One of the many, many reasons I decided to buy an iPhone two years ago was to support the idea of universal design: the iPhone 3GS was the first touch-screen device that blind people like me could take out of the box and use right away. It comes with speech software called VoiceOver — built-in screen access for people who are blind. Miraculously, it allows blind people to interact using the touch-screen.
The iPhone 4 came on the market in 2010, just before I left town to train with Yellow Lab Harper. During training at the Seeing Eye I could hear phones murmuring text messages to the younger students in class while we were waiting in the lounge. Carlos regularly updated his Facebook status from his iPhone while we commuted in the Seeing Eye van together. He and Marcus would point their phones at their dogs from time to time to take photos, then manipulate their phones to send the photos home to loved ones.
My classmate snapped this photo of Harper on his iPhone and sent it to Mike.
Apple drastically reduced the price of the iPhone 3GS to $49 the very month I came home with Harper. I bought one, and after learning how to use it to make a phone call (in case of an emergency) I put off learning how to do anything else with it.
My two-year contract ends next month. I finally devoted time over the holiday break to climb the very steep VoiceOver learning curve so I can decide whether or not to renew.
The simplest way for you sighted iPhone users to understand how VoiceOver works is to give it a try yourself. Here’s how you turn VoiceOver on :
- go to Settings
- choose General
- choose Accessibility
- choose VoiceOver
- turn it on.
Still with me? Okay. Now press the home key. Slide your finger around the screen, and Voice Over will call out the icon you’ve touched. Don’t worry, it won’t select that icon, it will just call it out so you’ll know where you are on the screen. Hold the iPhone so that the earpiece is facing up, toward the ceiling. If you touch the left edge of the screen about an inch below the earpiece, you’re likely to land on the top left icon. VoiceOver will call out what that is. Flick one finger right to select the next one. If you flick your finger four times to the right , you’ll get to the first app on the second row of apps. If you come across an app you want to open, tap the screen twice, and…voila! Note: If you open an app BY MISTAKE, just press the Home button and you’ll return to the home screen.
Is your head spinning? Then you can imagine what a dither I was in the past two weeks learning how to listen to voice mail, Google, send and receive email using my iPhone. I can get into all that in a future blog post if you are really interested, but I’m guessing that all you sighted folks want to do right now is learn how to turn the #(@%! VoiceOver off. If you follow the bulleted directions above, below the heading at the top of the VoiceOver screen you’ll hear a button labeled “VoiceOver on.” Notice that VoiceOver gives you a hint out loud by saying, “Double-tap to toggle setting.” When you hear that, go ahead and Double-tap to turn VoiceOver off.
I reached a big goal over the weekend when, ta-da, I exchanged a series of text messages withmy sister Marilee. I’m OMW. TTYL!
Wow… what an accomplishment, Beth! It seems like you are more iPhone-able than I am… I, too, have put off learning how to *really* use my iPhone for much– but I don’t really have any excuses! I think I might know a curious little 9-year-old who might like to try this ‘see-what-it’s-like-to-use-an-iPhone-blind” experiment!
Ha! Maybe that curious 9-year-old and I can start sending texts soon. OMG, we’ll be BFF.
I had to google OMW and TTYL. Am feeling old (again)
u r not old. u r grt
I love my iPhone thanks to all the built-in accessibility features, so I am very glad you are finally learning to use yours. There is a new app called VO Starter that will help teach you how to do a lot of basic things with Voice Over, if you need more help.
Thanks, l-squared. Hey, any chance you can recommend a reliable color-identifier app to use with an iPhone to help figure out the color of clothing?,
The color identifier app I have on my phone is Color ID Free, but honestly none of the color ID apps I have tried are really useful – they are all too creative with color names. I can see most colors if I’m in good enough light or if there’s enough contrast, but I have no idea what colors we’re talking about based only on the fancy names these apps give.
Thanks. Unfortunately, that has been my experience with the color identifiers on teh iPhone, too.
Just curious….I can see the “settings” icon, but how do you know where that icon is when you want to get to Voice over?
Maria–in this case, I turned it on…but there may be a workaround–I’ll leave that to Beth.
Yes, according to the iPhone manual that is still the way it works. Sure sounds complicated to me, though! I was lucky to have Mike around to turn it on for me the first time, and the manual also suggests that if you are willing you can ask the salesperson to turn it on before you leave the Apple store.
