[nfbcs] How The Blind Are Re-Inventing the iPhone

[Jim Barbour]

Interesting take on this Aaron.  I must say I don't really agree with you that we're not reinventing the iPhone, just because we're not writing the apps.

I will absolutely say that the article had this "iPhones are making the blind independent" flavor to it that I did not like.  The iPhone is a new piece of technology - like screen readers, canes, and Braille - but it has never been the technology that makes us independent.  I also thought the line that said "Chalkias, Tatum's colleague, is not only an iPhone advocate who breezes through the device faster than a baby with an iPad", was an unfortunate comparison.

Having said all this, I'd like to point out a few things in the article's favor.

First, one of the main apps showcased in the article was The Sendero Group's "Look Around" app, which was created and designed by Mike May who is a blind person.

Second, many of the apps mentioned in the article were not written for the blind at all including the weather, audible, and heytell apps.

Also, let's not fall into the trap of believing that we're not having an impact on these apps because our name isn't on the packaging.  Plenty of blind people are impacting these apps by doing usability testing, collaborative idea sharing, bug reporting, participation in forums, etc.

Finally, I think the article got it about right with Android.  I'm a big Google fan, and would really like to see Android become a solid blindness accessibility competitor with the iPhone.  However, I see no real progress in this direction.  I'm happy to discuss that further if someone wants to bring it up on the list.

I do think it is possible, perhaps even likely, that there will be more android based appliances for the blind.  APH is building an android based note taker.  I strongly suspect that someone will figure out how to build a KNFB reader replacement on an android phone that will out perform existing attempts to build OCR apps on the iPhone.  I also think that wayfinding (GPS) would be another place where Android might outshine the iPhone.  However, I suspect these will be most successful as single use devices, rather than trying to build an all-in-1 iPhone replacement for the blind on Android. 

Looking forward to hearing lots of comments,

Jim Barbour

On Sun, May 06, 2012 at 09:54:24AM -0500, Aaron Cannon wrote:
> I also thought the article was interesting, but I felt the headline
> was a bit misleading.  It implied that we were finding new and
> revolutionary ways to use the iPhone.  Well, quite frankly, we're not.
>  All the apps mentioned, unless I am mistaken, were created for the
> blind by the sighted.  Don't misunderstand, I have no problem with
> that.  I love many of the apps mentioned, and am quite grateful to
> have them.  However, if we are going to truly re-invent the iPhone,
> then we the blind need to start building apps for the blind, or at the
> very least, taking the lead on their creation.
> 
> I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hope that this article makes
> us think less about how we are using these devices, and more about how
> we're not.  What are we not doing yet that we could be with the iPhone
> and android devices?
> 
> Aaron
> 
> 
> On 5/3/12, Curtis Chong <curtischong at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > Greetings:
> >
> >
> >
> > The article entitled "How the Blind Are Reinventing the iPhone," by Liat
> > Kornowski, is definitely worth a read.  I may not agree with every
> > assertion
> > made in the article, but it does underscore the significant impact that the
> > iPhone has made on the lives of a lot of blind people.
> >
> >
> >
> > Here is a link to that article:
> >
> >
> >
> > http://bit.ly/JeG4zk
> >
> >
> >
> > Cordially,
> >
> >
> >
> > Curtis Chong
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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