Cell Phone For the Blind?

brigc writes "Here's one that's got me stumped. A friend of mine who is blind asked me for help tracking down a cell phone for him. He's interested in a flip phone with well-defined separations between the keys, and as much voice control as possible. Battery life is the only other thing he mentioned. Preferably something that would work on AT&T's network in the US. We spent part of the afternoon in a local AT&T store checking out all the flip phones they had and didn't find one he really loved. Anyone have any ideas?" There was a story some months back about a phone that would read to you by interpreting pictures from the built-in camera, but it doesn't have much information about usability. I'm sure it'd be handy to have some sort of text-to-speech option for common cell phone features like caller ID and text messaging, or even just reading menu names.

EyePhone?

[by Anonymous Coward]

Sorry...

Re:

[Helios1182 (629010)]

On an Apple forum there was a guy who posted about how to best set up an iPhone for his blind wife.

Check web for partially-sighted people's orgs

[James Youngman (3732)]

Why not just refer to information from some local organisation of blind people? There's this survey of accessible mobile phones in the UK [rnib.org.uk], but surely there must be something similar for the USA.

Why Not Jitterbug ???

[by Anonymous Coward]

Why not Jitterbug. It doesn't work with AT&T but it does have large well separated buttons and is relatively easy for people to use. I don't think your friend wants a "complex" phone -- more buttons and more potential for error.

Here is the linky : http://www.jitterbug.com/phonesDial.aspx

Good luck....

Here's a possibility

[Iphtashu Fitz (263795)]

http://www.screenlessphone.com/ [screenlessphone.com]

Re:Here's a possibility

[Iphtashu Fitz (263795)]

And here's an article from the American Foundation for the Blind. It's from 2004 but it mentions the above phone as well as two others: http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw050406 [afb.org]

Re:Here's a possibility

[nospam007 (722110)]

Here's another link with 4 phones with large buttons.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/technology/2008/07/29/4-cellphones-for-seniors.html [usnews.com]

Re:

[KGIII (973947)]

Along those lines, I had listened to an NPR snip about this very thing quite a while back. There isn't much more information than this but, well:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18504117 [npr.org]

Re:

[nategoose (1004564)]

In addition to it's usability, the lack of a screen should also help out on power consumption.

Re:Here's a possibility

[urcreepyneighbor (1171755)]

Effective January 2007 the retail price of the Owasys 22C in the United States is $549.95.

WHAT IN THE HELL?!

No. This is wrong. Subsidize this mother fucker.

SPECIAL PRICE OFFER! Receive your Owasys 22C at the special low price of just $249.95 (plus a $10 charge for your SIM card and a shipping and handling charge) when you order your ScreenlessPhone from Capital Accessibility with a TWO-YEAR T-Mobile service plan

Still wrong. Fail. Bad. NO.

These people are already blind. Do we really have to rape them?

Motorola F3

[NemosomeN (670035)]

Has voice commands (In that it will read the command name to you as you go over it), as well as well-defined separations between the keys. It, has good battery life, too. It's a candybar phone, however, and is very limited. I picked one up (with prepaid service) for about $12, but their full retail US is still only around $50. CDMA and 3G are both available.

Re:

[jeti (105266)]

I think the Motofone is meant to work for illiterate people, but not for blind people. It can read out the menu options, but I think it can not read out phone book entries. However, the phone should work well for sight-impaired people as all text is large and easy to read.

did you search?

[socsoc (1116769)]

Google provides a lot of info [google.com], I found some interesting information and most of it appears recent. The 22C [screenlessphone.com] is a screenless-specific GSM phone that appears to be a good match.

Check out http://www.codefactory.es/en/

[skallen (25946)]

Check out http://www.codefactory.es/en/

I have a blind daughter and she uses an Nokia N95 and it works verey good, i also know that there is some OCR software for Nokia N82 coming up soon which can read a photo, that could be an even better choice.

flip phone with large keys

[ptbarnett (159784)]

He might find this meets some of his needs:

Jitterbug [jitterbug.com]

However, it looks like you have to also buy service through them.

Personal experience

[blind biker (1066130)]

I volunteer in an NGO that helps blind people in various ways, and is also my passion, privately.

