Typing on the Iphone With VoiceOver and it's Built-in Keyboards

By Matthew Bullis

When it’s required, you’ll have a keyboard pop up to enter text on the iPhone. Two free layouts are built-into the operating system for VoiceOver users. There will be times when you don’t have an external Bluetooth keyboard, or when you just need to enter one or two fields of text. You’ll need to know how to type on the IPhone keyboard in either typing mode, as a VoiceOver user.

The standard layout allows you to find the letter you want by sliding your finger around until you hit it just right. Stop there with that finger and tap with another finger anywhere else to type that letter. Keep practicing until you get reasonable results. The More button gives you extra needed symbols.

The other layout is touch typing. Try this one second, after you use the rotor gestures by twisting two fingers like a radio dial until you hear typing mode. You’re on Standard, so swipe down with one finger to get Touch Typing. Twist again to set the rotor to something else to avoid accidentally switching modes. Now, the split tap won’t work. You need only find the desired letter by sliding around and lifting to select that letter.

Repeat the rotor process described above to switch between typing modes. Try both modes and get comfortable with each, or very good with one, so that you can type on the IPhone when you need to.

Color ID Free

By Tobin Ernst

App Details

By:  GreenGar Studios

Price:  Free

Devices:  Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi +3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi +4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 5.1 or later.

Description:  Color Identifier uses the camera on your iPhone or iPod touch to speak the names of colors in real-time. It’s an Augmented Reality app for discovering the names of the colors around you! The color names are fun and specific: Paris Daisy, Lavender Rose, Moon Mist, and many more. The app also supports Simple Colors. Tap the color square at the top to toggle between Simple Colors and Exotic Colors. It can be a useful app for the blind and visually impaired, but also fun for anyone. It will also tell you the hex value of the color, so you can identify exactly what color the camera sees. It’s fast, easy, and fun! Try it today.

Color ID is compatible for blind, low vision, or sighted.

Pros

• Fast to pick out colors
• Free
• Accurate

Cons

• Color wheel is too robust; would like to just have it ID "royal blue, navy blue, power blue"
• Colors only show up if it is at a certain angle or in the right lighting
• Not Android compatible, only available for Apple products

Trekker Breeze

By Matthew Bullis

App Details

By:  Humanware

Price:  $499

Description:  Trekker Breeze from Humanware will have you out and about within twenty minutes after you learn the layout of the unit. You can then enjoy your traveling while being guided to your destination with just the right amount of assistance from the Trekker’s all-in-one design.

With this one-handed unit plus good mobility skills, you’ll be able to do everything that commercial GPS units for sighted users do. Even though many of the buttons serve dual functions, the second function is logical and not hard to remember. You get help with both driving and pedestrian routes. You can choose to set a landmark as your destination or create a route for frequently-used places. You can check the next turn or direction with the right arrow, in case no one is sure exactly where they are going. Because GPS technology can get you from within 30 to 100 feet of your destination, you still must possess good mobility skills, whether you’re using a white cane or a guide dog. The Trekker is there to give you that extra layer of confidence while out and about. Therefore, this machine is recommended for all ages, as long as mobility skills are up to par.

There are many advantages to a simplified device like this. With only nine main buttons, you can accomplish many things through menu systems. However, with small devices come small sacrifices, such as the doubling of buttons when entering addresses. Also, only a female voice is included in this unit, which may be hard to hear in traffic. Some knowledge of the computer is required to handle transfer of the maps and other updates for the unit.

Trekker Breeze is compatible for blind, low vision, or sighted.

Pros:

• Great way to understand the environment and your surroundings
• Once you are familiar with the device, it is very easy to use
• Small and extremely accurate

Cons

• There are iPhone apps available that will essentially do the same thing
• Highly priced
• If you are in an unfamiliar area, such as a different state/country, you must add (upload) the new map

SayHi Translate

By Matthew Bullis 

App Details

By:  SayHi, LLC

Price:  $0.99

Devices:  Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4/4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd, 4th, and 5th generation) and iPad.  Requires iOS 5.0 or later.  This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description:  This one-dollar app is the second one I tried for translating to other languages. The first one dollar app, called ITranslate, does the same thing, but I couldn’t get that to work with VoiceOver. This SayHi Translate app is a little bit fiddly, with a few unlabeled buttons, but they can easily be labeled with VoiceOver, once you find out what they do. Once you set the primary and secondary language, you get two buttons at the bottom of the screen. Because VoiceOver tends to speak over you when you’re trying to speak the phrase, turn off its speech with a three-finger double-tap. This turns off speech, but not VoiceOver itself, which is handy if you want to use a braille display and no speech. Tap the bottom of the screen on the left to get that button into focus for your primary language, and then double-tap. In my case, the primary language is English, and I chose French as a secondary. I speak in English, and a speech server returns an audible result in French. If I then tap the right bottom corner, then double-tap, I must speak in French, as that’s the secondary. I do so, and the speech server returns the English result. The conversation history is flickable in the top area of the screen, so you can adjust your phrasing or pace in future, if the phone doesn’t quite understanding you. This is quite a handy tool, and fun besides.

