assessment
It's time to answer the two fundamental questions posed at the beginning of the review.
In my opinion, it is not worth investing in the Apple Watch for a blind person. What will happen to the second and third generations, I don't know. The slow response and the too quiet speaker are the two main negatives for me, serious enough that I myself would definitely not buy the watch just yet.
But if a blind person buys a watch, he will definitely find a use for it. Dealing with messages, time functions, checking the calendar, weather... When I have a watch on my hand and there is not much noise around, I don't even pull out my mobile in these situations, I rather reach for the Watch.
And I also feel much safer with a watch. When I want to read a message, I run the risk that someone in the city will simply snatch the phone out of my hand and run away. The Watch is much safer in this regard.
I also know a few blind people who like to play sports, and I can also see in those uses, whether cycling or running.
It's somehow impossible to rate the Apple Watch on a percentage basis. It's such an individual thing that the only thing I can advise people is to go somewhere to try the watch on. This text therefore serves more as another guide for those who are deciding whether to buy a watch.
I bought the watch for my wife just for sports and she discovered the rest of the functions. He can't let them go.