Yeah, Georgie, I'm in there too, around the end along with hundreds
of others of your blind homies, you've failed to give a proper shout out to. :)
Adam
On May 5, 2012, at 7:25 PM, gar@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Oopse, I guess I didn't read the article all the way through.
>
> g
> At 06:07 PM 5/5/2012, you wrote:
>> I was featured too. Thx for the mention georgie. ;)
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On May 5, 2012, at 5:53 PM, gar@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>>
>> > Our very own Maria and Lynne are featured in this article. Enjoy.
>> >
>> > g
>> >
>> >> Return-Path: <dlb723@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> Return-Path: <dlb723@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> From: "dlb723" <dlb723@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> To: <gar@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> Subject: Fw: How the Blind Are Reinventing the iPhone
>> >> Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 21:02:33 -0700
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lilian Scaife"
<lmscaife@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> To: "Lilian Scaife" <lmscaife@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> Sent: Friday, May 04, 2012 7:28 PM
>> >> Subject: How the Blind Are Reinventing the iPhone
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>> How the Blind Are Reinventing the iPhone The Atlantic, May 2 2012 Liat
>> >>> Kornowski - Liat Kornowski is a writer based in New York City.
>> >>>
>> >>> At first many blind people thought that the iPhone would
never be accessible
>> >>> to them, with its flat glass screen. But the opposite has proved true.
>> >>>
>> >>> Maria Rios, 66, woke up at 6am. She got out of bed in her
little second
>> >>> floor apartment on the north side of Central Park, and
checked her iPhone
>> >>> for the weather. Then she felt around in her closet, where
she had marked
>> >>> her navy blue garments with safety pins, to tell them apart
from her black
>> >>> ones. In the adjacent room, her roommate Lynette Tatum, 49,
picked out a
>> >>> white sweater and dark denim slacks. She used her VizWiz
iPhone app to take
>> >>> a photograph and send it to a customer-service rep who lets
her know what
>> >>> color the item is.
>> >>> For the visually impaired community, the introduction of the iPhone in
>> >>> 2007 seemed at first like a disaster -- the standard-bearer of a new
>> >>> generation of smartphones was based on touch screens that
had no physical
>> >>> differentiation. It was a flat piece of glass. But soon
enough, word started
>> >>> to spread: The iPhone came with a built-in accessibility
feature. Still,
>> >>> members of the community were hesitant.
>> >>> But no more. For its fans and advocates in the
visually-impaired community,
>> >>> the iPhone has turned out to be one of the most
revolutionary developments
>> >>> since the invention of Braille. That the iPhone and its
world of apps have
>> >>> transformed the lives of its visually impaired users may seem
>> >>> counter-intuitive -- but their impact is striking.
>> >>> Watching Rios and Tatum navigate the world with the aid of
their iPhones is
>> >>> a lesson in the transformative and often unpredictable impacts that
>> >>> technology has on our lives. After getting dressed, they
strap on their
>> >>> backpacks, canes in hand, and walk out the door. They can't
see the sign
>> >>> someone hung in the elevator, informing them the building is
switching to
>> >>> FIOS, but the minute they're outside the fact they can't see
is a minor
>> >>> detail. They use Sendero -- "an app made for the blind, by
the blind," says
>> >>> Tatum -- an accessible GPS that announces the user's current
street, city,
>> >>> cross street, and nearby points of interest. What it's
missing, adds Tatum,
>> >>> is a feature that tells you which bus is arriving and what
its next stop is.
>> >>> In the meantime they walk a couple of blocks south to catch
the M1 downtown.
>> >>> Rios pulls out coins from her purse and pays the driver. She
tells the coins
>> >>> apart by their size and the ridges. Bills are another story
-- but there's
>> >>> an app for that. It's called the LookTel Money Reader and
with it you can
>> >>> scan the bill you're being handed, instead of depending on
the kindness of
>> >>> strangers.
