Disability and ICT: Blind people using iPhone 4S

Introduction: This case study is about technology for people with disabilities, specifically for blind people. It is difficult and hard to believe that blind people could use this sort of technology when people that can see perfectly, have some troubles or difficulties using smartphones. For being more specific: the use of smartphones like the iPhone 4s with the new features ACCESSIBILITY and SIRI which are designed for blind people or with other disability. As we know the new iPhone 4s is a great smartphone from APPLE and it is one of most innovative smartphones for the application Siri. Siri is a virtual assistance and has voice recognition; it can follow voice commands such as place a phone call to your friend or look for your contacts, take dictation of your messages, searching content on the web, look for directions using a GPS system and more.

Description of the case. Accessibility. The iPhone 4S has a feature those others smartphones do not have, and it is called: accessibility. Accessibility enables to blind people using the options and content of the iPhone like a normal person will do. The innovative feature tells in real time to the users what he/she is touching and how to access to a specific options or applications. It is an interactive assistance that is ready for any blind people that want to use the iPhone and discover the whole potential of this smartphone. With accessibility blind people can make phone calls without see what is he dialing, blind people has to say the name of the contact and say: call to Amy and the phone does it. Blind people can store contact just by saying the number following with a name. Accessibility provides to blind to send messages just by saying the message and select the contact, using a dictation method. Blind people can access to the internet and search for content like we do, how is this possible? Using the touchscreen of the iPhone, blind people can touch the screen and the phone says what is it, what it is about, and what he can listen. In addition, blind people can listen to music on their iPhone 4S by using commands. They can download files from the internet by accessing to a webpage and with the touchscreen they search content and make a double-tap (double-click) with the finger and the file will be downloaded.

Many people have an iPhone in these days, but people with disability like blind will be the lucky ones because there is one Smartphone that was designed for blind people. The features on the iPhone 4S definitely will change the lifestyle of these people because what was impossible in the past like make phone calls or surfing the net, now all this will be a reality.

Like in the pictures below is how all the iPhones users will see the new feature accessibility that will allow blind people and non-blind people to use the application to do anything by touching or giving commands to the iPhone 4S.

Siri. BLIND people and those with vision impairment take using voice commands for granted when using modern technology. So when Apple launched the iPhone 4S with virtual assistant Siri, vision impaired people got very excited. Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said that the technology would be of great value to people with vision impairment and he has his order in for an iPhone 4S already. ``While the technology will be much more efficient for blind people than the triple-tap input used now, I would think that the (voice commands) would benefit many people - vision impaired or not.'' Voice technology designer Tim Noonan said that there were 10 things blind people could teach other iPhone 4S users about Siri. "Users should speak clearly and ask for one thing at a time,'' Mr Noonan said. Also, because the maps, traffic and business data is currently only available for the US, users should ensure that contacts include home and work addresses so that commands such as "take me home'' can be given and followed by Siri.

Also, for people who work in large office blocks or complexes, addresses need to match the global positioning satellite address for the complex. "If your building has multiple addresses and you say 'remind me at work,'Siri won't recognise that you are at work unless the addresses match.'' Mr Innes commented that ``Siri won't work well when there is background noise''. "Always use Siri when your phone is unlocked,'' Mr Noonan said although the iPhone 4S has capability that can be used when the screen is locked, it can cause crashes when using voice commands, he said. Mr Innes said that single commands such as ``find (the name of a song)'' or ``find email from (named person)'' work well, Mr Noonan said that these commands allow you to find emails by specific dates. "Siri can also be used to send text messages or send a text to Twitter,'' Mr Noonan said. "Give Siri small chunks of information. That's the most important thing,'' he said

New iPhone a breakthrough for blind people

The iPhone has grabbed widespread attention for its sleek design, revolutionary multitouch display and countless apps. Not as well known is this: It's the only smartphone that blind people can use out of the box. That has local advocates downright giddy about the iPhone 4S, Apple's latest creation hitting stores today with an advanced voice-command feature called Siri.

"The blindness community is really hyped about what (the iPhone) does now and what it can do in the future," said Wes Majerus, a technology specialist and instructor at the nonprofit Colorado Center for the Blind. "There is a lot of hype about Siri." Early reviews suggest Siri is a technological breakthrough, although it could use some tinkering. Siri responds to spoken commands such as "Set my timer for 30 minutes," but it struggles with questions like "When is the next flight to Denver from San Francisco?" Apple says the software is still in beta, or test, mode. The company's video promoting the feature concludes with a blind woman responding to a text message simply by speaking to her iPhone. "There's something to be said for being on the move and just pulling out the phone and dictating a text to somebody and getting it sent off," said Majerus, who is blind and owns an iPhone 4. An estimated 240,000 Colorado residents are blind or visually impaired, according to the American Council of the Blind. Apple first made its popular smartphone accessible to blind people in 2009 with the iPhone 3GS. VoiceOver was a standard feature on the device and subsequent updates. When the option is activated, the iPhone speaks almost everything that otherwise would be read on screen by the user, such as e-mails, phone numbers and letters on the virtual keyboard when they are tapped. "The iPhone is the only fully accessible handset that a blind person can buy," said Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, a nonprofit advocacy organization. "Android has some accessibility capabilities, but they don't work as well as Apple." Before the iPhone 3GS, blind people had to purchase expensive third-party applications to make their cellphone accessible, Danielsen said. In addition to working out of the box, the iPhone has access to apps that support the VoiceOver option. There are also a number of third-party apps designed for blind people, such as LookTel's Money Reader app, which identifies currency with the iPhone's camera and speaks the denomination. Danielsen, who is blind, plans to switch from a Nokia phone to the iPhone 4S. Siri is just one reason. "Apple is rolling out a bunch of new features that are going to enhance the ability of blind people to use the iPhone," he said, referencing the release of iOS 5, Apple's latest mobile operating system. The new features include clearer speech technology and the ability to add a custom spoken label to buttons and commands. In addition to powering the iPhone 4S, iOS 5 was

released this week as a free update for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPads and recent generations of the iPod Touch. Colorado Center for the Blind instructor Chip Johnson is excited about the new features, although he has a more cautious view. "Sometimes the hype is more than the reality," he said, "but it sounds like there's going to be some definite improvement." Majerus said Siri's artificial intelligence could help ease a concern that still exists among the blind community about using a touchscreen on a cellphone instead of raised keys. "As a teacher, I'm still going to tell people that (the iPhone) has a touchscreen and you need to be able to use that touchscreen," Majerus said. "But if it gets to the point where for some reason that's not working, hopefully they can get a lot out of the phone using Siri."

Questions: 1- In your opinion, Explain the technology used on the iPhone 4S that is called accessibility for blind people? 2- Do you consider the feature Accessibility on the iPhone 4S helpful for blind people? And Why?

3- Mention what makes the iPhone 4S different from other Smartphones like Blackberry or Samsung Galaxy? 4- Do you believe that Accessibility feature on the iPhones 4S will be useful for educational purposes in people with disabilities? 5- What other similar technologies like accessibility or Siri can you mention?