Nonvisual Access to Mobile Phones Seminar

Nonvisual Access to Cell Phones

Accessible technology experts from the Iowa Department for the Blind hosted a free seminar Tuesday, April 26 in Council Bluffs to provide hands-on tutorials for blind and visually impaired residents on using several models of cell phones and smart phones. Live tweets from the event can be found using the hashtag #IowaBlindPhones.

IDB staff addressed phones including the iPhone, the Samsung Haven and the HTC Ozone, as well as nonvisual access software, such as Mobile Speak and VoiceOver.

Curtis Chong, a nationally reknowned expert on accessible technology for the blind, and a lead writer for IDB's accessible technology blog, helped organize this seminar to provide blind and visually impaired Iowans with the know-how to operate a cell phone as well as any sighted person. Often, he said, blind and visually impaired people don't know the capabilities of their cell phones and how accessible certain models and certain software can be.

“The unfortunate reality is that while cell phone and smart phone use may be popular and ubiquitous for everybody else, it is still far out of reach for people who happen to be blind or visually impaired,” Chong said. “This is because cell phones that are fully nonvisually accessible are not readily available through most cell phone providers, and even if one can be found, the cost of such a phone is typically well above that which is paid by most people. On a positive note, however, nonvisually-accessible cell phones are becoming more prominent and available in today's cell phone marketplace.”

Beside personal instruction and guidance on several phone models and service providers, participants in the seminar received a handbook describing various phone models and assistive technology and a box lunch.

You can access the handbook Chong and his tech team have put together here. You can download it as a PDF here.

And, if you haven't taken a gander at our technology blog, the link is here: blindtechnology.wordpress.com