>> >>> Romeo Edmead, 32, who's been blind since the age of two, is
a prominent
>> >>> member of the blind community in New York, taking pride in
who he is and all
>> >>> that he can do. He's a guide at the Dialog in The Dark
exhibit, a writer for
>> >>> the Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the blind, and an athlete.
>> >>> But he hasn't caught up with the iProducts yet. "It's
revolutionary in all
>> >>> that it can do," admits Edmead. "Now, if I want to tell
money, I have a
>> >>> standalone device," he demonstrates its size with the palm
of his hand.
>> >>> "It's a kind of box you slide the bill into and it tells you
what the bill
>> >>> is, but it means carrying something extra. That's inconvenient."
>> >>> Tatum is what Edmead calls "a techie." She had a previous,
failed experience
>> >>> with the Android, which almost made her give up the touch technology.
>> >>> Luckily, she kept her mind open enough to see how those around her are
>> >>> adapting to the iPhone. "I started 'Info share' five years
ago, where a
>> >>> group for visually impaired people can share information. A
young lady,
>> >>> Eliza, got an iPhone, and she was entranced."
>> >>> The sales representatives at the Verizon store, she says,
were very nice and
>> >>> helped her set up her email account and sync her contacts.
They didn't know
>> >>> much besides that, and she had to teach them how
accessibility is turned on
>> >>> (through Settings.) "They all went 'Whoa!',"
>> >>> she says.
>> >>> Tatum and Rios happily volunteer to show off all their iPhone can do.
>> >>> "See, I tap it," says Tatum, her iPhone stretched in front
of her, "and it
>> >>> started reading out what is on the screen."
>> >>> Blind people use their iPhones slightly different than the
sighted because,
>> >>> well, they can't see what they're tapping on. So instead of
pressing down
>> >>> and opening up an app, they can press anywhere on the screen
and hear where
>> >>> their finger is. If it's where they want to be, they can double-tap to
>> >>> enter. If it isn't, they'll flick their finger to the right,
to the left,
>> >>> towards the top or the bottom, to navigate themselves. The
same for the
>> >>> simple "slide to unlock" command.
>> >>> "We use Audible and it reads for us books that we download from
>> >>> audible.com," Tatum goes on. Each woman is in her respective
phone, sliding
>> >>> and flicking and taping, looking for apps. What makes an app
stick, they
>> >>> explain, is whether it's practical, accessible, fast, and
easy to use. Rios
>> >>> adds that she downloaded a hundred apps by now, but for the
most part she'll
>> >>> use an app once or twice and leave it. There are a few, like
Sendero, that
>> >>> they use every day. "There's also HeyTell, it's speech
texting," explains
>> >>> Tatum. She demonstrates, and manages fairly quickly to
record a few words
>> >>> and send them to Maria. Maria receives the message, opens
it, and holds her
>> >>> phone to her ear. It works. "There's Dragon Dictation, but that's half
>> >>> baked," says Tatum.
>> >>> "You can speak to it and it turns it into a written text you
can then send
>> >>> over." There's also HopStop. "It's completely accessible,
you put in your
>> >>> destination and it tells you what trains to take and exactly
how to get
>> >>> there."
>> >>> Chalkias, Tatum's colleague, is not only an iPhone advocate
who breezes
>> >>> through the device faster than a baby with an iPad, he also
gives private
>> >>> lessons to people of all ages on how to use it. He has found
that people,
>> >>> young and old, who can use a computer, are familiar with the desktop
>> >>> environment, and can type, have an easier transition to the
touchscreen.
>> >>> "The first thing I teach is the layout," he explains. "They have to
>> >>> understand it's a grid, four by four [apps], they need to
understand the
>> >>> dock, the status bar, how to unlock the screen.It's a new
language, it means
>> >>> moving from buttons to no buttons, and it means relying
completely on audio
>> >>> cues, so it takes time to adjust. The name iPhone is
misleading -- it's more
>> >>> of a computer than a phone."
