
Samsung goes after blind iPhone users - robgough
http://blog.davidchartier.com/post/43731094315/samsung-goes-after-blind-iphone-users
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robgough
I recently met, and had the opportunity to speak to, an old family friend who
has been blind for many years. He's had several guide dogs, and I was hearing
for the first time what they _actually_ do (they're far more incredible than I
had imagined).

The subject turned to technology, which it normally does when I'm around
family, and he showed me his "fancy" Nokia that was especially equipped to
help him out. It was very expensive, I presume it came to him through an
organisation that helps blind people (he did say, but I've forgotten those
details), and he showed me it's special assistive features claiming (with
humour) the he would be willing to bet mine couldn't do that.

I flipped out my iPhone (4 at the time I think) switched on the assistive
settings (which I'd not done before) and handed it over to him. He had it
figured out almost instantly. What blew him away was that the price of this
fancy new phone brand new was still significantly cheaper than the phones
available through his normal channels - and it was his opinion (after an
admittedly short time with the phone) that this was more useful and easier to
use than his current phone.

Accessibility is something I think is probably (note I said probably, I have
no evidence either way) overlooked by most the startups around here - but I
think Apple are trailblazing here too. For most of us these are features we
may not even know exist, but for those who need them - they _really_ need
them. To take them away could literally be life changing.

~~~
cickpass_broken
Apple really is leading the way with accessibility. A family member, also
sided with an iPhone over a visually-impaired-targeted phone.

Moreover, they prefer OSX's _built-in_ accessibility features over JAWS and
similar software available for Windows.

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GHFigs
The patent in question:
[http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=...](http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=worldwide.espacenet.com&II=0&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=20010301&CC=DE&NR=10040386A1&KC=A1)

 _Speech output device for data displayed on mobile telephone converts data
from display into speech data for output via loudspeaker_

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likeclockwork
So.. now that it may affect Apple consumers it's bad.

