Category: accessible Devices
Are there any cell phones out there that are accessible for the blind? Do they have speech or how can I put speech on one?
Anyone know anything about these or where I can get one or if anyone on here has one for sale, please let me know.
Chastity
You need a phone that will work with Talks or Mobile Speak. I think the only phone that already comes with speach is the iPhone which uses Voiceover.
The first phone I had was the Nokia 6682 and I used Talks with that one. That one had a regular phone number pad. The phone I have now is the Nokia e71x and I'm using Talks with it and that one has a qwerty keyboard. I love this phone. I also think Talks is much more responsive than Mobile Speak. I have used up my ten demo of Talks, but I think there is a payment plan to get on so its easier for people to buy it. http://www.nuance.com/talks/
there are phones that have speach built in besides the iphone, the iPhone however is the onely one that comes with speach built in and gives you access to all the phones features. Let us know a couple of basic info and we can try to suggesst phones. 1( which cell carrier are you planning on going with? Do you want a QWERTY keyboard or a regular numberpad?
There are an awful lot of Nokia phones which can be made accessible if you load Talks Premium or Mobilespeak on them, Siemens have one or two accessible phones, Sony Erikson and Samsung have a couple which can be made accessible too. It's just a case of asking round, researching all the features of the models of phones you think you'd like to try out, checking out the platforms you think you'll go for, for example, Windows Mobile or Symbian, the two which will almost certainly work with screenreading software such as Talks.
Jen.
I don't know what talks is or a querty keypad.
As for phone companies, I have Qwest for everything else and they recently purchased Vorrizon company.
If the phone doesn't have speech, how do you get it on the phone?
Will the phone allow you to connect it to the computer or something to download this talks program thing?
As for the I-phone, I don't know what company they use, but I think you can get them anywhere?
Chastity
Hi.
You can learn more about talks at
www.nuance.com/talks
Mobile speak
www.codefactory.es
And the IPhone 3GS with Voiceover
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/vision.html
Talks is a speech program you can put on cell phones that support it. With it, you can use your cell phone independently to call people, add them to your phone book, text them, and do whatever else your phone allows you to do. A qwerty keypad is a keyboard layout that makes it easier to type things on a phone, such as text messages or emails. Basically, it's like the keyboard on your computer, only it's on a phone. On some phones, the keyboard slides out, while on others, it is on the phone. For more information about Talks, go to the talks web site listed above for more details. You can download talks on phone, (which you need to purchase)...I'm talking about Talks here), but I think you can also buy phones with it already installed, but don't quote me on that one. As for the iPhone, here in the United States, AT&T is the only company you can get the iPhone with.
Hope this helps,
Fallon
If you are getting your cell phone service through quest then you would pretty much bbe limited to windows mobile phones as i believe quest is a uses the CDMA cell technology and i don't think there are a whole lot of accessible nokia phones that work on that type of network. At&T and Tmobile use GSM which is what the majority of the world usese as well for their cell technology and and which is what the majority of nokia/symbian based pones use. In the end it all depends on what you want to use your phone for. i f you just want to text and add people to your contacts then their may be some phones that already have some limited speach built in that will let you do this. if you want to access the internet and use the phones music player and etc then you may want to find a phone that uses talks or mobile speak. And there are 3 ways generally to install talks or mobile speak on your phone. 1) download it onto your computer then connnect the phone and install it from the computer onto the phone, 2) download it to the computer then copy the file to the micro sd card that you will then put in th e phone, and once its in the phone you can find it on th e phone and install it that way, or 3) use the phones web browser to download it directly to th e phone and then install it once its done downloading. QWERTY keyboard is the keyboard on your computer that a lot of phones have smaller versions of, its called a QWERTY keyboard cuz those are the first letters of the top row going from left to right.
yah but not all cell phone companies use GSM,like Sprint and verizon use CDMA. So i would keep that in mind as well, because they work differently. I have heard one is good for city use and the other is good for rural arreas. So keep that in mind on what phone company you choose too. and Quest has cell phone service i know they do in some states. Some LG phones have some speech on them to do some things like add and hear your contacts and hear who is calling you and hear your missed calls for example. I know the LG phones or some of them with Verizon have some speech capability. The LG Shine with ATNT is a good phone to go with if you want ATNT service. If you are not going to use all of the features of your phone like web browsing then you probably dont need to spend a couple hundred dollars for Talks or Mobile Speek. i hope that helps you.
At&T and T-mobile are the only 2 GSM carriers in the states, everything else is CDMA, and well if its not verizon or Sprint well then they are "leaching" off the Verizon or Sprint network, .
I was going to ask what phone company you use, but thankfully I read back a few posts.
