Category: accessible Devices
1) When texting with voiceover, does one use the qwerty keyboard? or, if the phone is held the other way, are you supposed to use the numeric keypad? do you have a choice? which is faster/easier?
2) when making a call that requires you to enter in certain numbers (like calling an automated banking service that asks you to key in your access card number) how difficult is this with the IPhone given that voiceover does not talk during a call?
3) when the phone rings, is there a specific button one should press/touch to know who's calling?
Thanks!
Oh, I knew I was forgetting a question. Are all incarnations of the IPhone accessible? or, is it just the 3gs model? that's the one I hope to get anyway.
1. The keyboard always sticks with qwerty. Its very easy to get used to.
2. Voice over speaks during calls. Theirs a button you press that will have voice over say keypad. Double tap it and theirs your keypad back. They keypad goes away when you are in a call, so pressing that will bring it back up. Just move the phone away from your face to have the screen show the different options you have.
3. Voice over will automatically speak whose calling when the phone rings, but the text at the top of the screen also shows it as well, and if you tap it, voice over will speak the part you touch. I believe the text looks something like this.
Mike Wassel
IPhone
So, if I tap the top line, it will say my name, and if I tap the bottom, it will say from what device they are calling from if you have that set in your contacts menu.
4. Only the 3gs has voice over.
Thanks for the reply!!
I don't like my phone to shout out whoever's calling; is there a way to disable that so that my phone can ring normally and I can just press a button to hear who's calling?
Unfortunately no, because if you pres a button, it causes the phone to put the call to voice mail.
AS A NEW IPhone user, I was able to get the keypad to come up, but when I double tapped the numbers, I couldn't get it to generate the tones. Any suggestions?
Lou
Lou, I have no idea, but as of today, I will be a new IPhone user as well. So excited! sorry that doesn't answer your question though. I'm sure there's a mailing list or something like that somewhere.
Lou:
I'm assuming you are saying that you are unable to generate the tones while you are on a call. Be sure that you are selecting a number and then double tapping. So, if you want to enter a five, touch five, wait for VoiceOver to say the number, then double tap anywhere on the screen. Also, when I'm on a call, I've found this works better when either the speaker phone option (simply hold the pphone away from your ear) or a headphone is used. Dialing numbers using the built-in ear piece can be a bit troublesome at times. This is just one of the reasons that I often carry a mini ear bud with me.
Skyla, Congratulations on your new phone, sure you will enjoy it. I've been an iPhone user since July and use this amazing technology in so many areas of my life. It is so much more than just a phone. If you are looking for mailing lists, I would start with VIPhone.
VIPhone list
I don't take the time to actively monitor this list much anymore, but as of several months ago, it was a very active list for discussing the iPhone.
You can also find an excellent list of iPhone apps that other users have reported as being compatible with VoiceOver at:
the Maccessibility site
This site www.maccessibility.net also contains links to some very well produced podcasts and other great materials.
Feel free to reply to this post or drop me a private mail message if you have further questions. As mentioned earlier, I'm a huge iPhone fan and am always happy to assist others in using this remarkable product.
Jim
WELL< LET"S SEE IF I can do this right this time. Thanks for the info, Jim. Never would have thought of using the earbud to keep voiceover in operation. A friend of mine has a website that might also be of assistance at www.webfriendlyhelp.com/iphone. Jim, you might be hearing from me via pm.
Lou
Lou, when I make a call waht I do is put my finger on the number and when it speaks I keep the finger there for orientation and tap with another finger on the screen. This is called hold and tap. Works great.
Thanks for the idea. I've gotten comfortable with the keypad for the phone. Haven't tried the qwerty in a search or text message yet. I think once I get more comfortable with this interface I'm really gonna like this thing.
Lou
Wish I could get an iPhone, but I don't have At&T! *groans*! I have Verizon.
im getting an iphone on my birthday and my roomate showed me how to use the phone so i can do everything and since she is very interested on the technology used by the blind, she finds this so facinating.
i say this because she's never met a blind person besides me.
the iPhone jsut may be coming to verizon soon .. rumours are getting very hot on that front again
Yeah, that's what I heard too.
