Texting by Ear

December 12, 2008 • Posted in blindness, Braille, Uncategorized by
That's my handsome nephew Robbie with his handsome father Rick.

That's my handsome nephew Robbie with his handsome father Rick.

I came home, checked our answering machine. There it was. A message from my nephew. The message was alarming. Not because of what Robbie said. Just that he called me!

 

My extended family lives all over the country. We consider ourselves “close.” But we rarely, if ever, phone each other. We email. We send cards. Some of us are even starting to use facebook. But we don’t chat on the phone.

Robbie’s message said he had a question. I should call him back that night. All I could figure was that he needed information about:

1) A homemade gift he was making for Mike, or
2) some woman he was interested in who lives here in Chicago.

Turns out #2 was right. But the woman he was interested in was. me! “I was just wondering,” he said when I phoned him back. “How do you text if you’re blind?”

The answer was easy. I don’t. And from what I’ve been able to find out, few blind people do. I mean, there are phones that let us send text messages. The research I’ve done since Robbie’s momentous phone call, however, has not turned up a single phone allowing blind people to read a text message after it appears on our cell phones.

The LG VX8350 from Verizon, for example. A review on the American Foundation of the Blind website touts the LG VX8350 as the “most accessible off the shelf cell phone for blind or visually impaired people.”

• Creating text messages is accessible, and you just follow the voice prompts. You use the multi-tap method for composing the message, pressing the 2 key once for the letter A, twice for B and 3 times for C, etc.
• There are some inaccessible aspects, e.g., the pound sign (#) is the space bar and the OK key sends the message, which you wouldn’t know without a good manual or learning with a friend. Punctuation is accessible. You press the 1 key once for a period, twice for a comma and it reads it out to you.
• Important Note, the LG VX8350’s voice cannot read text messages you receive.

So this LG might be the most accessible, but it still can’t read text messages aloud to us.

A2006 article in gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine gushes over a Samsung “Touch Messenger” cell phone for the blind That won an Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) that year. Only problem? The “Touch Messenger” is not in production yet.

The innovative Touch Messenger enables the visually impaired users to send and receive Braille text messages. The 3-4 button on the cell phone is used as two Braille keypads and text messages can be checked through the Braille display screen in the lower part. Once this product is commercialized, it is expected to dramatically boost the quality of life for visually impaired people, numbering as many as 180 million worldwide.

I have no idea what it was that made Robbie wonder how I’d be able to text. He is 25, though, so I know he spends a lot of his day with his thumbs on his phone. That, plus his genetic aversion to chatting on the phone would make him curious about how I manage without being able to text. I promised him I’d look into it, and told him if I figured out a way, he’d be the first person I’d text. “My first message will be ‘Hi’” I laughed. “That will probably be about as much as I can handle .”

But then I found a post called How To Send Email To Any Cell Phone (for Free)
that explained how I can sit at my computer, compose an email message, and text it to a cell phone!

Here is how it works:

Most of mobile carriers offer free Email to SMS gateways which can be used to forward simple text emails to a mobile phone. And the good news, majority of those gateways are free and available to the general public. You just need to know the number and the carrier of the recipient to start emailing them to mobile phone

I had no idea which carrier Robbie used, so I just typed his phone number in and tried it with three popular ones (the site provides a list of email addresses to use with a bunch of different carriers). Since I could use my computer keyboard, my message was a bit more complicated than a simple “hi.” I wrote, “omg, aunt betha cn txt now.”

Wondering what Robbie’s response was? Me, too. He can’t text back to my email address, and if he texts to my cell phone, I won’t be able to read his message. My God. Robbie and I may have to break a family tradition. Pick up the phone. Actually talk to each other again!

Jenny On December 12, 2008 at 10:21 pm

Wow I can’t believe you don’t have accessible phones in America! I thought Ireland was the last place to get everything technology related!
I’ve been using a nokkia phone for the last three years with speech software called talks. It sounds like Jaws, and makes the phone completely accessible. I can read and write texts and do everything else that sighted people can. I had to buy the phone and send it to the national council for the blind in Ireland to have the speech software installed.
Now there’s another reason for you to come to Ireland!

