[Nfbmo] cell phones

Mon Nov 12 22:17:12 UTC 2012

All good points, Gary. I have had my Iphone long enough to upgrade to the 
Iphone 5 and wouldn't trade it for another phone. It is so versatile, you 
can do so many things with it, and it's a phone, too. Perhapse this is a 
good place to insert the following information.

A couple weeks ago I was asked to give a speech so I chose the following 
topic. Happy reading.

COMPARING THE USES OF BRAILLE AND THE IPHONE

A couple months ago I read an article in a Lions magazine about the Iphone. 
Indeed, I have had one now for about a year and a half and I am counting 
down the days until I can get my Iphone 5, two weeks from today infact. The 
author pointed out a number of things that the phone can do, most of which I 
was familiar with. Indeed, if I leave my home in the morning all I believe I 
need is my Iphone my cane and my keys. However when I was asked to speak to 
you, today I began thinking about how the Iphone and Braille are both 
functional and how they contrast and compare with each other.

First I started by looking for the definition of Braille and found these two 
items, informative, but not what I wanted. WHAT IS BRAILLE?

>From the American Foundation for the blind

Braille is a series of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by 
people who are blind or whose eyesight is not sufficient for reading printed 
material. Teachers, parents, and others who are not visually impaired 
ordinarily read braille with their eyes. Braille is not a language. Rather, 
it is a code by which languages such as English or Spanish may be written 
and read.

Wikapedia

Braille is a tactile writing system used by the blind and the visually 
impaired, and found in books, on menus, signs, elevator buttons, and 
currency. Braille-users can read computer screens and other electronic 
supports thanks to refreshable braille displays. They can write braille with 
a slate and stylus or type it on a braille writer, such as a portable 
braille note-taker, or on a computer that prints with a braille embosser.

Braille is named after its creator, Frenchman Louis Braille, who went blind 
following a childhood accident. At the age of 15, Braille developed his code 
for the French alphabet in 1824 as an improvement on night writing. He 
published his system, which subsequently included musical notation, in 
1829.[2] The second revision, published in 1837, was the first digital 
(binary) form of writing.

So I changed my question to "What is Braille used for" via Google and 
essentially found the same information coming up with a few additions 
including "101 Ways to Use Braille", not real informativel, but a good place 
to start, so I then decided to make my own lists.

What is Braille used for?

Making musical notation

Generating programs

Over 100 languages

A mathematical code

Taking notes

Labeling containers DVD's and cd's

Identifying creditcards and insurance policies

Reading books magazines cards uno, pinochle and regular.

The game of Monopoly

Bathroom doors classrooms and elevators

Vegetables can goods and left-overs

Stoves and micro-waves and possibly remote control devices.

Identify clothes by color And these are just afew.

Now, what can we use the Iphone, Ipad or Ipod for?

First of all you need to understand that each of these can be used with 
refreshable Braille displays connected via Bluetooth, thus providing you the 
flexability of using a combination of simply Braille, speech, or both.

Text messages, email, labeling pictures,

Creating memo's in either audio or written format

Identify money, colors. Tell time use a timer and geo-cash, the Iphone for 
example has a built-in compass. Take notes, figure out what movie to see and 
how to get there, talk around the world, listen to your favorite sports team 
on radio stations, choose what music you want to listen to or grab the news 
and weather from a local newspaper or network. Catch up on the latest 
technology via podcast, Play games, dcreate lists and scan documents, take 
pictures, create grocery lists or have an address book at your fingertips, 
figuratively that is, make your own videos for youtube or place them on 
facebook where you can check the status of others or change your own, get 
the latest tweet from your favorite rockstar etc. read manuals, call for 
practically nothing, find new applications for free, keep track of your 
checkbook, explore transactions in your checking account or pay your phone 
bill

Set up reminders for meetings, birthdays and anniversaries. Find a recipe, 
read a book, or magazine or attend a college lecture.

Check my stocks, search the web or listen to Oldtime radio, function as a 
DJ, wirelessly, participate in birdwatching, lose weight and gardening.

