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Apple IPhone Model 3GS
This page contains information from Apple and also the personal ovservations of a brand new blind IPhone 3GS user.

Apple Product Information
The revolutionary iPhone also includes an equally revolutionary screen reader, and other innovative accessibility features that make it easier to use for those with impaired vision.

VoiceOver
iPhone 3GS displaying VoiceOver settings. The VoiceOver and Speak Hints buttons are on. Three instructions appear: To select an item touch it. To tap the selected item, double-tap. To scroll, flick three fingers. The same VoiceOver screen reader made popular on the Mac is now a standard feature on iPhone 3GS. It’s the world’s first gesture-based screen reader, enabling you to enjoy the fun and simplicity of iPhone even if you can’t see the screen.

What makes VoiceOver on iPhone truly remarkable is that you control it using simple gestures that let you physically interact with items on screen. It’s easy to learn and fun to use. Instead of memorizing hundreds of keyboard commands, or endlessly pressing tiny arrow keys to find what you’re looking for, with VoiceOver, you simply touch the screen to hear a description of the item under your finger, then gesture with a double-tap, drag, or flick to control the phone.

VoiceOver delivers an experience unlike any screen reader you’ve ever used before. Traditional screen readers describe individual elements on the screen, but struggle to communicate where each element is located or provide information about adjoining objects. This contextual information is very important but typically filtered out by other screen readers. For example, “off-screen” models used by traditional screen readers to represent applications and web pages intentionally strip away contextual information and describe web pages as a list or menu of items. But with VoiceOver on iPhone 3GS, you’ll experience something entirely new. Because VoiceOver works with iPhone’s touchscreen, you interact directly with objects on the screen and can naturally understand their location and context. So, when you touch the upper-left corner of the screen, you’ll hear what’s in the upper left corner of a web page, and as you drag your finger around the screen, you’ll learn what’s nearby, providing an amazing new sense of context and relationship between the items you hear. For many, VoiceOver on iPhone will provide, perhaps for the first time, a true sense of how things appear on screen, not just descriptions of what they are.

You’ll hear descriptions of every item on the screen, including status information such as battery level, Wi-Fi and cellular network signal levels, the cellular network provider, and time of day. It even lets you know when the display changes to landscape or portrait orientation, and when the screen is locked or unlocked. The speaking rate is adjustable so you can set it to a speed that best suits your listening ability. VoiceOver uses distinctive sound effects to alert you when an application opens, when the screen is updated, when a message dialog appears, and more. And, when Voiceover is talking, the volume of background sounds and music are automatically lowered, “ducking” under the voice, so you can clearly hear what VoiceOver is telling you.

It speaks your language
VoiceOver includes built-in voices that speak 21 languages including Bahasa Indonesian, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, English (US), English (UK), English (Australian), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Thai, Turkish.

Observations From A Brand New Blind 3GS User
During the time I was involved with the creation of our IPhone podcasts I became convinced that the IPhone was the cell phone that I wanted. As of the time of the creation of this page I’ve owned an IPhone for a brief time. The following observations come from my experience as a brand new blind user.

First, if you are in the market for a cell phone, the IPhone 3GS is one you definitely want to consider. There are two models the 3G and the 3Gs. The S version is the one you need. In my case I found that the S model was an additional one hundred dollars. This is partially because it includes the Voice Over screen reader. However, it has a number of features, including Voice Command dialing, that would entice a sighted user to go for it. An additional 8 Gig of memory is also included.

Here’s a couple of tips to assist you in your shopping. First it’s quite likely that the clerk you’ll talk to will know very little, if anything, about accessibility. You can tell them that to turn on the Voice Over so you can look at it they need to do the following. Go to Settings than General and last Accessibility. You should be aware that while the phone is very accessible there’s a fairly large learning curve. It will take time to become proficient. I’m very much at that point at this time.

If you purchase the phone I’d recommend that you have the Triple Tap Home option in the Accessibility menu enabled. This will allow you to quickly turn off the screen reader when seeking sighted help. My Granddaughter worked for A T and T for several years and is very familiar with the normal IPhone. The screen reader stopped her dead in her tracks until I turned it off.

Here’s a couple of tips for using the screen reader. Keep one finger constantly in contact with the screen when looking for something. Move the finger around slowly and listen to the screen reader as it reads the name of each function. When you hear the one you want continue to hold your finger on it and tap the screen with a second finger. This will select it. To locate other parts of that function slide your fingers up or down or right or left.

I’d strongly suggest that you listen to one or both of our podcasts. Our guests for the IPhone podcast have several different levels of experience and you can get a feel for what the phone can do as well as learn a great deal. Just go to the home page and than to the podcast link.

Blind Cool Tech also has a podcast directed at the IPhone beginner. Check it out at
www.blindcooltech.com

I sincerely hope that this has been helpful,
Parker