iPhone Black on White Display
Apparently, Apple has been listening. I have blogged much over the past six months on the iPhone’s missing accessibility features; more zoom, more color contrast and more voice. Today, Apply announced the next iteration of the iPhone, the 3G S, and it has taken a giant step in the right direction.
Apple introduces these features on its iPhone 3G S Accessibility page.
iPhone 3G S offers accessibility features to assist users who are visually or hearing impaired. These features include the VoiceOver screen reader, a Zoom feature, White on Black display options, Mono Audio, and more.
Learn more about accessibility
The main new accessibility feature is the implementation of Apple’s signature screen reader, Voiceover, to the iPhone. Without having tested it myself, this seems like a pretty good implementation.
In addition to Voice Control, iPhone 3G S features VoiceOver, the world’s first gesture-based screen reader. Instead of memorizing keyboard commands or pressing tiny arrow keys, you simply touch the screen to hear a description of the item under your finger, then double-tap, drag, or flick to control iPhone. VoiceOver speaks 21 languages and works with all of the applications built into iPhone 3G S.
Just as importantly for me are two of the other new features. The new iPhone offers a more extensive zoom feature. “Zoom on iPhone lets you magnify the entire screen of any application. Zoom up to 5 times normal size and move left, right, up, and down to view any portion of the screen close up. Zoom works everywhere, including the Home, Unlock, and Spotlight screens, and with every application.”
iPhone High Contrast
For high contrast needs, there is a new black-on-white display option. “If you need or prefer higher contrast, iPhone 3G S lets you change the display to white on black. Use the White on Black feature in any application, as well as the Home, Unlock, and Spotlight screens, and with Zoom and VoiceOver.” It looks nicely implemented, unlike the default options in Microsoft Windows.
Apple is also touting a voice control feature, though as general feature rather than as an accessibility option. I don’t know the extent, usefulness or many details yet.
The iPhone is due out on the 19th, so I will be heading over to the Apple Store to check it out. I do not know if these features are available to older models through the new OS 3.0 upgrade. That upgrade is available on the 17th, so expect an answer on that day.
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They’re not available to 3G models, you’ll have to buy 3G S for that. However, the voiceover implementation in snow leopard also has the “touch” feature, that turns the trackpad of a macbook into a representation of the screen, and speaks what is under your finger. It also has the “rotor” gesture. Indeed, a huge step forward. Also, on twitter, yesterday, many were struck by the emotional effect it has: full implementation of accessibility options in a mainstream and well designed product.
Hey guys, just when the 3gs is about to come out i find this site about accessibility for the iphone. I do own one though i am totally blind, and have so far only been able to use ispeak for voice dialing. I am amazed by the number of accessible fuctions the new iphone 3gs has. It is indeed a very profound shift from Apple to cater to the visually/hearing impaired. And the voice over make over is also very good news. I am purchasing both the iphone 3gs and the apple book pro for my birthday as they will both bring me a new dimension in computing. And probably they will make me the slickest blind man where i live. Great for presentations as you go blindfolded to show visual graphics made by your team at the studio. KUDOS
Just bought the iPhone 3GS
First thoughts:
It is nice being able to zoom or use text to speech. However you can’t use both at same time, it is one or the other. It is a joy being able to move your finger over icons or menus and having them read to you and being able to hear your emails and text messages read to you or being able to zoom in and read them that way.
Voice dialing is also very good.
I HATE the white text on black feature, as this is not as it seems, it just reverses th screen, so you end up with black text on a white home screen, blue buttons become orange it is awful, Apple should have introduced themes. All I wanted was white text on a black background period.
Also zooming in and out is tricky with 3 fingers, why did they not use the pinch gesture that you use in Safari or on photos?
Not all screens can be used in landscape, so this can be a pain when you are using zoom, landscape would have privided a wider reading area for menus etc
I have only had the phone an hour, so it is early days, but sending a text or an email is very difficult when visually impaired. Nokia is still better. When using the keyboard in zoom mode it is so easy to hit the wrong key, in speech mode you have to double tap a key to select, maybe this should have been the case with zoom? I gave up, maybe I will get used to it, I can text so fast on Nokia. A wireless keyboard would be useful for composing texts then the iPhone could rea them out.
