[nfb-talk] A Double Tap to the Touch Screen Devil's Head

BrianMiller brianrmiller88 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 29 17:04:08 UTC 2017


Yeah, you really miss that braille when it isn't there... I was in Paris,
France, and I was trying to find a hotel room on an upper floor and there
was no braille on either the elevator or the hotel doors. It was late in the
evening, around 11pm, and there was no one to ask, even in my shakey French.
It was very disconcerting, actually. There was no way to know without asking
someone on which floor I was, or which room was which. Even if one asks
someone on the elevator to push the button for you, you can't be sure that's
the floor you are getting off on, since elevators can stop for various
reasons on any number of floors. 

I always make sure to have bump dots with me when I travel for such
occasions... I will put one outside the elevator so I know I am on my floor,
and on my hotel door as well. Usually I can figure out the buttons on the
elevators once I know the order they are in, but sometimes I'll put a dot
there as well.

Brian Miller



-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Joe Orozco
via nfb-talk
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2017 11:32 AM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
Cc: Joe Orozco
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] A Double Tap to the Touch Screen Devil's Head

Fair point regarding touch pads versus touch screens. Either way, I would
not have been able to figure out what floor I needed. I'm glad there was a
telephone keypad below the panel, but to me it felt like only a matter of
time before they figured the two controls were unnecessary.

Joe

On 3/29/17, Jack Heim via nfb-talk <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> I think you are both right.  A smart phone is a really awesome tool.
> However, a touch screen, even with a screen reader as nice as 
> voiceover for IOS, is not as easy for a blind person to use as a 
> regular cell phone key pad.  I use my smart phone so much I often can 
> double click a button without listening around for it. When I say 
> "listening around", I am drawing an analogy with "feeling around". 
> What I mean is that I can just tap a button because I know where it is 
> without having to run my finger over the screenlistening to voiceover 
> until it says my finger is on the button. So you can get pretty 
> efficient. But first of all, there are plenty of apps that are 
> inaccessible because of the way they handle the touch screen. And no 
> matter how efficient you get with a touch screen, there will always be 
> times when you have to listen around for a button.
>
> On the other hand, the benefits of having a smart phone very much out 
> weigh the drawbacks of having to deal with a touch screen. In fact, I 
> would even say it is irresponsible for a blind person to not have a 
> smart phone unless you are almost perfect. I consider myself a fairly 
> mobile person but my smart phone has bailed me out many, many times.
> Just having a compass app is a huge benefit. And a GPS app is 
> practically essential.  On a typical day, I'll use my smart phone as 
> an alarm clock to wake me up in the morning. Then I'll listen to 
> podcasts all morning while I am getting ready for work. Then at work I 
> might use the email app, the text messaging app, skype, KNFBReader, 
> and tap tap see. If I go to the gym after work I might listen to music 
> while I am on the tredmill. When I get home I might stream some TV 
> shows or listen to a book from BARD. That BARD smart phone app is really
terrific, by the way.
>
> So on a typical day, I might be actively using my smart phone for 4 to 
> 6 hours with 8 or 9 different apps. But I still think touch screens 
> are a drawback for blind users.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 03/28/2017 10:08 PM, Mark Tardif via nfb-talk wrote:
>> I had an iphone for about a day, and for various reasons I was just 
>> disgusted.  First of all, the person who sold it to me at the store 
>> didn't even realize that Boice Over was a standard feature, and I 
>> kept coralling my sighted neighbor and getting on the phone with 
>> Verizon to work through problems, and I finally just disgustedly 
>> asked them to help me reprogram my old phone.  Never regretted it, 
>> either.  Never surrender!!!
>>
>>
>>
>> Mark Tardif
>> Nuclear arms will not hold you.
>> -----Original Message----- From: kaye zimpher via nfb-talk
>> Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2017 9:32 PM
>> To: NFB Talk Mailing List
>> Cc: kaye zimpher
>> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] A Double Tap to the Touch Screen Devil's Head
>>
>> Oh, but you shall surrender, and once you do, you will wonder why you 
>> never did before. lol All kidding aside, I was very much against the 
>> touch screens when I got my first Iphone. I could barely make a call, 
>> and in truth, the darn thing sat on my desk for almost a year before 
>> I really got in to it. Once I did though, I could not live without 
>> it. That phone does everything!
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Tardif via nfb-talk"
>> <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> To: <jsoro620 at gmail.com>; "NFB Talk Mailing List" 
>> <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: "Mark Tardif" <markspark at roadrunner.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2017 8:11 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] A Double Tap to the Touch Screen Devil's Head
>>
>>
>>> I'm still a stuborn probably soon to be lone soldier against the 
>>> touch screen hordes coming to conquer and spread their tyranny.  
>>> Even if I am the last man down, I will never surrender!!!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Mark Tardif
>>> Nuclear arms will not hold you.
>>> -----Original Message----- From: Joe via nfb-talk
>>> Sent: Monday, March 27, 2017 8:47 PM
>>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list ; 
>>> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
>>> Cc: Joe
>>> Subject: [nfb-talk] A Double Tap to the Touch Screen Devil's Head
>>>
>>> In the battle between touch screens and tactile buttons, the touch 
>>> screen is quickly becoming the reigning champion. It's not that I 
>>> can't see the advantages of touch screens. Less moving parts means 
>>> less maintenance and all that, but dammit, it used to be I only had 
>>> to worry about touch screens where warming food was concerned. Slap 
>>> a tactile dot here, a Braille label there, and I could conquer the 
>>> basic operations of a microwave.
>>>
>>> Once while on travel for work I met the enemy at a fancy hotel. I 
>>> strolled from the hotel registration desk to the bank of elevators 
>>> as if I was a frequent guest of the swanky resort. I even hit the 
>>> bank of elevators on my first try like the super blind traveler that 
>>> I was, but then the elevator doors whispered open. I walked in and 
>>> reached for the familiar panel of buttons with accompanying Braille 
>>> numbers. Only, the travel gods felt I had enjoyed enough arrogance 
>>> for one day, because instead of neat rows of buttons, my fingers 
>>> skated across a smooth panel.
>>>
>>> Read and comment on the rest of the article here:
>>>
>>> http://joeorozco.com/blog_a_double_tap_to_the_touch_screen_devils_he
>>> ad
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Joe
>>>
>>> --
>>> Musings of a Work in Progress:
>>> www.JoeOrozco.com/
>>>
>>> Twitter: @ScribblingJoe
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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