Blind user of the iPhone

I created the Color ID app described by the user.<p>It's very rewarding to see that someone has found our app useful. The app was, in fact, originally intended for the (color) blind. It grew out of SS12: Code for a Cause ( <a href="http://ss12.info/" rel="nofollow">http://ss12.info/</a> ), a coding competition where the goal is to create software for the disabled.<p>The whimsical color names made me think that the app would be less useful for the colorblind, as most people don't understand colors like "Cosmic" and "Hippie Green." So I thought the app would be mostly used as a toy; a fun way to see what the "color" of your friend's face is ("Tacao"!). But this blog post makes me realize that what started almost as an accident, actually ends up being pretty awesome ("a very psychedelic experience").<p>BTW, the app's name in the App Store is "Color Identifier". It appears as "Color ID" on your home screen. I'm certain he's talking about my app because mine is the only one (AFAICT) that reads color names aloud, and also contains all of the color names that he mentions in the blog post.<p>For those interested in the app, here's an affiliate link to see it in iTunes: <a href="http://bit.ly/CIDHaN" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/CIDHaN</a> (it's 99¢)<p>Let me know what you think. I love hearing from users of my apps :)

Wow, if speaking names of colors is such a huge deal to him, imagine how he'd feel about an app that could read text aloud using the camera!<p>I wonder if you could also make an app that would generate sounds from the camera in a way that would allow a blind person to "see" with their ears. What if you took a line across the image and used the intensities as input to an inverse FFT, what would that sound like?

Fantastic story and a great reminder to developers to be mindful of accessibility issues. I've worked on a project for the VA (Veteran Affairs) in Los Angeles and I had to consciously keep asking myself "How would a visually impaired user interact with this? How would somebody with limited mobility use this?". It really makes you think about your design and your markup (in the case of a web app).<p>For developers interested in accessibility issues and the various requirements, check out <a href="http://www.section508.gov" rel="nofollow">http://www.section508.gov</a>

By the way, he solved his major complaint in the article, iTunes. He simply switched to mac a week ago: <a href="http://behindthecurtain.us/2010/09/11/rejoining-the-apple-family/" rel="nofollow">http://behindthecurtain.us/2010/09/11/rejoining-the-apple-fa...</a><p>Beautiful article, very touching.

"Then I remembered that you actually need light to see, and it probably couldn’t see much at night."<p>:) This story made me smile. Good for the author!

That's quite a touching account. On a whim, I enabled VoiceOver on my iPhone (I'm sighted), and I must say I'm quite blown away.<p>I recommend you try it if you aren't aware of this feature. It's easily enabled in the system Settings app (look for Accessibility). Just remember that when VoiceOver is active icons/buttons will require double taps instead of single taps, and you need to use triple-touch to scroll in menus or between home screens.<p>I'm sure that as a sighted person with no context I'm completely missing any nuance in the way this feature is implemented, but even handicapped so, it is quite impressive.

Video, demonstrating how blind iPhone users interact with the device.<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_TFHqIHBqM" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_TFHqIHBqM</a>

also, google employs one of the most innovative eyes-free developers on the planet, t.v. raman, to do work on android. check out the results of his work (and of his collaborator charles chen) at <a href="http://code.google.com/p/eyes-free/" rel="nofollow">http://code.google.com/p/eyes-free/</a>, demos at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/EyesFreeAndroid" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/user/EyesFreeAndroid</a>.

Cool mention at the end of the article about "augmented reality", by using an app that identifies color via the phone's built-in camera.<p>Reminds me of the compass belt... <a href="http://feelspace.cogsci.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/technology_01.html" rel="nofollow">http://feelspace.cogsci.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/technology_01.h...</a>

Anyone have experience with android's accessability UI?<p>A blind friend showed it to me, and it seemed fairly impressive but with the major failing that the web browser was not accessible.<p>Of course, the benefit of using android would be getting a phone with a physical keyboard, and a d-pad.

&#62;Amazingly, it even renders stock charts, something the blind have never had access to. Sold.<p>Can someone explain this to me? How can a chart be "rendered" for a blind person?

Voiceover is really impressive. I'm sighted, but I keep the shortcut to turn it on (triple click home button) enabled so I can use it quickly when I want to.<p>I use it to read and type short text messages when I'm driving without taking my eyes off the road. Other times I use the screen reader to read websites to me while driving.<p>So to the other developers out there, remember, accessibility helps the sighted users as well as the blind.

Typing this on my iPad with my eyes closed

Google cache for the article, since the site seems to be down <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:z3Hq_TKo4QcJ:behindthecurtain.us/2010/06/12/my-first-week-with-the-iphone/+http://behindthecurtain.us/2010/06/12/my-first-week-with-the-iphone/&#38;cd=1&#38;hl=en&#38;ct=clnk&#38;gl=us" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:z3Hq_TK...</a>

amazing article,<p>slightly out of context, are there any 3rd party accessibility testing and consulting companies who specialize in web applications?

Amazing...

The link is giving me a database error, but printful mirrored the text before it went down. Check <a href="http://printful.com/VZQA" rel="nofollow">http://printful.com/VZQA</a><p>Disclaimer: printful is a side project of mine