SayHi Translate is compatible for blind, low vision, or sighted.

Pros:

• SayHi is able to translate nearly all of the most commonly used languages
• VoiceOver compatible--unlike most other translation apps
• Fun & handy app usable for convenience or pleasure for just $1

Cons:

• Some of the buttons are not labeled
• VoiceOver speech interferes with the recording, so you must disable speech by double-tapping with 3 fingers
• There is a slight learning curve, as it takes time to get used to

Talking Turner

By Matthew Bullis

App Details

By:  HotPaw Productions

Price:  $0.99

Devices:  Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.  Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Description:  Finally, there exists an app for visually impaired musicians to check the tuning of their musical instruments. The tuners that existed before this one were hardware devices which used a needle to indicate the state of the note being played. This was no help if you can’t see at all. Many blind musicians have very good sense of pitch, though results vary with each individual. This app will tell you what note you’re near, and will say, for instance, “Note A is five cents flat.” If you increase the pitch of the note, the tuner will tell you if you’ve gone sharp or if it’s now in tune. You should wait until the note has had about a second or so to settle, as the striking of the note places it a bit higher than what it will eventually resolve to. I’ve tested this tuner app with a range of instruments: harmonicas, guitars, autoharps, mandolins, and various other stringed instruments I have at my disposal, and the tuner was able to detect notes within the full range. The autoharp for instance, has a three octave range, and other instruments have doubled strings and other overlaying harmonics and incidental harmony, such as the accordion or concertina. For one dollar, this app is extremely valuable, and was actually designed with the blind in mind.

Talking Tuner is compatible for blind, low vision, or sighted.

Pros:

• Fully accessible with VoiceOver
• Easy to use/navigate
• Extremely accurate

Cons:

• Talking Tuner has experienced some trouble with identifying extremely high notes

Vibrating Watch from Alexandra Vision

By Matthew Bullis

App Details

By:  Alexandra Vision

Price:  $150 and up

Description:  For years in the blindness community, we’ve had talking watches and clocks. They’ve been great to keep us on track, but many have been noisier than some of us would like. Most have a bing! Noise before you hear “It’s five thirty one PM.” If someone wanted to check the time, and was wearing a wristwatch, it’s very hard to try to cover up the watch to muffle the sound of your checking the time. There have also been the “braille,” or actually tactile watches, which make checking the time more discreet, but there again, you get a click sound when you open the lid. Tissot came out with a vibrating watch about ten years ago, where you ran your fingers around the face to find the vibrations where the hands would usually be. This watch has been discontinued, but now another Swiss manufacturer has produced a line of pocket and pendant watches for discreet time telling. Press the first button to get the hour, the second for the next digit of the hour, and the third for the last. A long vibration signals five units, and no vibrations signal a zero in that position. Moving through an hour, you don’t need to hear the whole time, but maybe just press the middle button to see how close the top of the hour is. For about $150 and up, you can have this innovative way of telling the time discreetly. This reviewer chose the Meteor, which slips neatly and slimly into your pocket.

Compatible for blind, low vision, and sighted.

Pros:

• Discreet way of checking time, without distracting sighted peers
• Unique look and conversation starter
• User is able to check partial time throughout the hour, such as one digit at a time, instead of needing to get the complete time announcement

Cons

• Not at this time

Tips & Tricks:  Visit www.AlexandraVision.com

Amazon Adds New Features to Kindle App

App for Blind & Visually Impaired Users
By Matthew Bullis

Amazon recently announced the accessibility features added to their Kindle app. Previously, blind users have had to struggle with Kindles’ hardware platform. The PC Kindle program was a step forward, but you still had to use the text-to-speech voices supplied in the program itself. With the accessibility features implemented in the iPhone app now, you are able to enjoy Kindle material in any of the iPhone voices, or even with a paired braille display. Although you cannot buy Kindle books from this app, as it’s only a reader, this task is easily handled from the Amazon web site. Within the app, you must select the Cloud link to collect your Kindle materials and sync them to your i-device. Tap on a book to download it. Once the book is loaded, swipe down with two fingers and it will read continuously, with a little swish sound when it changes pages. Single tap with two fingers to start and stop reading, and three finger swipe right to go back a page, and left to advance a page. Double tap to get out of the book and into the menu to switch sections or go elsewhere in the app. Other than that, it’s pretty much straight forward, and ready to enjoy.