Cell Phone For the Blind? 141
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.
Personal experience (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Here's a possibility (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Get a Mac! (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:RAZR2 (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
For a blind user, inputting data is not the hard part. The difficulty is getting feedback from the device. I'm curious if this "Talking Phone" mode had pre-recorded voice sounds for each menu item or if it's capable of, say, pronouncing the names in your contact list like "true" text-to-speech.
Also, what if the phone mis-recognized your voice and inputted the wrong command? How would the user know? I wonder how many times sighted users of this feature have seen the screen bounce to the wrong menu item and thought "That's not what I said, you stupid phone!"
Someone has already mentioned text-to-speech cell phone software put out by Nuance called Talks (http://www.nuance.com/talks/). I used to work at the Lighthouse for the Blind in New Orleans as their technology specialist. A number of my blind coworkers and clients used this software on a variety of phones and they've done nothing but sing its praises. IMHO, the best thing that could be done is to port this software to a wider variety of handsets.
Sighted users don't need to re-learn how to read in order to switch to a different phone model. Neither should blind users.
Re:Here's a possibility (Score:4, Insightful)
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?