Poor vision and mobile phones
Posted: Thu 15 Dec 2005 6:27 pm
Hi, I came across something the other day that hopefully could prove useful to some people on here.
Through attending a course recently I met an individual who has serious sight problems (that are totally unrelated to KC).
His mobile phone caught everyone's attention - it was unusual as it talked! When I was helping him set up his Bluetooth headest I had the opportunity to see his phone first hand and ask him a few questions about it.
Turns out it's got a piece of software called "Talks" installed on it. This software is designed specifically for people with vision problems. Basically it reads out menus as you scroll through them, tells you what key has been pressed etc. It can also read out text messages and the number that is phoning (if it's in the phone's addressbook it will speak the name).
Obviously this can make using a mobile phone much easier if you have difficulty seeing the screen.
I looked into it some more and it appears that it runs on phones that use the Nokia Series 60 operating system (commonly referred to as their "smart" phones) and also the Nokia Communicator range.
A quick Google search found a UK distributor -
http://www.tandt-consultancy.com/talks_prices.html
and even a review by the RNIB -
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/pu ... hones.hcsp
Hope this might prove useful to someone.
Rob.
Through attending a course recently I met an individual who has serious sight problems (that are totally unrelated to KC).
His mobile phone caught everyone's attention - it was unusual as it talked! When I was helping him set up his Bluetooth headest I had the opportunity to see his phone first hand and ask him a few questions about it.
Turns out it's got a piece of software called "Talks" installed on it. This software is designed specifically for people with vision problems. Basically it reads out menus as you scroll through them, tells you what key has been pressed etc. It can also read out text messages and the number that is phoning (if it's in the phone's addressbook it will speak the name).
Obviously this can make using a mobile phone much easier if you have difficulty seeing the screen.
I looked into it some more and it appears that it runs on phones that use the Nokia Series 60 operating system (commonly referred to as their "smart" phones) and also the Nokia Communicator range.
A quick Google search found a UK distributor -
http://www.tandt-consultancy.com/talks_prices.html
and even a review by the RNIB -
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/pu ... hones.hcsp
Hope this might prove useful to someone.
Rob.
