Benjamin Levicek I'm sure you'll agree that most people consider music a part of their lives, and this is doubly true for the younger generation. Absolutely the same fact also applies to the blind, which is of course understandable. However, headphones are definitely part of listening to your favorite songs. For people with a visual handicap, we have to take into account several important facts that ordinary users do not have to deal with. And in today's article we will look at the selection of ideal headphones for the blind.
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The response of the subtractor program
For users who have vision problems, or especially for those who cannot see, an essential part of the system is a reading program that reads out the content on the screen to the blind. If you use wireless headphones, there is a delay in the transmission of sound, which negatively affects the control of the given device. So if you thought that the latency of wireless headphones, which is annoying for sighted people especially when playing games or watching videos, is not a problem for blind people, you were wrong. From my personal experience, for example, with cheaper headphones, the response is really so bad that I preferred to use wired headphones. Therefore, if a blind user wants to own wireless headphones for work and not just for listening to music, the best choice is one with a higher generation of Bluetooth. If you want to get completely wireless, you will need those that communicate with the device at the same time, not a product that, for example, has one earpiece connected to a computer and the sound is then sent to the other. In that case, however, you have to reach for a more expensive model, such as AirPods or Samsung Galaxy Buds.
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What about listening in the city?
It is already becoming such a standard that people wear headphones in their ears on the street or in public transport, and the truth is that this does not pose a significant problem for the average user who does not need to hear so much. Visually impaired people, however, are dependent exclusively on hearing when it comes to moving around the city, for example. Even so, you can find products that allow a blind person to listen to music without any problems even while walking in the city. You can't use classic plug-in headphones like this, because they cut you off from your surroundings thanks to their design, and the blind is, excuse the expression, recorded. The same applies to large over-ear headphones. The ideal choice is then either solid headphones, which include, for example, the classic AirPods, or products with transmittance mode, which allow you to send sounds from the environment directly into your ears, I can mention, for example, AirPods Pro. I personally own cheaper AirPods, I listen to music calmly while walking, and the moment someone talks to me or I have to cross the road, I take one of the earphones out of my ear and the music stops.
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Sound, or the alpha and omega of all headphones
Visually impaired users primarily focus on hearing, and it is true that the sound of headphones is one of the most important parameters. Now, I'm sure many of you will think, why am I using AirPods, if these headphones are not great in sound? Personally, I resisted AirPods for a long time, I have heard a huge number of both wireless and wired headphones, and I would definitely rank them higher than AirPods in terms of sound. On the other hand, I am more of a user who listens to music as a background to walking, working or traveling. I also often switch between devices, talk on the phone, and even when I play music at night before going to bed, the AirPods offer me a fairly decent, if not above average, sound experience.
Apple's AirPods Studio concept:
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Which headphones you get as a blind person depends mainly on your lifestyle. If you are primarily interested in occasionally listening to music on public transport and at events where you don't want to disturb the surroundings, but the sound is not that important to you, you can go for basically any headphones. If you're primarily concerned with sound, you use headphones exclusively in the office and for listening to quality music in the evening, you probably won't buy AirPods, you'll rather reach for over-the-ear headphones. However, if you are one of the urban users who have headphones in their ears all the time, whether when walking, working or watching a two-hour series in the evening, AirPods or similar headphones will be the ideal choice for you. Of course, you don't need to immediately run to the store for Apple headphones, it is not difficult to find a product from another brand that has similar quality microphones, sound, a storage case and ear detection. However, I personally think that whether you reach for AirPods or other quality True Wireless headphones, you will be satisfied.
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Amaya Toman 