# A solution without a problem?

Category: Let's talk

## Post 1 by SilverLightning (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Monday, 19-May-2014 20:42:37

So my sister sent me this link, thinking I'd enjoy it. I will start by saying that
I could be reading this article wrong, but have a look. Sorry if it doesn't link,
copy and paste.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27437770
Now, if I read it correctly, its just a phone with braille on the buttons. A basic,
button phone with braille on the numbers. And it sounds like the selling point is
that we can now use speed dial. Anyone get a different take?
I'm actually kind of insulted by this. To think that in 2014 a company thinks
this is needed? Is there anyone, anyone at all who doesn't know how to dial a
phone? If you do, let me know and I'll teach you. Its really easy.

## Post 2 by forereel (Just posting.) on Monday, 19-May-2014 21:53:53

Well, I thought it would have 2 or 4 buttons that would be programmed to call specific numbers.
Your title, or thoughts are mine as well.
Guess he'll make a few bucks on something that is not needed.
I mean, what sighted person even, can't dial a phone in the dark? Lol

## Post 3 by write away (The Zone's Blunt Object) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 0:58:50

Ummm. we had speed dile since the nineties. Hell, i used Speed dial on my totally inaccessible LG flip phone, even before teh half-accessible ones came out. Right. Maybe in a third world country? ...

## Post 4 by hardyboy09 (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 2:54:51

Actually, the amplified telephones have Braille on the keypads; not sure why this is. Sounds stupid:)

## Post 5 by Runner229 (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 9:42:00

Yeah... Something like this is not necessary. It is not hard for a person to learn how to use
the telephone the way that it is, matter of fact it isn't even necessary for there to be
tactile keys nowadays. I mean look at Apple and all of the I devices and their
touchscreens, and how they have implemented voiceover in their devices. You can't feel
the buttons on these phones, but this is one of the most accessible types of phones there
are for a blind user. I don't think I've ever used speed dial. I have always been good with
memorizing numbers as they are.

## Post 6 by chelslicious (like it or not, I'm gonna say what I mean. all the time.) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 13:24:13

everyone has pretty much said what I was thinking.
like Bernadetta, I used to use speed dial back when I had a flip phone, but once I got an accessible phone, there was no longer a need to.

## Post 7 by Blue Velvet (I've got the platinum golden silver bronze poster award.) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 13:24:34

Some idiot will want this phone. I used to work at a rehab center for people with visual and other disabilities. I was amazed at how many newly blinded adults felt completely helpless, and using a telephone was one of the things many of them thought they could no longer do,. Of course, since most of those people didn't want to learn Braille, I'm not sure how much Braille numbers would have helped them.

## Post 8 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 14:38:08

And, as others have said, most sighted people can dial in the dark. Ironically, this was an argument placed against touch screens, not by technological ludites, but by people in the Blackberry era - think 2001 to 2008 or so, even after iPhone 1 came out and many of us IT folks thought that was just an overpriced teenagers texting toy ... until iOS3 when the apps ecosystem took off and you could multitask on it, something Blackberries and Windows Mobile devices had done for years.
Anyway, obviously if the sighted tech community thought touch screens would be disadvantageous for dialing in the dark, that proves everybody's point. Wish I could dig up some of those articles, which no doubt embarrass those who wrote them. I are one of those people who had to eat crow, when I went and got my own iOS devices in the past few years.
Anyway, sounds like some 'well-meaning' person who doesn't know what they're talking about.

## Post 9 by Ed_G (Zone BBS is my Life) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 16:16:51

I'm afraid this board has descended into typical Zone group think along the lines
of just because the OP and others don't need/like something, it's distasteful/not
needed.
I certainly wouldn't consider this phone, but I'm also not arrogant enough to
think that just because I don't need something, it therefore isn't necessary. It's
easily possible to see a market for this device, perhaps among blind elderly
people who know Braille, but perhaps whose memory is failing and who can't
remember phone numbers or who is stored where in speed dial memory.

## Post 10 by SilverLightning (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 17:28:24

But, even if we were to assume that you are correct and there is a market for
this phone, is that not a market that has already been filled several times over?
There are lots of phones that can do speed dial, and has been for a couple
decades now.
Plus, for those whose memory is going and are blind, they will still have to
have sighted help setting up the speed dial. The article said nothing about this
phone having a screen reader to assist with that. All this phone has is braille on
the surface of the key. So an elderly person will have to have their child or
neighbor set up the speed dial and tell them to hit the five to call someone.
Couldn't that person just say to hit the top button to call a number? Isn't that
just as simple as hitting the five?