>> >>> Siri, the highly acclaimed feature of the iPhone 4S, isn't
the answer to
>> >>> everyone's prayers, in his view. It's a nice shtick, but
it's not always
>> >>> compatible with the voice over feature. "She'll hear what
you're saying,
>> >>> explains Chalkias, "but either not respond or her answer
will appear on the
>> >>> screen and you'll still have to tap it to hear the response,
so there are
>> >>> still some glitches."
>> >>> Tatum and Rios mention that in the future they'd like their device to
>> >>> describe to them what's on the street as they're walking
down -- Toys "R" Us
>> >>> or CVS. It would be great if the phone could vibrate anytime
they are close
>> >>> to one. There should be an app that inform thems of
construction sites:
>> >>> Even the accessible GPS apps don't mention those.
>> >>> They would also like an app that reads out restaurant menus, and a
>> >>> navigation app that works indoors.
>> >>> People like Nektarios Paisios, 30, are the ones who can make
those wishes
>> >>> come true. Paisios, a Computer Science student from Cyprus,
moved to New
>> >>> York four and half year ago to work on his dissertation. He
went blind at
>> >>> four years of age, and is working on a number of iPhone apps
that could
>> >>> potentially solve some of the blind community's problems
with the device.
>> >>> One of them is an indoor GPS.
>> >>> "One of the biggest concerns of the blind community is
finding their way
>> >>> around independently," he says. "You can find an address,
but what if you
>> >>> get someplace and you have nobody to help you find your way around the
>> >>> building?" His solution, still in the works, will attempt to
sketch a map of
>> >>> the building based on previous routes taken within, and the
strength of the
>> >>> wireless signals bouncing from the different sources.
>> >>> It'll also take into consideration the pace and number of
steps a person
>> >>> takes from one point to the next. If a blind person were to
arrive to a
>> >>> hotel, he'd only need to be shown to his room once. The
iPhone will remember
>> >>> the way for him, and navigate him back and forth from the
room to the lobby.
>> >>> Another app Paisios is working on is a more elaborate form
of VizWiz, the
>> >>> app that tells the person what color is the shirt he is
about to wear. For
>> >>> people like him who have no recollection of color ("yellow means ripe,
>> >>> because yellow bananas are ripe"), it doesn't mean much that
the shirt he is
>> >>> pointing to is green. He'd like a stylist app to tell him
what this green
>> >>> goes with, so he can know which color pants to put on. It'll
also be able to
>> >>> tell more intricate designs. "What if people want to be
fashionable?" he
>> >>> asks earnestly.
>> >>> Yet for all that technology has helped achieve, many in the
blind community
>> >>> fear it might result in illiteracy in the generations to come.
>> >>> "I think the technology that's coming out right now is wonderful,"
>> >>> says Chalkias,"but I also think it's dumbing us down because
it's making
>> >>> everything so easy. I have a lot of teens who have speech
technology and
>> >>> they don't know how to spell, and it's horrifying to see
that." Rios has
>> >>> encountered the same problem. She is an administrative
assistant at the
>> >>> music school of Lighthouse International "an organization dedicated to
>> >>> overcoming vision impairment," based in Manhattan, and a
tutor at CCVIP who
>> >>> helps Maria with teenagers. "Even now I come in contact with
kids who can't
>> >>> spell," she says. "Young adults don't read Braille because
they have screen
>> >>> readers who read for them."
>> >>> "I definitely think there's benefits to this technology"
Chalkias says.
>> >>> ''But if it keeps getting easier we're just going to be a
society of idiots
>> >>> that can't do anything except tell our computers what to do for us."
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
>> >>> Archived on the World Wide Web at
>> >>> http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
>> >>> Signoff: vicug-l-unsubscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> >>> Subscribe: vicug-l-subscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> >
>> >
>
>
>