Not have to buy a separate speech program which can cost as much as 
$1,000.00

Order pizza, check TV listings find my car, video chat, read and write a 
speech set an alarm. Check the temperature set on my home thermostat from 
miles away or while on vacation and make sure the meat on the grill is 
cooking at the right temperature and last but not least, pick out a shirt 
and pair of pants that match.

What has happened here is that with these I-devices one can actually expand 
the use of Braille in to areas here-to-for not accessible. With the 
incorporation of a speech program the Iphone, Ipad and Ipod have allowed 
blind, visually impaired as well as those with many other speech-related 
disabilities including autism, cerebral palzi, epilepsi and hearing impaired 
individuals to become part of the mainstream, to be able to function as a 
part of society, not apart from it. The long and the short of it is that 
although you can do many things with them both, each is revolutionary 
because of the flexability they each offer in being able to send and receive 
communications either one's self or with others.

Fred Olver

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Wunder" <gwunder at earthlink.net>
To: "'NFB of Missouri Mailing List'a" <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012 3:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] cell phones

>I am an iPhone user, but I too miss the friendly buttons found on a keypad.
> There are times when I find it difficult to be fast enough to enter
> selections on menus that one gets after the telephone is answered. Calling
> the Jernigan Institute is a good example. Using NEWSLINE is another. It is
> not that it's impossible; it is only harder than it used to be when the
> phone buttons were very defined and one new spatially exactly where they
> were.
>
> Having said all of this, I think it is clear that cellular technology is
> definitely migrating away from buttons and toward touchscreens. It is
> probably something we all should become accustomed to. The iPhone is
> definitely usable, and although I think there are friendlier cellular
> phones, I can't think of any pocket computer that has as much power. The
> iPhone makes a wonderful radio. When I am traveling and want to listen to 
> my
> university radio station here in Columbia Missouri, the iPhone brings it 
> in
> just as clearly as if I were here. When my radio station conducts its 
> pledge
> drive and I've already pledged, I can avoid listening to the rest of the
> drive by finding another public radio station. When I listen to an a.m.
> radio station on the iPhone, it's audio quality certainly rivals what I 
> hear
> when I listen to it through an a.m. radio. If I sleep through weekend
> edition on Saturday, it is just a few clicks away. Text messages are a 
> snap
> to dictate. They aren't always perfect, but most people who text don't
> really care. They simply think we have invented yet another abbreviation 
> and
> are too shy to admit they don't know what it is.
>
> When coupled with a braille display, the iPhone is a good way to get 
> email,
> and to create and maintain a good contact list. It has a good voice
> recorder, but again I do not like the interface for that recorder as well 
> as
> I like a recorder with buttons. There are so many applications designed 
> for
> the iPhone that the question is seldom can the iPhone do this but do I 
> want
> to go to the trouble of doing it on the iPhone.
>
> I have frequently told people that the iPhone has a rather steep learning
> curve. This morning my wife set me straight on the message this
> unintentionally conveys. She said that it sounds to her like I am saying 
> "I
> learned to use the iPhone, but I'm not at all confident you have the 
> ability
> to do it." This is not at all what I have intended to communicate. I 
> simply
> want people to understand that the iPhone is not something they are likely
> to be comfortable with after the first 15 minutes of use.
>
> If someone decides to migrate to the iPhone, might I suggest that you hold
> on to your old telephone for a few months, learn to use the iPhone with an
> alternate phone number, and then, when you feel comfortable with it, make 
> it
> your primary phone. It can be really frustrating to own a phone that you
> can't answer or hang up easily. It is difficult to get used to the idea 
> that
> before the iPhone is a phone, it must be switched to the telephone mode.
> Debbie initially decided that she wanted an iPhone, decided she hated it,
> gave it to me, got herself an iPod, got comfortable with using the iPod 
> for
> her music, and then decided that she could take another whack at the 
> iPhone.
> She is now a successful user, but I can tell you that she was not happy 
> with
> her first iPhone and I had little choice but to take it.
>
> Enough of my ramblings about this device: I'm going to tune into psychic
> radio and see if I can figure out how many of you will be getting an 
> iPhone
> in the near future.
>
> Gary
>
>
>
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