I am VERY happy this question appeared here on /. for once, because last time I mentioned MP3 players that would be just as functional for blind as for seeing people, I was derided. But the truth is, making MP3 players and mobile phones with a user interface that is usable for blind people does NOT detract anything from the usability for seeing people. In fact, I'd argue that it makes them more usable for the seeing people as well - allowing for a whole new area of use cases.

The trend is, however, unfavourable for the blind: touch screens and the related user interfaces make it impossible for blind people to operate such gadgets, unless they have a voice feedback.

And now, to the point of the question, and related to voice feedback: there are plenty of Nokia phones with software designed to make it possible to be operated by a blind person. Such software would announce who is calling or whose call you just missed, who is the sender of an SMS and read the SMS to you, or give feedback on your commands. Nokia phones in general (especially the slightly older ones, say, 2006, 2007 generation) have a user interface that is more suitable for blind people than most other. I am just now trying to teach my visually impaired mother how to use a certain Panasonic mobile phone (only one extra phone in the house at the moment), and I notice how the UI emphasizes using the same button for several functions. Like, locking the phone requires two pushes on the same button. Unlocking it requires three pushes on that same button, and the only feedback you have is visual. WTF? Total rubbish.

Re:Personal experience

[by Anonymous Coward]

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/BlindFAQ [rockbox.org]

What about the Jitterbug

[dr_canak (593415)]

I know nothing about this phone,

http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/samsung-jitterbug-dial-sph/4505-6454_7-32115117.html [cnet.com]

but see it recommended often for older folks and those with poor eyesight. A real barebones phone, with limited features, big keys, and decent battery life.

hth,
jeff

HTC with Windows Mobile

[Auntie Virus (772950)]

My blind friend uses an HTC Mogul, with a mobile version of JAWS. JAWS is probably the speech software for most blind computer users.

pointless

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

Why does he want a cellphone if he's blind? I mean, he won't be able to use the camera. He can't send text messages. Can't use it for games or videos. I suppose he could listen to mp3s. What? He wants to make phone calls. Good luck finding a cell phone that's good at that....

Re:pointless

[PPH (736903)]

Maybe Slashdot needs a screen reader that explains jokes for the humor-impaired. ;-)

Windows Mobile and Voice Commander

[FonzCam (841867)]

Hands down the best voice commands I've ever used in a phone is Voice Commander for Windows Mobile 5. (I believe it's now included with WM6 as standard.) Not only does it do voice dialling of your contacts and numbers by simply saying "Dial 555 1234" but it also gives you control over the launching apps, mp3 playback, reading SMS messages, signal status and time and appointments.
For a full list take a look at the Microsoft website. [microsoft.com]
It also doesn't need any training or any setup you just press and speak and it works surprisingly well.

As for hardware that'll depend on your budget and availability but there are lots of options for Windows Mobile powered phones including candy bars and and flip phones.

RAZR2

[whterbt (211035)]

I have the RAZR2 (V8). You can operate the phone entirely through voice commands, including dialing people in the phonebook and just dialing phone numbers. You can set "Talking Phone" mode so that it reads each menu item as you go over it. The keys are not physically separated but there are ridges between the rows of keys, and the imprinting is raised so you can tell by feel when you're on a key. The phone has audible caller-ID, but for some stupid reason T-Mobile disables that on their phones. If you look into the RAZR2, be sure that features is enabled or get an unlocked phone.

Use Talks screen reader on a Nokia S60 phone

[limitedmage (1037292)]

Get a phone from this list: http://www.nuance.com/talks/phones.asp [nuance.com] Then buy this software: http://www.nuance.com/talks/ [nuance.com] It's a screen reader for Nokia S60 phones. It is perfect for blind and visually impaired persons. My dad is blind and he's used it for quite a few years now. The supported phones are top of the line. My dad has a Nokia N95, I think, and he really likes that the Talks screen reader is compatible with most of the phone, including email, web browsing, media player, calendar, address book, and the amazing voice commands, which provide a great shortcut for blind users. I highly recommend it. And Nokia phones are the best, IMO.

I work in this area

[Deliveranc3 (629997)]

There are too many touch screen phones on the market these days.

If you're blind and looking for a good phone look at the Nokia 6810... it has a good screen reader and an open source GPS system for navigation called Loadstone (which I did some work on).

For a blind user, bluetooth is a must as it lets you keep a headset with a reader for interfacing. I walked around for a while with the phone talking to me and it freaked people out.

Good luck on the search and message me if you want some more info...