Email can use giant fonts which saves zooming in, SMS/MMS does not have this feature (???)
More voice commands would be useful, would be nice to activate voice mode when a new email or text arrives and asking the iPhone to read the message to you, this would also be useful for drivers.
Alot of these issues could be fixed with a software update, but I just wonder who Apple used to test these features as they could be so much better, however, this is a very welcome start Apple and thank you for that, but lets make it better eh?
I may have to keep a second phone for writing text messages.
I will write a more detailed report later, if anyone else has any tips then please let me know.
More thoughts
There is only one voice to choose from which is a shame, would have been nice to have the option of a male voice too, and some words do not sound correct. For example iPod sounds iPord (UK). Sometimes it is difficult to hear the difference between M and N. The voice feedback is also not terribly loud as the iPhone speaker is quite weak in comparison to Nokia, so some users might struggle in noisy situations.
Still can’t get the hang of typing (very slow in voice mode and so easy to accidentally brush the wrong key in zoom), I think I would find it easier to enter text if there was a telephone keypad to ender text (like the one used for making calls), I found this very easy to use on my Nokia, and T3 predictive text would be a bonus when in this mode. In fact I would find this option easier for all text input (Safari, email, serch etc, anyone know of a 3rd party app?).
When in VoiceOver mode you can turn the voice off by hitting the screen twice with 3 fingers, however by doing this you are still forced to use the VoiceOver gestures.
Why is this a problem for me? Well to dial a number in voiceover mode is very slow, you have to hit each number twice. If you do not hit each number twice and you go to hit a different number, the previous number is added again despite hitting a different part of the screen. So I thought hmmm I can see the phone dialer ok so i will just turn voice off for this bit and type out the number normally. Sadly that does not resolve the problem as you are still in VoiceOver gesture mode. Annoying!!!
VoiceOver failed to offer anything useful when using maps.
It would be nice to have option to change home screen icons into list mode so you can view apps in alpa order in a list instead of sliding from home screen to home screen.
I found it very difficult to turn tracks up and down on the iPod when in Voice Over mode, I used the buttons on the side to get around this problem
I hope this does not come across as negative as there is still a great deal to like and I would like highly praise Apple for being the first to build in accessibility features (It would cost £150+ to have similar functionality on top the price of a Nokia phone). So Apple please keep up the good work and lets make this even better.
Luckily I still have some useful vision, if you are complely blind I would seriously think carefully and try before you buy. I will not be binning my Nokia quite yet, but I feel in time with software updates i will finally be Nokia free. And I hope I do not sound like a Nokia basher, Nokia is the only other phone manufacturer I know that also provides accessibility possibilies on a mobile.
I would welcome any suggestions or hints and tips from other users
Sadly you still can’t assign a ring tone to a song in your music library, neither can you add your own text message alerts. There is also no way to change the email sound.
after a full of play, really starting to get the hang of whizzing around the icons and the menus with VoiceOver. Still not a fan of the voice, she is quite muffled, Alex would have been beter, the letter E is very quiet and it you have to listen hard to tell the difference between M and N.
Also still wish you could quickly turn voice over off to be able to use normal gestures to pinch to zoom into web pages, emails and pictures.
would be nice to be able to make text generally bigger overall across the phone. I am not a fan of contacts and still not a fan of using QWERTY keyboard, it is usable but not a pleasurable experience, but better then nothing I guess. Reading emails and texts is not a problem, its the writing part that is a pain, give me a Nokia for this any day.
Come on Apple you have a number keypad for dialing, why can’t we use it for entering T9 text or finding contacts from the address book?
am not sure if I am going to keep the phone or take it back, or get cheap Nokia PAYG for texting.
Chris, I’d be interested in putting your comments together and editing them into a blog post for ATMac – are you interested in that?
Cheers,
Ricky
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