## Post 11 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 17:38:26

I don't know, Ed has a point. Perhaps some sort of overlay system where the person's name could be put over the speed dial location so they know they're calling their son or daughter.
I should have caught this, seeing as my own grandmother died only a few years ago. Who would think someone would live to the late 90s? But Ed's right, memory is pretty well shot by then.
The point remains that many who criticize this stuff aren't old enough to be looking after, or ofthen thinking about, someone in the late stages of elderhood. This is one area all the blindness organizations fall down. Criticism of accessible prescription meds, etc., where an elderly blind person would have an easier time, to say nothing of a blind caregiver of a relative. And let's make no mistake: the healthiest of the elderly couple is the caregiver a lot of times, so we're looking at a lot of potential blind people in this situation.
It's a lot easier for me to imagine this now, with parents and in-laws in their 70s now, and the last of the grandparents' generation having died in her 90s a few years ago. It's just not the same for people in that situation, even if it is popular and cool to deride devices for that market.
But, this is what the free market is all about. And with aging Baby Boomers, you may well expect more of these to come out on the market. It's not an insult to young people, it is just economics.
Is this the best solution? Maybe not: Not flexible enough, e.g. I think an overlay where the names can be labeled on the speed dial would be a better idea. These people get into emergencies in ways I rarely think of, let alone anyone in their 20s thinks of. And it's not just loss of memory: it's general shutting down and what the wife calls lower functioning.

## Post 12 by forereel (Just posting.) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 18:17:36

But there is no name. The button is just marked.
There are only 2 to 4 of them for speed dialing, and the rest have raised letters or braille.
You can just learn that the top left button first dials Jame, the second Judy, the 3RD and so on.
You actually don't require sighted help to set up speed dial on a regular phone, but that requires you understand how it works.
You press one button, dial the number, and you press that button again. The number is now set on that button.
Infact, most phones with speed dial have it so the actually number keypad can do the job.
You press a control button, you dial the number, and you press and hold the number, 7 for example to set it.
If you use the elder, how many elderly people can feel a letter and know that letter by feel?
That has to be tought just like braille.
So, I'll give this person well meaning, but he/she is just creating a fancer version of what is available already.
Infact, some phones have numbers, you can feel, provided your fingers are sensitive enough.

## Post 13 by SilverLightning (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 18:54:47

Leo, think of how big a phone would have to be in order to fit someone's
name on it in braille? Plus, that wouldn't be put on by the company, so you
could just use a regular phone. Even on the biggest phone I've ever seen you
might be able to fit Cody or John or Lesa or Jimmy, but what about stephanie or
cordelia or bernadette or gabrielle or catherine or katrina or lucinda? I challenge
you to braille out the names of your family and fit them onto phone buttons.
Braille simply isn't made to be miniaturized. It isn't something you can do with
it, at least not very much.

## Post 14 by Voyager (I just keep on posting!) on Tuesday, 20-May-2014 23:35:58

Not once is the word "elderly" or its equivalent mentioned in the article. I see the words "blind" and "carer," which suggests blindness is the reason for the caring.
BTW, a sighted friend sent me this a few days ago, and when I explained what was already available and why most blind people would not want this he apologized.

## Post 15 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Wednesday, 21-May-2014 18:30:41

I find it interesting, im Portland at least, most people don't seem to notice me using my iPhone or iPad. The only comments I ever get are if I use my RefreshaBraille Braille display with it. But just sitting at a bar doing the iDevice thing, nobody notices, because it seems it is now accepted.
This is miles ahead of what we even had five years ago.

## Post 16 by Dolce Eleganza (I'll have the last word, thank you!) on Friday, 23-May-2014 0:59:25

I guess ddd has a point. But there are phones with big buttons for older people
who have trouble seeing, this isn't what it was intended for. I don't think it's
necessary, but I was thinking that maybe someone who's just lost their sight
can use it? I could be wrong

## Post 17 by Dolce Eleganza (I'll have the last word, thank you!) on Friday, 23-May-2014 1:00:02

I meant Ed.

## Post 18 by Shadow_Cat (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Friday, 23-May-2014 15:50:23

Ed, I see your point, but I agree with the others on this board, and it's not a result of Zone group-think or because I just always agree with the original poster. I was looking on a site that sells blindness products yesterday, and they have a whole section for telephones for the blind. I've never much understood this concept. I don't think I've met a single blind person who uses a specialized telephone, though when I was a receptionist at my state agency for the blind years ago, I got an amazing number of calls asking if such things existed. I think Cody's point is that this is not innovative technology. This niche, and I'd say it's a small one, has been filled by other venders a long time ago. Thus, as he titled the topic, a solution where there appears to be no problem.

## Post 19 by forereel (Just posting.) on Friday, 23-May-2014 20:47:48

I think sighted people assume the blind need something special, because they don't think about how it was they called that center for the blind and didn't even look at the numbers. Smile.

## Post 20 by SilverLightning (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Saturday, 24-May-2014 0:04:43

I completely agree with you.