I’m not Beth, but I think I can answer this question. With a computer running screen reading software and iTunes you can connect your iPhone to the computer and then enable VoiceOver on the phone (without sighted assistance) using their built-in Setup Assistant. At least this is how it used to work… I’m assuming that feature is still available somewhere in the latest version of iTunes.
Actually, I just double checked, and you can still turn VoiceOver on or off your phone anytime with iTunes, and it’s not that complicated. Plug in your phone and select your device in iTunes. Then on the Summary pane under Options select Configure Universal Access. This will open a box in which you can select options for the various seeing and hearing accessibility features available on your phone. Then just select OK and the options you have chosen will be activated on your phone.
This. Is. So. Helpful!
I am going to save this in a safe spot in case I ever need to start the VoiceOver on my phone again. THANK YOU, L-Squared!
I have been using the iPhone for almost two years. I really don’t know how I managed without it. I do some of my home and work email (it does need a spell checker for email) do FaceBook, take notes using a braille display, read books, track weather, play games, and oh yes, Beth you will like this, listen to baseball games. I can finally get the games my local station doesn’t carry, which includes the Series. I get radio programs, some TV, and of course music.
Now so you can feel one up on me, I’m having to learn WordPress. I downloaded a manual to my phone, using Read to Go, from Bookshare, and am eading it on the phone.
Good luck with wordpress, I got a lot of hands-on help at my job at Easter Seals, that’s how I tackled it. While I have you here, I may as well ask the same question I asked L-Squared above: Any chance you can recommend a reliable color-identifier app to use with an iPhone to help figure out the color of clothing?
And it was GREAt to be able to text with you! You were so quick-had no idea that there were so many steps. And you are awesome with the text lingo-but maybe it is just easier to email. I am so proud of your perseverance!! Mare
tnx <3 U <3 U
[…] « How do blind people use iPhones? […]
[…] post on a blog titled “Safe and Sound. Adventures of a blind woman and her dog.” Outlines, first hand, the difficulties of using Apple’s VoiceOver feature. It painfully explains […]
Attractive section of content. I just stumbled upon your blog and in accession capital to assert that I get in fact enjoyed account your blog posts.
Anyway I’ll be subscribing to your feeds and even I achievement you access consistently fast.
Thanks for one’s marvelous posting! I quite enjoyed reading it, you are a great author.
I will always bookmark your blog and will eventually come back from now on.
I want to encourage you to definitely continue your great posts, have a nice holiday weekend!
Cool hopefully you’ll get better with your phone… It does take a while too get used to a touch screen with Voiceover.
Thanks for the encouragement, Michelle. I have made good iPhone progress lately, so perhaps it’s time for me to write an update to this post.
So glad I found your blog. I teach iPhone and iPad to residents where I work. Just had a blind member call and ask if I could help her use Skype.
In searching, I found you. Thank you for information on Voice Over. I meet with member tomorrow. I will continue to read through your blog.
you’re welcome. Would be very interested in hearing what you’ve learned about using Skype without being able to see -that’s one techy thing I haven’t tackled yet.
Hello, I am Hannah from The Netherlands, I am sitting here with my mother trying to figure out how to do the basic things on an I-Phone like calling or texting without using the touch screen. My mom is blind and just got her first i-Phone, she is using the voice-over now but we cant seem to find out how to call one another! It would be great if you could help us and maybe find the time to write us back! Thank you so much, Greetings from Holland.
Hello. Holland! The simplest way I know to make phone calls is to put a person’s name in contacts. For now, why don’t you turn voiceover off (I assume you can see) and do that for your mom: Put your name and phone number into contacts for her, then turn voiceover back on. Now she can hold that big round button on the bottom of the iPhone down until it makes a little “dingaling” noise. When she hears that noise, she should say “Call Hanna.” Voice over will come on and say “Calling Hanna” to confirm the phone call is being made. Keep in touch, let me know if this works. After this I can email you with more tricks, but I’ve learned from experience that it’s best to keep it simple at first.
It would be great if you could e-mail my mom and give her some tips and tricks! It is so good to hear from you so fast. Her e-mail adres is info@corinnestaal.nl. Thanks so much for sharing your experience, we really enjoy reading your blog.
