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Cell Phone For the Blind?

Posted by Soulskill on from the can-you-see-me-now? dept.

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.

6 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Check web for partially-sighted people's orgs by James+Youngman · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why not just refer to information from some local organisation of blind people? There's this survey of accessible mobile phones in the UK, but surely there must be something similar for the USA.

  2. Here's a possibility by Iphtashu+Fitz · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.screenlessphone.com/

    1. Re:Here's a possibility by Iphtashu+Fitz · · Score: 5, Informative

      And here's an article from the American Foundation for the Blind. It's from 2004 but it mentions the above phone as well as two others: http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw050406

    2. Re:Here's a possibility by nospam007 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here's another link with 4 phones with large buttons.

      http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/technology/2008/07/29/4-cellphones-for-seniors.html

  3. HTC with Windows Mobile by Auntie+Virus · · Score: 5, Informative

    My blind friend uses an HTC Mogul, with a mobile version of JAWS. JAWS is probably the speech software for most blind computer users.

    --
    Why yes, I *AM* new here. Why?
  4. Use Talks screen reader on a Nokia S60 phone by limitedmage · · Score: 5, Informative

    Get a phone from this list: http://www.nuance.com/talks/phones.asp Then buy this software: http://www.nuance.com/talks/ It's a screen reader for Nokia S60 phones. It is perfect for blind and visually impaired persons. My dad is blind and he's used it for quite a few years now. The supported phones are top of the line. My dad has a Nokia N95, I think, and he really likes that the Talks screen reader is compatible with most of the phone, including email, web browsing, media player, calendar, address book, and the amazing voice commands, which provide a great shortcut for blind users. I highly recommend it. And Nokia phones are the best, IMO.