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Re: insight re Android accessibility from a blind user

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Apr 7, 2013 7:11PM

I thought I was of the same opinion as you guys, and I am by no means
an Apple fan (I don't like to commit to one technology or one way of
doing things)in any way, but once I did pick up the iPhone and
listened to one podcast on how to use it, it truly became simple for
me (this was the iPhone 4, tested nothing before that).
The thing with touchscreen devices and devices like the iPhone, is
that Apple pretty much had to invent a touchscreen accessible
interface from scratch, none of us have ever used a touchscreen device
ever, and we deep down are afraid that it is impossible (well,
speaking for myself anyway).
Now, once you pick up an iPhone, turn on Voiceover by triple clicking
the round home button on the bottom, you really just have to remember
flicking a finger to the right to go to next item on the page, left to
go to previous item, double tap to activate an item, press the round
home button to go back (a bit like the escapte key), and flick up or
down with a finger to invoke special actions (like delete in the mail
app).
There are a few extra gestures that are more advanced, and they take
time, but this is pretty much all you have to remember initially.
I do agree that Apple have not done a great job of teaching the
touchscreen with Voiceover users how to operate the phone, I found
podcasts from Vision Australia that got me into it, but I do give
Apple credit for having done pretty well with inventing a pretty
usable touchscreen interface more or less out of the blue.
I still can't stand touch typing, use external Bluetooth keyboard,
braille display or the braille touch app for input most of the time,
and I am not in any way saying this is perfect, but if you dig up an
iPhone, the podcast, and just go for an hour of two of experimenting,
you might be surprised (you might not, I am not saying what worked for
me will or will not work for someone else, but I do recognize the
feeling that this possibly cannot work, but then it was quickly
dismissed when I started playing).
So definitely don't be shy to give it a shot, and see if you like it.
No guarantee that you will or you should, but you might.
Cheers
-B
P.s. just to reiterate it, I don't want to be associated with
everything is so wonderful from Apple crowd. This is not perfect and I
can see how people have issues with their overly tight control over
their interface (for one thing I have, along with their dealers in
Iceland, been trying to get Apple to install an Icelandic TTS voice on
their iOS line of devices for years .. they do not allow third party
TTS apps except inside applications, but so far with absolutely no
feedback, success or glimpse of hope, and it irritates me to no end
that a company assumes this tight a control over its interface, making
it unusable to a whole nation).

On 4/7/13, Lucy Greco < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Thanks for the assurance that it's not just me smile I hate some of these
> new devices.
>
> Lucia Greco
> Web Access Analyst
> IST-Campus Technology Services
> University of California, Berkeley
> (510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
> http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
> Follow me on twitter @accessaces
>
>
>