Apple picker VoiceOver is a solution for the visually impaired in OS X, but the visually impaired can also use this great function on iPhones. The so-called all iPhones from the 3GS version are equipped with a screen reader, or VoiceOver in Apple terminology, and they make life much easier for disabled people, whether visually impaired or deaf.
Photos: DeafTechNews.com
This voice reader can be easily run in Settings under the item In general and under the button Disclosure. A quick look at the options available under this button is enough to see that Apple makes life easier for the visually impaired as well as the deaf and people with motor problems.
Fortunately, I only use VoiceOver from this wide range of accessibility, but I still find it fascinating that Apple is one of the few companies that understood that even disabled people are potential customers, and therefore it can be profitable to try to meet their needs.
[do action=”citation”]As one of the few companies, Apple understood that even disabled people are potential customers.[/do]
The principle of working with VoiceOver in iOS is not very different from controlling VoiceOver in OS X. The biggest difference probably lies in the fact that touch devices run under iOS, and the blind must somehow deal with a completely smooth and tactilely uninteresting surface, where the only point of reference is the button Home. In fact, it is much easier than it might seem at first glance. And although it is possible to connect the iPhone to an external keyboard, most blind users have no difficulty controlling the iPhone based on a few gestures.
Such a gesture is, for example, swiping left or right, which causes the elements on the screen to jump. This eliminates the question of how to know where to tap on the screen when I can't see the screen. It is enough to jump to the given item or icon by swiping. But of course it's faster to know the approximate location of the elements on the screen and try to tap where I expect the object to be. For example, if I know that the Phone icon is in the lower left corner, I will try to tap there when I want to make a phone call, so that I don't have to swipe right ten times before I get to the phone.
For a blind person used to working with VoiceOver or another voice reader, a voiced iPhone is not so surprising. However, what is surprising and makes life easier for a blind person is the iPhone itself and what can be found in the App Store.
In truth, even though a computer allows a blind person to remove many barriers by enabling them to write, read, surf the Internet, or communicate with friends or colleagues, a computer is still just a computer. But a fully portable device equipped with a camera, GPS navigation and ubiquitous Internet can do things we have never dreamed of.
Although it may sound weirder, I have to admit that it was one of the iPhone apps that made me buy this touch device.
[do action=”citation”]The selected applications allowed me to do things that until recently were inaccessible to me or I needed someone's assistance to do them.[/do]
This is the free application TapTapSee, which kind of brought my eyes back. The principle of the application is simple - you take a picture of something with your iPhone, wait, and after a while you are notified of what you took a picture of. This may not sound very lively, but imagine an example from real life: you have two identical bars of chocolate in front of you, one is hazelnut and the other is milk, and you want to split the milk one, because if you split the hazelnut, you will be very angry because you don't have it happy at all. Such a situation in life always had a simple 50:50 solution for me, and in accordance with the law of consent, I always opened a hazelnut chocolate or something similarly undesirable. But thanks to the app TapTapSee for me, the risk of hazelnut chocolate has sharply decreased, because I just need to take a picture of both tables and wait for what the iPhone tells me.
This application is also charming for me personally in that the photos taken can be saved to Pictures and further treat them in the same way as normal photos, and on the contrary, it is possible to recognize photos stored in a photo album. It warms my heart that on this year's vacation I took pictures again after years and I took more pictures than my sighted friend.
And speaking of travel, the second app that broke another barrier in my life is BlindSquare. It is both a client for the well-known Foursquare and a special navigation for the blind. BlindSquare offers its users many features to facilitate independent movement in an unfamiliar environment, and perhaps the most useful is that it reports intersections with great accuracy (so you know you're already at the end of the sidewalk) and also announces restaurants, shops, landmarks, etc. that are located near you, which is useful both for knowing where the store you're headed is, and also because you know that if you don't pass Artist Supplies on the way, you've taken a wrong turn and need to return.
I think BlindSquare is also a good example of how useful it is to be able to use the potential of your iPhone, because it has happened to me many times that I have saved my sighted companion from wandering around cluelessly and searching for the right way thanks to BlindSquare.
The above-mentioned applications were a shock to me and allowed me to do things that until recently were inaccessible to me or I needed someone's assistance to do them. But I have many other applications on my iPhone that make my life more pleasant, whether it is the application for MF Dnes, thanks to which I can read newspapers again after years, or iBooks, thanks to which I can always have a read book with me, or Weather, which means I don't have to get a talking outdoor thermometer.
In conclusion, I can only say that I wish there were more and more applications accessible with VoiceOver. All Apple apps are fully accessible, but it's sometimes worse with third party apps, and even though I feel that certainly more than 50% of apps are easy to use with VoiceOver, from time to time I'm disappointed when I download an app and iPhone he doesn't say a word to me after opening it.
It really warms one's heart how iZariadenie can simply help such people and that's how it should be :)
I tried taptapsee and control the iPhone blindly with voiceover and the hat is down. I wonder who funds taptapsee. imho there is still untapped collaborative potential