[blindkid] iPhone and iPad

[DrV]

Hi Joy,
Richard makes great points.
My kids & I have played with both my iPhone & iPad alone & in conjunction
with their BrailleNote Apexes. Their iPhones literally just came in the
mail so I am in process of setting them up & configuring them.
That being said, here is my assessment.
Our district is moving quickly into iPads - the middle school has 1:1
iPads this year; next year may be district-wide.
I finally broke down & bought an iPad to become familiar with it (& to my
surprize I love it!)
I did a lot of asking around this summer at the National Convention & came
to the conclusion that for totally blind kids the iPhone or iPod makes the
most sense. 
I don't have an iPod, so I can't comment on apps & the iPod, but most apps
are available across both iPad/iPhone platforms.
Some apps/webpages on an iPad look more like webpages that you would see
on your laptop, whereas on an iPhone, you often get the mobile version -
often the mobile version is simplified & more user friendly & accessible,
rarely the mobile version is too streamlined (less functional).
The iPhone is clearly much more portable.
My kids needed phones anyway, so the iPhone doubles as a phone.
Not all the classrooms are wired for student access yet, so having cell
access gets around that & also gets around any blocks the school might
have installed that sometimes get in the way of access for our kids.
The smaller screen is nice because it is spatially easier & more efficient
to deal with.
Anyways, that is my 2 cents.
No matter which you choose, it will be an adventure :-)
Eric 
PS: We were able to take advantage of a work discount on our data-plan -
so look into that possibility (a number of carriers off such discounts).
Also on the family plan, it turns out the slightly larger data-plan was
surprisingly actually cheaper because AT&T charges less per extra phone
with the larger data plan. We went with AT&T because of reception
limitations at our house with the other carriers.

On 10/25/12 4:10 PM, "Joy Orton" <ortonsmom at gmail.com> wrote:

>Dear friends,
>
>We are looking into purchasing an iPhone, iPad, or mini iPad tablet for
>our
>daughter who is twelve. I would like your feedback on the differences
>among
>these options for schoolwork as well as for general use. We have looked at
>some of the available applications, and wow!
>
>It seems to me that the devices have mostly the same functions. I use an
>iPad, and I like the screen size for reading. For a blind user, what is
>the
>advantage of an iPad, if any? I would think the smaller size of the iPhone
>would be a big advantage for portability.
>
>Please respond about your own experiences.
>
>Sincerely,
>Joy Orton
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