I've been trying to get rid of my Nokia 6620 for a while now. I don't know how easy it is to switch providers.
Thanks everyone for the info. I'm going to check out those websites to investigate the speak programs and I'll probably save the sites to a folder so I don't have to look them up again.
I don't need to go through qwest. I just have it for everything else, so I thought it might be easier.
When checking into a phone, do I ask the companies about the qwerty keyboard or is that something I need to purchase separately?
For the poster right above mine here; what are the features of the phone you're trying to get rid of; come with battery, speech, what current company, and your price?
This all helps a lot.
I did see a phone last time I was at the clinic getting blood drawn that was from Sprint and it was called an Instinct and it litterally spoke the name of the person calling because I heard it. She did say that this one is a touch screen though and I don't want those if I can help it.
Thanks again everyone.
Chastity
With what I've recently seen some phones either have it, or they don't, but when your looking at a store you can ask them about all of their phones that have qwerty keyboards. I've found most sales people are willing to help if you explain what you need. But in my town don't mention talx or moble speaks to them cause they won't know what your talking about and will simply suggest you call their disabilities center. I go through A T & T.
Yeah the phone either comes with QWERTY Keyboards or they don't. Yeah the sprint instinct is a iPhone competitor so it does have a touch screen. Unless you hear other wise Verizon and At&T is probably your best bet for a cell carrier. With verizon they seem to have the best coverage in most areas, but you will be limited to one of those LG or Samsung phones that have built in speach and will let you access the contacts and text messages and a few features like that. Or you can go with windows mobile and get Mobile Speak. At&T will give you the choice of nokia or symbian and windows mobile which you can use with talks or mobile speak or one of those LG phones with some built in speech with limited access like the ones on verizon.
Actually according to the Talx Web site Samsung also has to models that work with Talx. Unfortunately for me my Samsung is not one of those models. I'm going to look at moble speaks later today and see which phones they support...If I remember correctly they seem to have more models that can run their software.
This all helps a lot and thanks to all. Now, I've got to do some more research on this and see which would be the best for me. I like AT and T and I might check that one out first. I've had them for my home phone in the past and had no problems.
Chastity
If you call the at&t disability services line, they will know what you are talking about. If you go into a store or call the regular customer service number , odds are, they will have no clue. AT&T has a deal with Code Factory (the company that makes Mobile Speak) to sell mobile speak at a discounted rate of $89 and will load it on the phone and send it to you all set up. The down side is that they only give you 2 or 3 phones to choose from. I know one of the options right now is the Nokia E71 X which is a QWERTY keypad. I can't remember the other ones they offer. I've used both Talks and Mobile Speak. Personally, I prefer Talks but MS does a good job too and is pretty easy to learn and the at&t deal is a great option if budget is a concern for you. The at&t disability center number is 1-866-241-6568. Good luck.
Yeah there are a few non nokia phones sucha as samsung and panasonic phones that run the symbian operating system. But as of recently they only seem to be nokias for the most part. There are more manufacturers making windows mobile phones, so it would seem seem that mobile speak works on more phone. The At&t disability line is great if you want to get the phone already set up for you. However you will usually pay more for the phone if you get if from them. But if you get any of the phones that qualify for the mobile speak discount, you can just order mobile speak from them for $89 and install it yourself. So its up to you if you wnt to pay more for the convienience o having it set up for you.
Well, I finally seen one of those qwerty keypads on a phone. I've never seen a phone that had that before.. I was at the county fair and there was a display of different cell phones there, but the ones with the normal keypads were hard to feel where the numbers were, almost level with surrounding case. That other keypad seems confusing, but it might be easer to work in the long run. Crap! Now I can't remember the carrier, but it's an Alexandria company from Minnesota.
I think what I'm going to do is check with ATT and see what they offer, go on both mobile speak and talks sites and see which phones they support and then see who I can get the best deal. Yes, budget is a concern.
The regular keypad is mainly for calling and such, right? The qwerty one is for internet and texting and things like that, right?
I seen all the phones at our fair had USB ports so I can hook them to the computer to download and install my speech I want and maybe that might be the cheapter way to go.
Thanks for the phone number. I'm going to check with ATT too and see what they say.
Chastity
Well At&T has a limited number of phones that qualify for the mobile speak discount so check with them to find out what those phones are. QWERTY keyboards does help make it a little quicker to send messages but they usually have numbers somewhere on there for making calls as well. You can text on a regular number pad it just requires you remembering which letters are on which numbers, in my opinion its alittle easier with predictive texting mode on. A nice phone with a QWERTY keyboard thats feels nice and is easy to type on is the nokia e71 or the e71x as AT&T calls it.