Cheryl On December 12, 2008 at 10:38 pm

All the technology that’s out there to make it easier to contact each other by texting, emailing, cell phoning, and yet it seemed like the simplest way for Robbie to contact you was by the old fashioned phone call….and you got to hear his voice and his laughter and nobody wore out their thumbs. Signed, older-then-60- years-old.

bethfinke On December 13, 2008 at 2:21 am

Oh, I should have been clearer in my post – I think I’ve heard of blind people here in the US using special software with a nokkia phone, in this post I was focusing on phones you could just buy off the shelf (or from a catalog) that would work right away for us. You know, a kind of “turn key” system! I am intrigued to hear that you are able to send and receive text messages with your specially-formulated nokkia, though – I may have to invest in one.
Better yet, I may have to come to Ireland, like you say, to get one there so it will talk with a brogue!
PS: Remember to send me your mailing address so I can have a Braille version of “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” sent your way –

bethfinke On December 13, 2008 at 2:24 am

Dear “older than 60” –
I must say, my all-time favorite way to communicate is even older than the phone: getting together in person! And right now, with temperatures in the 20s here in Chicago, I think visiting Robbie in Orlando might be a GREAT idea. Thanks for the inspiration!

nancy b On December 14, 2008 at 3:57 am

Just a slightly off topic note about facebook, since you mentioned it Beth. There was almost a funeral here at this address related to a virus that is going around facebook. It is called the Koobface virus and it gets transmitted via video, usually a message that says, ‘your friend caught you on video’. anyway, just a warning. It will trash your computer and can cost up to 500$ to fix it all….and will destroy your virus protection software…and may send loved ones into heart failure as well if it trashes a whole day of work. My only observation about texting is that there are now knitting patterns out for gloves with no thumbs for cold weather texting ease.

Beth On December 14, 2008 at 5:18 am

I’ll be honest with you: I’ve been looking for a reason t get Hanni’s name off facebook, I spend too much time in front of my computer without adding facebook to the mix. THANK YOU for giving me a reason to take her name off facebook — I’m relieved!

Jenny On December 14, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Hi Beth. I did email you my address but i’ll send it again. This great technology isn’t always relyable is it!

Beth On December 14, 2008 at 11:36 pm

Thanks, Jenny — I got your address this time and will get that braille copy of “hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” sent asap. Merry Christmas!

Marilee On December 15, 2008 at 2:15 am

Hey aunt Beth its Robbie. Just wanted to let you know that i never got that text from you. My provider is sprint if that helps at all. I can not wait for he day that i get the text from you. From reading the replys it looks like there is a system is out there and my million dollor dream is out the window…lol. lol meanslaugh out loud, just trying to catch you up with the text lengo. You know you always have a place in orlando to visit it. Its been way to long since i hav seen you. cant wait to talk to you soon. love Robbie

Beth On December 15, 2008 at 2:26 am

Yes, it *does* help to know you use sprint. I’ll try again…stay tuned!

oberazzi On December 22, 2008 at 3:21 pm

Beth, great blog. I think folks can reply to a text message from an email account. I can’t read my cell phone either and I am at my computer most of the day. So I text message from gmail.

take care,
tim

Beth On December 22, 2008 at 3:55 pm

Tim,
I didn’t know which carrier my nephew Robbie used, so had tried at&t, uscellurlar and Verizon. Turns out he uses…Sprint! Thanks for the encouraging note –it reminds me to try texting Robbie again.

Richard Q. On December 24, 2008 at 2:03 am

Beth,
I refer you to your previous discussion on accessible cell phones and the software that will work on them i.e. talks and mobilespeak. Both will allow you to text message with the phone that goes with them. They have to be of the Symbian or Windows Mobile platforms. The email-to-text gateways will generally work but some companies will charge extra to receive such messages; some will turn off that gateway. Here in Canada, for a slight fee of an extra dime, you can text message a land-line phone and the message will be spoken to the receiver of it.

Have a wonderful holiday and all the best for the new year and beyond,

Richard

Beth On December 24, 2008 at 5:50 pm

Richard, this is great info — you’d better watch out or I’ll be texting you soon! And if my nephew Robbie finds out you can text message a land-line phone and the message will be spoken out loud to the recipient, I’m sure he’ll sign up for fun.
Hope you are having a fun holiday season, and thanks for the terrific — and helpful — comment —

Jake On January 4, 2009 at 12:14 am

I have heard of those accessible cell phones and in fact my brother has one. But I don’t because I can’t afford it. That’s probably just as well though, given that all I do with my cell phone is send and receive calls. I had been getting text messages on a previous cell phone which was also inaccessible, but those people have stopped. My dad showed me how to access my voicemail and the other important stuff. I already have talking caller ID on my land line, and of course I use email. So it’s not that I’m unaware or anything, I just don’t feel the need at this time. But perhaps down the road I’ll get an accessible cell phone. They sound really cool!

bethfinke On January 4, 2009 at 3:26 am

Jake, if you’ve got talking caller i.d., you’re wayyyyy ahead of me!

Ted Burrett On April 22, 2009 at 7:12 am

After reading through this article, I just feel that I need more info. Can you suggest some more resources please?

Beth On April 22, 2009 at 11:39 am

The American Federation for the Blind usually has good tech info — try them at http://www.afb.org Any of you others out there have ideas for this guy?

Leave a Response