Are smartphones accessible or operable by blind people?

Question

I saw a number of apps on the appStore (e.g. Aipoly) that are aimed at assisting the blind people with object and colour recognition. Before touch screen smartphones I can imagine that the tactile feedback would have made it a little bit easier for blind people to use phones, but now with smartphones I wonder if there is any specific thought given to making it more user friendly for vision impaired people?

Answer 1

Yes, smartphones with touchscreens can be used by blind people.

Just like with any other computing device with screen, a screen reader is needed, which outputs what is displayed on the screen in a different way (e.g., via text-to-speech or via a braille terminal).

While input devices like physical keyboards or microphones are typically more suitable for blind users than input devices like mouses or touchscreens, even those can be used: the screen reader gives feedback while being in "navigation mode".

Probably the most popular way (because it requires no additional hardware) to use touchscreen smartphones is to have a screen reader that uses TTS (so you hear what is displayed/focused on the screen), and to use the touchscreen to navigate (and the virtual keyboard to type) and/or voice commands for navigating/typing.

One way this can work with a touchscreen:

• Tap somewhere one time (or drag): it focuses the (nearest) button and reads it out.
• Tap anywhere two times: it fires the corresponding action for the focused button.

(There’s often also a mode where you can use two gestures to focus the next/previous button.)

Example: typing the word "hi" on a virtual keyboard:

1. Drag near the middle of the screen (where you guess the h key is): the screen reader reads while you drag: v, b, g, h. Stop dragging (the last key read out was the h, so it’s still focused). Double tap. The h is entered.
2. Drag slowly to the top right (where you guess the i key is): the screen reader reads: u, i. Stop dragging, double tap, the i is entered.
3. Drag to the place where you guess the enter key is, double tap when it’s focused, done.