Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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How do completely blind people post on a social network, type an email/text message, send a picture, etc? (self.Blind)
submitted by veryberryblue
I apologize if this question has been asked before but how does a completely blind person do the things mentioned in the title?. I'm using Android and I know that there are accessibility tools to allow people to read, navigate and do a variety of other things but specifically, what tools would I need to post on a social network, compose an email, compose a text message or identify and then send a picture to someone?. Thank you.
vadwar 5 points 4y ago
As a totally blind person, I can say that there are many different ways of writing text. If I am using a computer, I use a screen reader which reads the screen for me and allows me to access the edit boxes to write comments on Reddit because the people here are awesome and made there website accessble. I am lazy though and its 3 in the morning where I am, so I am using an IPhone with Voice Over and a great feature called braille screen input which turns my phone in to a makeshift brailler and allows me to type this comment using standard braille wit out much difficulty.
veryberryblue [OP] 2 points 4y ago
Really amazing stuff out there. Just wanted to say that I am blind in one eye and slowly losing vision in the other and I want to learn and be prepared. It's good to see that people can still communicate when they are blind. It sounds like iPhone are pretty good for this type of thing.
bscross32 2 points 4y ago
Typing on Android is slow, Talkback doesn't keep up very well, it's better on iOS, but still, I use BSI, which is braille screen input, as another poster mentioned, it lets you use the screen to input braille, and sighted people think you've been possessed by a demon because you have your phone either screen up or with the screen facing away and you're tapping away at it with six fingers, which is amusing to me. With pictures, it's harder. If I like literally just snapped one, I use the timestamp to identify it. There is also another app called Seeing Ai, in it, there is a feature that gives an AI's overview of what's in the pic. A little less accurate, and really inaccurate at times, but at least you know. Those labels also get read off in thumbnail view while browsing in that app. You can share from there so iMessage is an option and you can send it that way.
veryberryblue [OP] 1 points 4y ago
Thanks!. Your reply lead me to search for some of those apps and I disovered a lot of really interesting ones (in addition to the ones you mentioned) (:
cookieinaloop 2 points 4y ago
Screen readers. They're really cool but really hard to learn how to use for people who got used to use their devices visually.
veryberryblue [OP] 2 points 4y ago
So true!. A voice constantly talking to you while you're scrambling around touching things on the screen hoping you hit the right one. Pretty confusing until you get used to it (:
cookieinaloop 2 points 4y ago
My biggest problem is that the reader either doesn't read as fast as I type/scroll or it reads too fast and I get a headache with dizziness.
veryberryblue [OP] 2 points 4y ago
Yeah and unless you have the QWERTY keyboard memorized by heart it's really difficult to know exactly where to touch. Also for some reason I'm getting repeating letters when I'm typing.
bradley22 2 points 4y ago
I use IOS, typing is a little easier on an IPhone.
There are a couple typing options.
I can’t remember them at the moment but I believe I use touch typing mode, you still have to know the layout of the keyboard but you can drag your finger around to find the letter.
There’s also a mode where you find a letter and double tap on it to make it work.
There are a couple typing options.
I can’t remember them at the moment but I believe I use touch typing mode, you still have to know the layout of the keyboard but you can drag your finger around to find the letter.
There’s also a mode where you find a letter and double tap on it to make it work.
Marconius 2 points 4y ago
If on Android, enable Talkback or Voice Assistant if on a Samsung device. The primary social networking apps like Facebook and Twitter are fairly intuitive and they work well with the Android screen readers. All native apps such as Gmail, Photos, Camera, etc. work with the screen readers, so it becomes a matter of learning how to navigate a screen reader around the mobile interface and learning how to interact.
It's much easier and much more intuitive in iOS, but that's my personal opinion. :)
It's much easier and much more intuitive in iOS, but that's my personal opinion. :)
veryberryblue [OP] 1 points 4y ago
Thank you for your reply!. I wonder if a person can get an inexpensive iPhone on a cheap prepaid plan or if they are mostly available as contract phones.
I have been playing around with the Google app, Hound and various other voice assistants with some fairly good results but I must admit it takes some time getting used to. TalkBack is very good too. I wonder how blind people post on Reddit and what they would need to do that. I'm also curious about what Reddit alternative would be the most blind-friendly (ie; BaconReader, etc).
I have been playing around with the Google app, Hound and various other voice assistants with some fairly good results but I must admit it takes some time getting used to. TalkBack is very good too. I wonder how blind people post on Reddit and what they would need to do that. I'm also curious about what Reddit alternative would be the most blind-friendly (ie; BaconReader, etc).
Marconius 2 points 4y ago
I use BaconReader in iOS and it works great. Can't comment on how well it works with Android since it's not my primary phone OS. The official reddit app is trash, and I rarely try mobile reddit through a browser like Safari or Chrome.
veryberryblue [OP] 1 points 4y ago
I tried BaconReader earlier today. It was nice but I couldn't find a way to subscribe to subs and even after adjusting the font settings, in some places they were really tiny. One thing I really liked about it was that it has landscape orientation which I need in order to use my keyboard effectively.
rkingett -1 points 4y ago
How does this crap make it through? Do people seriously not read the sidebar or any of the FAQ for sighted people? I don't get it. Why can't sighted people read?
Raf_AL 1 points 4y ago
OP is going blind.
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