Comment by smkelly
11 years ago
Hello. I just want to say that you should reconsider iOS-based devices. I am very low vision and can use iOS perfectly well. It has both built in zooming and text-to-speech (VoiceOver). Many apps, including Audible.com, are very accessible and work well with VoiceOver. If you have an iOS device on hand, check out the Settings->General->Accessibility offering or look at this: https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ios/. You should also take a look at applevis.com.
You should also check with his local government to see what services are available for the blind and visually impaired. Even with no vision, one can live a happy life and still be an active member of society. All it takes is some help learning how to navigate the world.
I am totally blind and am a Voiceover user. From my experiences with talking to sited iOS users while Voiceover is a great feature and makes an iPhone completely accessible it is still not as intuitive as using an iPhone with site. I was motivated to learn Voiceover because I had been using computers for my entire life. Even with being motivated it took me several weeks to get proficient. If someone has limited to no computer experience and doesn't feel like they need to learn Voiceover then the learning curve is going to most likely be to hard for them to become proficient.
+1 for VoiceOver. I'm not visually challenged but I find that listening to books, articles and emails makes me understand them better. I use VoiceOver+Instapaper while driving and plough through articles quickly. I use VoiceOver control to tweet these articles without looking at my phone's touch screen. It's very effective. VoiceOver also works really well with iBooks and ePub books. The pages flip automatically and the reading speed can be adjusted on the fly to match your comprehension. VoiceOver is iOS's best hidden feature.
Great project! That can be really useful for rooms in retirement homes being equipped with such devices.
Regarding the voice controls on either Android or iOS I can only imagine how well that would work for my grandparents, speaking a German dialect, given that even my (way less dialect) German is a hassle with voice input on either those systems.