Now, I happen to be deaf. Welli can hear now with my cochlear implant but I’ve been deaf for twenty years before I got it. I found out about this voiceover on the iPhone for my friend who is blind. We spent a little time together learning how to use it. Now he’s got his own iPhone and uses it all the time. He’s using it to make phone calls, sending and receiving email and SMS, browsing online and even in facebook. The keyboard is a little annoying in voiceover but it works. The dragon dictation app can work but it needs some tweaking to make it more voiceover friendly. But he does use his dictation on his iPhone and he’s been blind since he was born. So those who have not learned learned how to use this feature and actually tested it out after you’ve learned to use it and all its features. Don’t come here saying it doesn’t work. It does work and better then most other options available for the bind right now as far as mobile phones. Is there room for improvement? Of course there is, but its a great start and works well enough.

There is also something called a tactile screen protector for the blind. It’s available from Solona. It is a screen protector which has dots that are feelable where the on-screen keyboard is located (i.e. on the bottom half of your screen for the portrait mode orientation). These dots mark every letter, so that the likelihood of hitting wrong letters is completely eliminated. I don’t yet have this screen protector, but I have ordered one. They are available at: http://www.solona.net. I hope this is helpful.

As for the iPhone, I too am glad to see an interest in accessibility but a flat screen with no tactile landmarks at all wouldn’t be very usable. Better to have buttons that can be felt. Nice attempt though.

As a blind person I can safely say the I phone is, actually, usable. I’m a totally blind individual. Why are you annoyed? Its not rocket science – you tap an icon, it tells you what it is, double tap and it clicks it. Only thing I don’t like is the on screen keyboard, takes gettin used to. I tried it in the store, but I think I’l still go with a nokia e71. And by the way, I do take pictures. Just because I’m blind doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to make that decision…jeesh! Anyway how does the e71/n95/I phone compare in size and looks? What looks the best, that’s part of my buying decision. Leaning towards e71/I phone though as n95 feels too flimzy (slider is plastic etc).

But then again I’ve never used VoiceOver so I wouldn’t really know.