Hannah, you can email me your iPhone questions directly, but if you are willing, I wonder if it would be more helpful to continue asking them via comments to this blog post? That way if other blind people who have questions about using an iPhone with VoiceOver happen to find this post, the answers will be there for them, too. However you want to do this is fine with me, I am just glad you took the time to write me. Thank you so much for reading my blog and leaving such nice comments here — you make me feel good!
Read thid is nice information to use iPhone
My daughter just got her first iPhone, she lost her eyesight a few years ago and was hesitant to change her old phone, now that we have it she wants to hear who is calling her is that possible to set up?
Yes! My iPhone calls out the name of the people who are phoning me –if you can read the bulleted list from this Safe & Sound blog post out loud to your daughter so she can turn VoiceOver on , then as long as the person who is calling is in her contacts list, VoiceOver will call out their name whenever they phone. Good luck with this —
_____
Hi Beth,
I stumbled across your great blog post while researching phone options for my 83 year old uncle who has just lost his sight. It gave me hope that I might be able to get some thing up and running for him! That said he is not hugely computer literate,meaning I need to find a simple solution. I have been hoping to find a way to get something which is basically voice activated (together with physical home, volume and on and off buttons).rather than requiring a lot of touch screen voice over interaction. I wondered if you have any updates on your smart phone experience and whether you have any advice on what might be good for someone in his position? Thanks so much in advance for any advice you can offer.
Tanya, So glad you found me. Have you considered simply using Siri with an iPhone? Seems like that might work for your uncle –let me know.
_____
Hi Beth, Thanks so much for the quick reply, I thought I’d done the same but see my post never reached you. Sorry! So to answer your question, yes, Siri was my first go to option, however, having played with a friend’s phone I find it to be rather clunky. I have since then spent a bit of time loitering in phone stores playing with the Samsung 5 and find that, once it is set up, the voice only interface is much more user friendly. Of course both the recent versions of I-phone and Samsung are top end phones, a fact reflected by their prices. I am now trying to see if I can find a less pricey android handset running the same software as the Samsung. I’ll let you know if I find one. That said, if anyone has any advice, I’d gratefully receive it. (The key hardware feature I am looking for is that it has a physical “home” button as opposed to being fully touch screen.) I continue to be amazed at the limited number of options for an elderly, low tech, visually impaired phone user.
Oh Tanya, if only I knew more about science and technology, I’d team up with you. Imagine how much $$$$ we’d make if we came up with a low Tec phone that was easy to use for a person who was elderly and had a visual-impairment. then we could give all the $$$$ to more research for people who are blind or visually impaired….
_____
An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a co-worker who was
conducting a little homework on this. And he in fact ordered me breakfast because I found it for him…
lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the
meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this subject here on your web site.
merlin road bikes
How do blind people use iPhones? | Safe & Sound blog
Usually I would not go through posting about blogs and forums, however would choose to say that that write-up quite compelled me personally to try and do therefore! Your current crafting tastes continues to be surprised me personally. Thanks a lot, fairly fantastic post. Usually I would not go through posting about blogs and forums, however would choose to say that that write-up quite compelled me personally to try and do therefore! Your current crafting tastes continues to be surprised me personally. Thanks a lot, fairly fantastic post.
[…] of people who are blind have been using speech synthesizers to type text messages into their phones for years now — I’m just not one of them. I learned how to use VoiceOver, […]
[…] years ago I published a post here about how some people who are blind access a program called VoiceOver to use an iPhone — VoiceOver parrots every letter we type into a text, but it wasn’t until […]
Thank you for the post. that was really helpful.
http://technogiga.com/cell-phones-for-blind-what-features-and-how-do-they-use/
Un véhicule blindé de combat de l’infanterie, vu de l’intérieur
Aux commandes de son véhicule blindé de combat de l’infanterie, un pilote explique en vidéo comment s’effectuent le contrôle, et les déplacements de l’engin… La curiosité est grande lorsqu’on se situe à l’extérieur d’un engin blindé, de visiter l’intér…
Magnificent beat ! I wish to apprentice even as you amend your web site, how
can i subscribe for a blog web site? The account aided me a applicable deal.
I have been tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered vivid clear idea.
Leave a Response