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Unbelievable!!!

Wait till they try using it whilst doing something else (driving, walking, cooking, generally living) and then let them see how cool and useful they think it is.

An excellent example of the barriers that usability/accessibility have to overcome. Accessibility is a part of Usability and Usability applies to everyone.

S

Fortunately the community at TUAW at least partially policed itself.  If you read all 60+ comments, the ratio of ass to civil runs about 7:5.  As I pointed out there, cell phones, unlike MP3 players, make use of a precious public resource, the limited EM spectrum.  As such, American manufacturers are to “provide at least one mode that does not require user vision” when “readily achievable”.

Ignorant comments by ignorant people!

Well, what do you expect in todays society???

i think that the iphone will be good, but the idear of it is that it is not made for blind people is it wat is the point in trying to bring that into conzo, the iphone is very gd technolgy and is very ahead of its tiem it the first phone of its kind so look out for problems when they first cum out, other wise hav fun and i think it mtie be a bit ahard trying tog et hold of them

nic

I agree, harsh coments but today's society is like that, me me me and sod everyone else. I am sure the wizz kids at Apple could hve come up with an add up on or upgrade to make the phone more accessible for people. I am partually sighted myself (not blind) and do you know so far no manufacturer has made a phone that you can completey customize (font size, colour scheme etc) like you can with say Mac OS or Windows.

Come on Apple pull your finger out and add an exta feature to allow whatever size text people want, that is a start hey.

matt

"Come on Apple pull your finger out and add an exta feature to allow whatever size text people want, that is a start hey."

Why do people complain when nobody outside apple has even TOUCHED one yet - let alone looked at the features. Besides its not like blind people don't have alternatives - like ANY OTHER MOBILE PHONE!

THANK YOU! I am partially sighted and just had a big debate about the iphone with a friend. She made the point that Apple is thinking of it in terms of money, of course... They aren't going out of business by forgetting blind people. Still sucks for the rest of us though.

Don't these people have enough to do with saving the whales, trees and endangered species around the world - Leave Apple alone - They are innovators of technology not innovators of devices to enrich the lives of a portion of the population.

In my opinion apple are playing a very good game of monopoly, as they are controlling the prices, where, when and in this case whom they would like to sell there products.

I can understand the frustration to a point but I am sure that we cannot complain that the handset does not do more than what it already does due to something that was no fault of the manufacturer nor ourselves.

If the handset does not work to your liking then buy another handset.

Does this mean you could NEVER have touch-screen technology unless you ALSO develop some OTHER kind of technology for the blind? That makes NO sense to me. There are thousands of other phones that blind people can use.

What about the iPod itself? They certainly discriminate against deaf people, don't they! I insist that iPods MUST include text-based versions of all songs -- it's the ONLY fair thing to do!

As some have said, ignorant comments by ignorant people.

However, as a Mac person from day one, I've long been aware that Apple take very seriously the aspects of disability when it comes to using their machines.

To that end, perhaps not everyone will be aware that incorporated within OS X (the system software that both new Mac's and the iPhone run natively) is a great little bundle of accessability options (termed appropriately 'Accessability') which includes the options to have the Mac speak to you, listen to you, to adjust screen settings - reverse contrast etc, and to zoom the screen in a similar fashion as applications such as ZoomText on a PC.

I'm currently looking into whether or not the iPhone has these options available, and if not, how one can get them enabled - ie. by putting pressure on Apple to do so. Remember, it's native to the system software on the iPhone ! Personally, I believe the iPhone has the potential to open up the way blind users can use mobile phones - I hope others do as well.

BTW, I'm not visually impaired myself, but my wife is. And FYI Mr. Scott, there are NOT thousands of phones out there that blind people can use - in fact, my wife has to use one that is over 7 years old simply because it is the ONLY one that meets her requirements. Please don't make glib comments about something you obviously have very little if any experience of. It just makes things harder for those of us who do have to live with blindness.

Dear Ben,

I completely agree with your comment.
Being visually impaired myself I am always looking for new ways to make things easier. And as you said the iphone holds a lot of potential. The idea of a zoomtextlike software on the iphone is very possible. It just needs to be done.

I'm planning to write a letter to apple through a major organisation for blind people. It could be interesting if we could share ideas.

Hear you soon,

Karl