iPhone 3G S, The world’s most accessible smart phone

Today Apple upgraded the iPhone and made it the most accessible phone.  As I had predicted in an earlier post, with more capable hardware they were able to improve accessibility.  Apple gets it, they see accisibility not as a hindrance, but as a way to create a competitive advantage.

Voice Over, speak it to me

With Voice Over anyone can now control the iPhone without needing to see the screen.  Gestures are used to move around and the entire OS is opened up to the blind:

You’ll hear descriptions of every item on the screen, including status information such as battery level, Wi-Fi and cellular network signal levels, the cellular network provider, and time of day. It even lets you know when the display changes to landscape or portrait orientation, and when the screen is locked or unlocked.

VoiceOver includes built-in voices that speak 21 languages including Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, English (US), English (UK), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), and Swedish.

This feature also allows a blind person to interact with a sighted person by displaying a Voice Over cursor which displays a rectangle around the item being described and the screen can be turned off for privacy.  The Voice Over feature could be great for a sighted person as well.  You can control the iPhone without taking it out of your pocket and you can probably extend battery life by not having the LCD on.

I am not sure how typing is handled (probably by selecting each letter at a time with the gestures), but Voice Over is a real win for the iPhone.

Voice Control, do as I say

Another feature that makes the new iPhone more accessible is Voice Control.  Apple prominently showcased this feature during the keynote announcement of the iPhone as one that has mass appeal, but here is another feature which helps the disabled by allowing dialing and music selection via voice commands.  It also supports 21 Languages.

you can use your voice to play music and make a phone call. Just press and hold the home button, listen for the audio prompt, and speak the name of the artist, album, or playlist you want to hear. You can pause, play, change tracks, even shuffle your music.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

The iPhone 3G S now lets you magnify the screen of any application on the iPhone.  Not only does this help those who traditionally need magnification, but Baby Boomers with poor eye sight now have an option for an accessible smart phone.

Zoom works everywhere, including the Home, Unlock, and Spotlight screens—even with applications you purchase from the App store.

And there’s more…

These are just a few of the accessibility features of the iPhone , but these are ones which potentially have uses outside the disabled community.  It is clear that Apple is motivated to create accessible products, but by addressing this need, it also opens up the possibility to market these features outside the disabled community.

Be sure to check out Apple’s iPhone accessibility page for more information of solutions for the hearing impaired and those with physical and motor skills difficulties.

Related posts:

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