Knowing What Is Good About the iPhone and What Is Not
The iPhone is without a doubt the most-used
cell phone by blind people. Blind people have given Apple a lot of praise for
coming up with a plan for making touchscreens usable by the blind. They have
also given Apple a lot of money to back up their words. But even though it has
many great features and is easy to use, the iPhone isn't for everyone, and some
blind people can't use it. In this article, Curtis Chong, an expert on
technology who lives in New Mexico, talks about the benefits of new technology.
Still, he knows that the iPhone is too complicated for many cell phone users
and doesn't meet their needs. What he has to say is:
People have said that the Apple iPhone is one
of the first touchscreen devices that blind people can use without help from
someone who can see. When Apple released the iPhone with VoiceOver in 2009,
even the most sceptical among us knew that Apple had done something truly
amazing. For the first time in history, a person who couldn't see the screen
could use all of a device's controls, even though those controls were just
icons on a flat screen.
Today, the iPhone is widely known as a piece
of technology that blind people can use. People who have never used a cell
phone that was easy to use have heard about the iPhone and dreamed of getting
one. When well-meaning sons and daughters hear about how easy it is to use an
iPhone, they buy this amazing piece of technology for their ageing parents.
Parents who want a cell phone that is easy for their blind children to use
think the iPhone is the best option.
Even though the iPhone is easy to get, you
should know its pros and cons before you spend the money to buy it. It will be
the best answer for some people. For some, it could turn out to be a very
expensive paperweight.
The following list of pros and cons of the
iPhone is based only on my experience. Before you decide how true this
information is, you should know that I was a relative latecomer to the iPhone.
I waited almost two years before I gave up my accessible Nokia cell phone for
it, and I wasn't disappointed in my decision because I talked to many blind
people before I made it.
What's Great About the iPhone
You can use online services like banking,
news, music, searching for information, reading books online, checking email,
checking the weather, etc., if supported by an iPhone app.
The iPhone gives you the same technology as
many of your blind friends, who already use it as their favourite technological
Swiss Army Knife. This means that if you get into trouble, you will probably be
able to find a blind person who has the knowledge and experience to help you.
The iPhone shows that blind people can use a
touchscreen device that has been made for people who can't see. In this way, it
gives me a lot of pleasure to use my iPhone with a blank screen to show my
sighted coworkers that it can be done.
Before you answer the phone, the iPhone can
tell you who is calling.
You can easily return a missed call and see
what calls you've made and received recently.
The iPhone has a dictation system that lets
you call people in your contact list, call specific phone numbers you already
know, dictate emails and text messages, and ask questions that may or may not
lead to useful answers.
If you pay for a good GPS app for the iPhone,
you can use it to tell drivers where you want to go.
The iPhone has a free compass that can be very
helpful in places with few landmarks.
With a $10 app, the iPhone can read paper
money. This app can even read paper money from other countries.
The iPhone is a great way to listen to music
and can also stream radio.
From the National Library Service of the
Library of Congress, you can read digital talking books and electronic Braille
books on your iPhone.
You can read books from Audible.com and Kindle
books from Amazon on your iPhone. It can also read books from Learning Ally and
Bookshare, among other places.
Through a free app, the iPhone can connect to
NFB-NEWSLINE®.
The iPhone can be used to take pictures.
Autofocus tells you whether there is a face in the picture or not. Also, if you
can get the camera to focus, you can use it with optical character recognition
software to read printed text.
The iPhone has built-in voice output and a
free way to make the screen bigger. It's not too hard to turn these
technologies on. Also, you will find that there are more and more books and
people who can help and support people new to the iPhone.
What's wrong with the iPhone?
The iPhone has no choice if you don't want to
pay for a data plan. The cost of a data plan is about $20 per month.
Communicating over the Internet with your iPhone would help to have a data
plan.
It takes a long time to make a simple phone
call on an iPhone, especially if the person you want to call isn't on your
contacts list. With a keypad with real buttons, you can dial a number you know
much faster.
Touch typing for texting and emailing on the
iPhone is much slower than typing on a regular keyboard. This has been made a
bit better because there are now two Braille apps. But you should know that
research has shown that a blind person using the touchscreen QWERTY keyboard to
enter data writes about three words per minute on average. On the other hand,
people who use the built-in Braille apps can read about 23 words per minute.
With the iPhone, you need to coordinate your
hands and ears well. People who want real buttons that they can push without
making a sound will be very unhappy with the iPhone.
The iPhone still has trouble with its battery
life. At least once a day, and a lot more often if you use GPS.
The iPhone is not a tiny device. A lot of flip
phones are smaller than this.
The iPhone has a lot more technology than many
people want. It's not for people who want to make and receive calls on a phone.
It's not cheap to buy an iPhone. The basic
unit can cost $200, even with a two-year contract. The iPhone costs about $650
when it is sold at full price.
People who have never used an iPhone before
said it was hard to figure out at first. During the first month, it's not
unusual for these people to want to throw away their phones. Answering calls
and ending them seem to be two of the hardest things for new iPhone users.
To use an iPhone, you need to be pretty
skilled and be able to tap quickly. This technology most likely won't help
people who have trouble moving or aren't very good.
Conclusion
Even though the iPhone can be used by people
who are blind or have low vision, it is not for everyone. Before buying an
iPhone, you should research, talk to other blind people, and decide if you need
or want all the power it has to offer. Before buying:
- You should expect to feel some frustration.
- Think about it some more.
- Expect some simple phone functions to be harder to do at first than you think they should be.