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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2022 - 02 - 03 - ID#sjifh5
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People with absolute blindness and smartphone usage (self.Blind)
submitted by Leoxshn
[removed]
Mamamagpie 6 points 1y ago
These questions are asked so often they should be in FAQ, but you guys can’t be bothered to search the sub, why would you stop and read the FAQ?
DHamlinMusic 2 points 1y ago
I was going to say something similar, though probably less politely worded. Though I read the comments first to see if someone else had said as much, which is why I'm simply replying instead.
Leoxshn [OP] -2 points 1y ago
I'm sorry if I came across disrespectful, I've now read the part about people making AT; I didn't mean to self promote or anything, just wanted to see if I could make something useful.

I should've rad the FAQ. I guess my excuse is that FAQs are usually summarized, and launchers are a niche topic
MostlyBlindGamer 2 points 1y ago
"Can blind people use smartphones?" is a broad, generic question.

Even then, if it were summarized, it would be quicker to get through, wouldn't it?
retrolental_morose 6 points 1y ago
VoiceOver and iOS and TalkBack for Android are integrated into the default shells.
Cryptic_Spren97 3 points 1y ago
Hi there. Great question, and I'm more than happy to answer it.
I'm totally blind and have been all my life, and I currently have an iPhone 12 (which is entirely usable). In fact, I'm using it right now to respond to this thread.
I use a screen reader on both my laptop and phone. This takes all of the visual elements shown on the screen, and converts it to speech. My mac has several keyboard shortcuts that have been made for use with a screen reader, and I use the keyboard only, not the mouse. My phone is a little different, as (being an iPhone) it has a touch screen. All apple devices have a built in screen reader called Voiceover. I use this on my computer to, but in a different way. When it comes to the phone, I mainly use a variety of gestures (along with haptic feedback) to navigate. It's not so great with images etc, but with all of the developments in technology, there are plenty of applications that do the job. Seeing AI is my favourite.
I use a lot of different gestures when interacting with my phone. Here is a list of the most common:
Swipe to the left, move to the previous element on the screen.
Swipe to the right, move to the next element on the screen.
Swipe up, move to the previous option in a menu.
Swipe down, move to the next option in a menu.
Tap once, read out whatever's at the position I tapped.
Tap twice in quick succession, select an item or confirm.
When typing, I will put my finger on the screen, then drag it around till I find the right letter. I can do this very quickly as I've touch typed for a long time, so know the layout of a qwerty keyboard well. For example, if I touch the screen and voiceover says "m” and I'm looking for j, I know that I will need to move once up, and once to the left. When I'm on the correct letter, I lift my finger and it is typed.

When scrolling through reddit, I start with the voiceover cursor at the top left of the screen. I flick to the right, and each time voiceover reads a sub-reddit. For example "r/Blind, double tap to open." Once I hear the sub-reddit I want, I'll double tap and it will take me into it. I can then do the same as before (flick left and right to read through the threads) and I can also use headings or links to make it faster. To do that, I use the voiceover rota. I put 2 fingers on the screen, and twist them like I'm turning a nob. Each time I twist, it will take me to something like headings, links, characters, words, speaking rate etc. I can therefore read the post word by word, letter by letter or skip to a link or heading.
Once I've found the thread I want, I'll swipe down till I hear "view all comments" then double tap to select. I'll read the comments by swiping left and right, and if I want to do something with the comment (for example upvote, downvote or reply), I'll swipe up and down.
I hope this explanation makes sense. :) Feel free to ask further questions, if you want me to clarify anything.
Leoxshn [OP] 2 points 1y ago
Thank you so much for such a detailed response!

I got another question: Do you also use swiping gestures to open apps, or do you remember where you should tap by muscle memory?
Cryptic_Spren97 3 points 1y ago
You're very welcome. I'm always happy to help. :)
I usually put apps in folders, and it's fairly easy to remember where the folders are on the screen. I tap approximately where I think the one I'm looking for is, and I'm often right. If voiceover reads it out to me, I know that I am on it and can double tap. Once in the folder, I will usually swipe to find the app to save time.
Another great option (if I can't remember exactly where the app I'm looking for is) is to use the spotlight search option. I can often find the one I'm looking for after typing a couple of letters.
retrolental_morose 4 points 1y ago
A third option is Braille Screen Input, which doesn't limit you to apps on any particular page.
Obviously you need to be a braillist, but if you are, it can *dramatically* speed up both launching apps and of course typing, which is what the input-mode was designed for,
Cryptic_Spren97 2 points 1y ago
I've used braille screen input since it became available. I completely forgot to mention it though, so thanks for pointing it out. :)
retrolental_morose 3 points 1y ago
the post before yours here (mine) describes the apps I use of an average day just en-route the work. I have no vision at all.
akrazyho 2 points 1y ago
Using talkback for android or voiceover for iPhones I can do anything on my iPhone since these make the phones fully accessible and our built-in to the software themselves. In fact I can do almost anything you can do almost as fast as you can do it not quite but almost as fast as you. For example today I’m going to browse Reddit find and play some music jump on YouTube order something off of Amazon read a nutrition label check my glucose and maybe later pop in a movie with audio descriptions and watch it or in my case listen to it schedule my credit card payment plus if I’m feeling extra hungry I order something through DoorDash and have it delivered to me all without any help. And for the basics that definitely covered I’m gonna continue my text message conversations send and receive new text messages check my emails respond to my emails and make a phone call or two today.

The beauty of voiceover is how well introgated it is into the ecosystem on the iPhone the iPad and the Mac plus things like the Apple Watch and Apple TV.

We don’t need any apps really that I can think of other users may chime in but if you’re really good we could all use some games that we can use and play with screen readers. To answer your original question technology wise we are super well covered and it’s kind of hard to come up with new ideas or apps that would help us that we don’t have right now. I’m not making fun of you or anything here I do understand your desire to to help us with technology and I admire that.

Fully blind user here for two years and I was able to respond to this post using just my iPhone invoice over.
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