[blindkid] iPhone and iPad

[Richard Holloway]

Eric makes some great points too and it sounds like he has more experience with his kids getting hands-on with iDevices. I need to do more with Kendra in that area. Seems like there is always something to get caught up with!

If I could expand on one thing he said, you may be a well experienced phone user and not need to be told this, but his comment made me think. At my daughter's school, for some reason (despite being in the middle of a nice and heavily populated area with many, MANY cell phone users living within a few hundred yards of the school) her school lies within a "dead spot" for cell coverage.

In our case, we use sprint phones and our coverage is terrible there. Calls drop constantly, except when the coverage it too poor to connect at all. My iPad has Verizon wireless service, and I have almost nonexistent Verizon coverage there as well. (You cannot talk on the phone but sometimes texts will go through slowly.) I have a Clear 4G wireless device to create a mobile "wifi hot spot". No service. All these devices work great within perhaps a quarter mile of the school.

If you're looking at new phone service, check the cancellation policy for the service contract. Usually, if you buy new phone service and there is poor coverage in a critical area, there is a short period (no more than 30 days, sometimes much less) where you can cancel your service. With iPads however, you're not buying a service contract, so I'm not aware of any way to get a refund for poor coverage. (Cellular connect iPads only.)

The best thing is to get whatever you need only after you verify the units are likely to work at school or wherever you need them. (Returning, even if possible, will probably be a huge hassle.) Ask around and see who gets good coverage at school and learn what they use for phone service, etc.. Teachers will know, for example. Particularly with cell coverage, if someone has a Verizon phone that works well throughout the school, you're probably okay, or AT&T, etc.) To test for higher speed "4G" coverage, you need to know someone with an iPad or a newer cell phone (or a Clear device) that has the 4G (much faster for data) service. Web pages can crawl and stall with less than 4G service and pose a real frustration.

There are highly detailed coverage maps from all the carriers that can be accessed which will show you if you're in good coverage. If you're not in the best part of the map, coverage is going to be poor. If you ARE in good coverage areas, you MAY be okay, but the building has a huge effect on coverage.

I'm not trying to make this discussion overly technical, but without coverage, the device is not useful unless you can get access to WiFi within the school, and as Eric points out, even if you can get access, you're behind their firewall and may have access issues with what your child needs.

In our case, the school has WiFi everywhere BUT it is entirely useless. Even school personnel are not allowed to use the WiFi. Apparently the password is closely guarded and the system is ONLY for county IT personnel to use while on site for their own purposes. (Our tax dollalrs at work.)

Unlike what Eric is seeing, we have no initiative at all to use iPads, laptops, or the like, so there is no proper wireless infrastructure developing. (We're setup with desktops only, ,mostly in a computer lab).

Kendra has a year-and-a-half to go at her school then, we move to a new location several miles away. As far as wireless access, we'll start completely over at that point. Keep in mind that a 2-year contract will lock you in, so if you move or change schools for any reason, if you are relying on wireless service for your child, there may be associate concerns with the move as well.

I'm not trying to discourage you at all-- I entirely support getting this technology in place for every one of our kids. I just point out some obstacles that we all face along the way and hope to help you find the smoothest road possible!

Good Luck!

Richard

On Oct 27, 2012, at 12:45 AM, DrV wrote:

> 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.