I'm sort of going back and forth about getting an IPhone. All I know for sure is I have a Motorola Q9H right now and I've grown to hate it. Maybe I've just had a string of bad luck but every phone of this model I've tried has proven defective in one way or another. Mine likes to lock up for no apparent reason, at which point it takes a riddiculously long time to turn off so I can reboot it. Other times it won't boot up properly from the get-go and again takes a long time to turn off so it can be rebooted. And to put it bluntly the battery life sucks. So I definitely plan to get a new phone when the time comes to upgrade. But given the amount of texting I do I'm not sure if an IPhone would work for me, if only because I probably wouldn't tap the same spot on the screen. My thought was to find a letter with one finger then enter it with another. I'm torn between not wanting to pay extra for the screen reading software again and at the same time not wanting to be too slow using the phone. Ah well, I recently ordered an IPod Touch so maybe I can use that to get used to navigating via touch screen, then when the time comes and I get an IPhone I'll have more of an idea what to do.
Acording to a recent blog I read, blue tooth keyboard support will be available in the upcoming 4rth generation of the iPhone. SO, while, I don't mind the keyboard and have become pretty quick using it, even so support for a blue tooth keyboard would be awesome.
if you can get used to the IPhone it's be nice, but another good choice for phones if you can upgrade your MobileSpeak is the touch pro 2. I use that phone now and really enjoy it.
I actually don't really care for Mobile Speak. I don't know just why but I just don't like it. But I'm glad I at least tried it so I could make that determination.
I have had the i phone since july, and I love it. It rarely freezes, and the voice is great. At first you may be slow at navigating the letters via touch screen, but you do get faster with time and practice. If you have more questions, you can pm me
I've been a user of MS for 4 years now, and I still can't put my finger on what it is about the software I just don't care for! I've tried it on so many different handsets, and while I get the idea behind it, and think it offers great access to the PDA, it just doesn't intigrate as seemless as I would like. I feel as though something just doesn't always work quite right.
I will be looking at these sites guys, thanks.
Personally online I've found more Mac Fanboy talk than actual tootalage on the iPhone. Probably I would get me an iPod Touch as I'm not now in the market for a cell phone ... but by the time this happens iPhone OS 4 will be out and maybe, just maybe, support Braille? *please*? Anyway I'd need to get a wireless Braille display too for that but yes.
I find it encouraging you all are actually using it for input. I'd still love to see a device out with gestures for navigation, while having actual buttons. Online I've only heard people move very slowly on the phone when it came to entering text, much slower even than I used to using an inaccessible phone and memorizing numbers and stuff.
While I'm generally big on new technologies, I'm rarely the fanboy type to get the latest gadget. Too many years in the enterprise field where productivity is the name of the game I guess. But with "Bummin' around Money," as Cheech and Chong put it, I could see getting one of those. I'll be impressed when I see blind people use it for home / work / responding to emails and the like.
It was that lack of functionality that took the wind out of the sails for me with Google OS, much as I love to see Open Source technologies getting mainstream airplay.
To the person who said they'd like to tap a letter, then hit another place on the screen, you can do that. Its called split tap, and that's what I use for texting. You place your finger on the letter you want, and with another finger, tap anywhere on the screen. It makes it a lot faster then tapping the letter, then double tapping it.
Well my IPod Touch arrived this afternoon. The thing actually reminds me of my current cell phone, at least in terms of physical appearance. They're roughly the same size and shape. And my fears about not being able to enable Voiceover completely unaided proved groundless, although it would appear that you should wait to enable it until the IPod is finished syncing with ITunes. And yes the touch screen is proving a bit tricky to get used to, especially since the very first thing it seems to want me to do is edit the home screen. When I double tap, say, Music, it tells me it's moving the icon. I think I will get a touch-savy sighted friend to help me with the basics and go from there. But so far I'm definitely impressed and intrigued.
I have a love hate relationship with my tuch right now which is really making me unsure as to if I want a iPhone or not. Its got such huge potential, but it seems like just as your starting to really like it you find something that it can't but easily could & probably never will do.
@robozork the latest os supports bluetooth braille displays.
If you need help, their are plenty of us who are touch-savi and might be able to help you out.
I just got mine on Monday and I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I still don't like that you can only use ITunes to put music on it because as far as I know you can't just select certain albums from your library to put on your touch. That and to delete songs you have to actually delete them from your Library and then resync the IPod. Other than that I'm liking it so far.
Does anyone know anything about the iphone 4 g that is coming out?
I love the iPhone; I have had it since September. Other than what has been posted online, I don't know anything about the new OS. But what is posted online looks great!
i have the iphone but i have to take that to the apple store tomorrow because it froze on me and i don't know how to unfreez it.
Luckillyy, my sighted roomate helps me with that since she also owns an iphone. i think it's somthing minor because i tried syncing to my laptop which is a piece of junk. and when i try syncing it it said, "your iphone cannot be synced because an unknown error occured and then it showed a USB cord connected to a computer. and that's it.