

How blind people use Instagram [video] - Charlesmigli
http://kottke.org/13/01/how-blind-people-use-instagram

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bluetidepro
> "Why am I holding the thing up to my face like I can look through the thing
> is beyond me..." _hehehe I chuckled as his joke here._

I think this is really awesome. It seems so rare to see these types of fun and
inviting (and what I would call) _success stories_ around the web, when it
comes to accessibility.

Hopefully more videos like this surface so that other developers/designers see
why it's worth going the extra mile with accessibility! And that doing so,
means all types of users can use your app, even people you thought never
would!

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jimray
This is a great story and inspiring and hits all the right "feel good"
buttons.

BUT.

Isn't the story really "how blind people use the accessibility features of
iOS"? Accessibility, specifically Voice Over, is a core component of iOS and
pretty straightforward for developers to implement. The new Flickr app, for
instance, seems to offer many of the same accessibility features shown in the
video, though their implementation could use a little work. The Instagram guys
should be commended for adding the accessibility hooks but, really, that's all
they did. That's a day's worth of work.

Can anyone speak to how Instagram works for the blind on an Android device?

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PhearTheCeal
I believe the big role Instagram played in this video is the use of photo
comments. After he uploaded a picture, people would comment on it to explain
what it was and how he did. So I see it as a way for blind people to capture
moments around them without walking around and touching everything.

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newishuser
His YouTube channel is very entertaining.

<https://www.youtube.com/user/tommyedisonxp>

Tommy has a great sense of humor and explains some interesting aspects of
being blind since birth like:

Color:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59YN8_lg6-U&list=PL832E5...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59YN8_lg6-U&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=2)

Cooking:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umiOuVA7PEc&list=PL832E5...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umiOuVA7PEc&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=4)

Using an ATM:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzah0A6IC5o&list=PL832E5...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzah0A6IC5o&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=14)

~~~
macey
This guy is great! Thanks for sharing. Re: color, his story about buying a car
made me laugh. "Heather mist? What? Nothing else in the world is 'heather
mist.'"

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ja27
We've gotten a bit of feedback from blind (and non-blind but "low vision")
users of our educational apps. We even got requests for better Voiceover
support for an app that we thought was so visual that someone with impaired
vision wouldn't get any use out of it. Turns out that there are a lot of
vision-impaired parents that like to use apps with their normal-vision
children. That's something that hadn't occurred to us.

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AUmrysh
I've become more and more interested over the years in computer usability for
the blind and vision impaired. I still feel like there's a lot of room to
improve these things.

Being able to navigate a web page and interact with it just seems like it
would be so much more difficult without the ability to see it.

~~~
jcampbell1
Don't waste your time becoming "interested". Just start doing it. Learn to put
your OS in blind person mode, and spend an hour learning how to use it. It is
amazing how fast and easy it is to fix various problems. For instance, in
HackerNews the upvote/downvote links are voiced as "link link" on my Mac. That
is not very helpful to a blind person. A trivial change could make that voiced
as "link-upvote, link-downvote".

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jasonkostempski
Are there any examples of accessibility features that actually make usage more
efficient? Not for Instagram, I mean in general.

~~~
xbryanx
This is the ideal behind universal accessibility design. For instance, when
you're in a loud and crowded place a person with average hearing abilities
might have the same needs as a deaf person when watching a video. That's why
museums regularly use open captions on video screens since they benefit
everyone, not just the deaf.

As a side note, I bet this guy gets fantastic battery life out of his mobile
device, since he can set the brightness to the lowest setting possible all the
time. I guess I'm assuming that all that Siri and speaker amp usage doesn't
drain the battery more.

~~~
chrmaury
You're right. iOS has a feature called screen curtain, which turns your screen
off while using Voice Over. Great for battery life (and privacy).

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vpdn
The integrated iPhone camera app even tells you about the objects within the
picture.

"I simply gawped when one blind woman pulled out an iPhone then snapped a
perfect shot, guided by the built-in Camera app [..] One face. Small face.
Face near right edge. Autofocussed."

<http://svan.ca/blog/2012/blind/>

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nycacorp
well as a visually impaired Web user, with almost every tech device out there
and working for a Content Delivery Network. I can say that more Webmasters
need to take accessibility and responsive design into consideration when
designing and creating their sites. Not everything can be for SEO and
usability purposes.

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pella
original Link: <http://blindfilmcritic.com/archives/2689>

\+ 2 more videos:

How Blind People Use The iPhone 4S – Twitter & YouTube Apps

How Blind People Use The iPhone 4S – Facebook App

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graiz
VoiceOver is awesome. I wrote a guide for people who can see. I use it all the
time. [http://www.raizlabs.com/blog/2012/12/18/ios-voiceover-
gettin...](http://www.raizlabs.com/blog/2012/12/18/ios-voiceover-getting-
started-guide/)

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alpb
Are we know of any famous Instagram users making use of this great feature due
to their condition? I'd love to follow someone who cannot see but take
pictures.

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aw3c2
"Blogspam" (blame the submitter, not the blog) for
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1e7ZCKQfMA>

tl;dw: iOS has a mode for vision impaired users where buttons are spoken when
touched and a double touch activates them. The instagram app supports that.
The video is fun, though it reeks of "viral" ad.

~~~
bradleyland
It's a bit of a stretch to call Kottke.org "blogspam". Jason has been a
consistent source of interesting content for years. He deserves credit for the
service he provides: finding and sharing interesting content.

~~~
DanBC
This link has one single embedded YouTube video, and the text "So we'll just
take a picture of the crew. Why I'm holding the thing up to my face like I can
look through the thing is beyond me, but here we go.

His Instagram feed is available here. (via ★precipice)"

It also has some ads.

How is that anything other than blogspam? The linked blog adds nothing of
value to the raw YouTube link; there's no commentary or critique or links to
other relevant content or anything.

~~~
jonknee
Because Jason found the video (on Precipice) and Charlesmigli apparently reads
Jason's site. This is precisely what YouTube allows embedding for, sharing
interesting videos.

As for not adding any value, I think the link to Instagram was valuable.
Almost everyone who watches the video wants to visit that page but it is not
linked on the YouTube page.

~~~
DanBC
I don't care what Jason does on his website. I do care when people don't post
the original source.

Some sites are worse than others. This site isn't bad (I trust the people
telling me so) but still, this instance? It's just a YouTube embedded video.

I think the added value that I've missed is "approval[1] by Jason K." - seeing
it's from his site means people are more likely to clicky the HN submission.
That's fair enough. I just need to remember it, I guess.

Sorry if I was grumpy! I don't think I was.

[1] Approval isn't a great word. "Collation" or what ever fits too.

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frozenport
Does he have a bookcase in the background?

~~~
hackmiester
Braille books, I'd imagine.

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simpsn
Awesome and inspiring story!

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jheriko
lol. i initially read this as, how _to_ blind people, use Instagram.

