One of the many, many reasons I decided to buy an iPhone two years ago was to support the idea of universal design: the iPhone 3GS was the first touch-screen device that blind people like me could take out of the box and use right away. It comes with speech software called VoiceOver — built-in screen access for people who are blind. Miraculously, it allows blind people to interact using the touch-screen.
The iPhone 4 came on the market in 2010, just before I left town to train with Yellow Lab Harper. During training at the Seeing Eye I could hear phones murmuring text messages to the younger students in class while we were waiting in the lounge. Carlos regularly updated his Facebook status from his iPhone while we commuted in the Seeing Eye van together. He and Marcus would point their phones at their dogs from time to time to take photos, then manipulate their phones to send the photos home to loved ones.
My classmate snapped this photo of Harper on his iPhone and sent it to Mike.
Apple drastically reduced the price of the iPhone 3GS to $49 the very month I came home with Harper. I bought one, and after learning how to use it to make a phone call (in case of an emergency) I put off learning how to do anything else with it.
My two-year contract ends next month. I finally devoted time over the holiday break to climb the very steep VoiceOver learning curve so I can decide whether or not to renew.
The simplest way for you sighted iPhone users to understand how VoiceOver works is to give it a try yourself. Here’s how you turn VoiceOver on :
- go to Settings
- choose General
- choose Accessibility
- choose VoiceOver
- turn it on.
Still with me? Okay. Now press the home key. Slide your finger around the screen, and Voice Over will call out the icon you’ve touched. Don’t worry, it won’t select that icon, it will just call it out so you’ll know where you are on the screen. Hold the iPhone so that the earpiece is facing up, toward the ceiling. If you touch the left edge of the screen about an inch below the earpiece, you’re likely to land on the top left icon. VoiceOver will call out what that is. Flick one finger right to select the next one. If you flick your finger four times to the right , you’ll get to the first app on the second row of apps. If you come across an app you want to open, tap the screen twice, and…voila! Note: If you open an app BY MISTAKE, just press the Home button and you’ll return to the home screen.
Is your head spinning? Then you can imagine what a dither I was in the past two weeks learning how to listen to voice mail, Google, send and receive email using my iPhone. I can get into all that in a future blog post if you are really interested, but I’m guessing that all you sighted folks want to do right now is learn how to turn the #(@%! VoiceOver off. If you follow the bulleted directions above, below the heading at the top of the VoiceOver screen you’ll hear a button labeled “VoiceOver on.” Notice that VoiceOver gives you a hint out loud by saying, “Double-tap to toggle setting.” When you hear that, go ahead and Double-tap to turn VoiceOver off.
I reached a big goal over the weekend when, ta-da, I exchanged a series of text messages withmy sister Marilee. I’m OMW. TTYL!
Wow… what an accomplishment, Beth! It seems like you are more iPhone-able than I am… I, too, have put off learning how to *really* use my iPhone for much– but I don’t really have any excuses! I think I might know a curious little 9-year-old who might like to try this ‘see-what-it’s-like-to-use-an-iPhone-blind” experiment!
Ha! Maybe that curious 9-year-old and I can start sending texts soon. OMG, we’ll be BFF.
I had to google OMW and TTYL. Am feeling old (again)
u r not old. u r grt
I love my iPhone thanks to all the built-in accessibility features, so I am very glad you are finally learning to use yours. There is a new app called VO Starter that will help teach you how to do a lot of basic things with Voice Over, if you need more help.
Thanks, l-squared. Hey, any chance you can recommend a reliable color-identifier app to use with an iPhone to help figure out the color of clothing?,
The color identifier app I have on my phone is Color ID Free, but honestly none of the color ID apps I have tried are really useful – they are all too creative with color names. I can see most colors if I’m in good enough light or if there’s enough contrast, but I have no idea what colors we’re talking about based only on the fancy names these apps give.
Thanks. Unfortunately, that has been my experience with the color identifiers on teh iPhone, too.
Just curious….I can see the “settings” icon, but how do you know where that icon is when you want to get to Voice over?
Maria–in this case, I turned it on…but there may be a workaround–I’ll leave that to Beth.
Yes, according to the iPhone manual that is still the way it works. Sure sounds complicated to me, though! I was lucky to have Mike around to turn it on for me the first time, and the manual also suggests that if you are willing you can ask the salesperson to turn it on before you leave the Apple store.
I’m not Beth, but I think I can answer this question. With a computer running screen reading software and iTunes you can connect your iPhone to the computer and then enable VoiceOver on the phone (without sighted assistance) using their built-in Setup Assistant. At least this is how it used to work… I’m assuming that feature is still available somewhere in the latest version of iTunes.
Actually, I just double checked, and you can still turn VoiceOver on or off your phone anytime with iTunes, and it’s not that complicated. Plug in your phone and select your device in iTunes. Then on the Summary pane under Options select Configure Universal Access. This will open a box in which you can select options for the various seeing and hearing accessibility features available on your phone. Then just select OK and the options you have chosen will be activated on your phone.
This. Is. So. Helpful!
I am going to save this in a safe spot in case I ever need to start the VoiceOver on my phone again. THANK YOU, L-Squared!
I have been using the iPhone for almost two years. I really don’t know how I managed without it. I do some of my home and work email (it does need a spell checker for email) do FaceBook, take notes using a braille display, read books, track weather, play games, and oh yes, Beth you will like this, listen to baseball games. I can finally get the games my local station doesn’t carry, which includes the Series. I get radio programs, some TV, and of course music.
Now so you can feel one up on me, I’m having to learn WordPress. I downloaded a manual to my phone, using Read to Go, from Bookshare, and am eading it on the phone.
Good luck with wordpress, I got a lot of hands-on help at my job at Easter Seals, that’s how I tackled it. While I have you here, I may as well ask the same question I asked L-Squared above: Any chance you can recommend a reliable color-identifier app to use with an iPhone to help figure out the color of clothing?
And it was GREAt to be able to text with you! You were so quick-had no idea that there were so many steps. And you are awesome with the text lingo-but maybe it is just easier to email. I am so proud of your perseverance!! Mare
tnx <3 U <3 U