When I was in Boston for FlashForward I could not stop myself from getting an iPhone. I, of course, had to hack it so that I can use it in the UK on my Vodafone contract. It is far better than I ever expected. It is in no way perfect but it is by far the nicest phone that I have ever seen or used.
I have read a few reviews about how inaccessible the iPhone is to someone who is blind, has poor vision or suffer from a mobility impairment. It is a very obvious issue – there is no keypad and therefore no tactile feedback for the user with the result that vision is essential for its use. If you don’t have a steady hand then the phone will be far to sensitive to use – I battle if my hand is shaking or even if I am on a bumpy train.
Considering how many mobile devices available on the market I question why it would be important for the iPhone to be accessible? If you ignore all the comments from the accessibility fanatics and all the Mac Fanboys – of which there are some pretty shocking comments – you can get down to the core concerns. My first though was to dismiss it as not an important issue due to the number of alternatives devices available.
The only reasonable idea I have heard on this topic is that Apple are trend setters and others will move in that direction. I was reminded of all this again today when I was reading Richard Leggett’s thoughts on The Future of Mobile Devices. Devices is not an area that I have spent any length of time researching in the past but after my iPhone I am interested to watch the direction that we are moving in.
What I really love about accessibility is that it makes us think about interacting with technology though different means. I love to see new innovative methods of interaction and feel that this has more to contribute to the main stream technology than most people realise. However with the outdated regulations that are being enforced I have to wonder if accessibility will become a hindrance to the future development of devices and technology.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
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It’s an interesting point as attempted lawsuits against inaccessible sites have always (I believe) been about the software being inaccessible, not the hardware.
In this case the focus is on the iPhone which is a bit of hardware and software. I’m not really sure how much of a case there would be against it – is there anything in the world that is accessible to everyone? How does it really compare to other devices? Perhaps in certain ways it is more accessible to some users? but alienates others? If anything it may give users more choice in what suits their needs more. I mean, they don’t have to have an iPhone
Being Rosie, I like to focus on the positives. Innovation is great and should be encouraged, society would not advance if there was no innovation. However, innovation should not neglect the idea of good design, user experience and accessibility.
The thing to remember is it is Apple’s first attempt at a phone, it should only get better overtime. If third parties can develop add ons for it, I am sure accessibility people will be sure to jump on the opportunity to develop applications that will make the iPhone more accessible.
First, if you’re completely or nearly blind, you’re not going to be able to use most of the features on any modern phone.
That said, the iPhone does have a programable interface, so you could, in theory, develop an accessible “big-button” version of the interface for those with poor eyesight. Worth thinking about.
I don’t think of mobile phones and many other consumer electronics as, say, public buildings. Buildings need to be accessible because you never know who might need a special form of access to that specific building. Mobile phones are different though—they all offer the same fundamental thing: making a phone call. I don’t see why accessibility needs to be applied to one specific phone or across the entire industry, as it stands to reason that there will always be companies—plural—who cater to the needs of accessibility.
An iphone would be very difficult to use if you had poor vision. However you are not required to purchase one. It is up to the consumer to decide if the product they are buying is right for them. Apple should not be held responsible for not making the iphone completely accessible to everyone. Plus, there are ways to change the phone so that you can use it. If you really must.
P.S.-I posted this using my iPhone!
iPhone is available around the world. We don’t really have to wait for an official launch. I saw many outlets selling hacked iPhones in Singapore last week.
Voice activated features would suffice in several Apps on the iPhone_ But Apple is not the first to go this route with a touchscreen and one or 2 buttons_ I had one of the original iPaqs from Compaq years ago_ It was the same basic setup – a large touch-screen with one button [multi-use] navigation_
Devices with built-in physical keyboards – of this size – tend to have keys that are so small and bunched together that they are nearly impractical to use for people without disabilities_
There is no right or wrong answer here_
Analogy – Roller Coasters at Busch Gardens Theme Parks – like The Montu and Sheik-Ra are not handicap accessible_ Even if they provided space to accomodate some physical limitations – they would still have to prohibit a good percentage – just on practical items such as G-Force pressure asserted on the body_ they also tend to have warnings for Pregnant Women and folks with heart conditions_ Again – it would be impractical for these folks to climb aboard_
Same thing goes for Sky-diving companies and white-water rapids type-Tours_ You can’t make a set of Category 4 rapids “safety” effective for someone with certain limitations_ What are they gonna do – take the boulders out and calm the water down?
Does this mean Motorcycles should be accessible to those without legs? Should iPods be accessible to the Deaf? You have certain objects that can be made accessible and others the cant. Baseless lawsuites are a waste of money.
I think individual accessibility requirements drive the choice of devices – it is virtually impossible to cater for even a fraction of accessibility needs in the design and development of a physical object. In fact, is that even the best thing to do? Since you really want to optimize the experience of using a device, more-so that a web page.
My colleague (a mainframe programmer) is blind. He does not use a normal keyboard, nor a normal keyboard with braille symbols on – he uses this huge braille keyboard which looks totally alien to anything I am used to, but which is perfectly suited to his needs.
Yes, an iPhone with tactile feedback would be fantastic. Combined with a mini-screen-reader type application. Yes, it would allow more people to use the device, who otherwise would not. But would it be optimized to their mode of interaction? Probably not.
The only exception I can perhaps see is that things such as a high contrast color scheme (actually, its already fairly hight) or larger fonts would be beneficial in some cases. Here I think it becomes more a case of design before accessibility, but that seems to be a common trend on quite a few mobile devices these days.
You cannot cater to everyone. Those people only make up a small percentage of the population. I agree with the last poster. http://www.everything-macs.com
I think the iPhone is actually a step ahead of other phones in this scenario for one reason… It runs a true operating system that is easily updated. Let’s face it, most consumers are not handicapped in a way that would prevent them from purchasing an iPhone, so that initial release didn’t need accessibility to be a financial success. I’d imagine that Apple will begin to implement features such as voice recognition and tactile feedback eventually.
Damn you I want an iphone!
You could get over the majority of these problems by having a flexible Microdot screen up top and a proper OLED screen underneath.
The flexible screen has some element of tactile feedback: Your finger sinks a few milimeters with a satisfying sound and resting it casually on the screen sets the cursor without actually clicking anything.
On the other hand, by passing a voltage through this waifer microdot screen makes some areas unable to sink and you end up with a tactile response: The screen isn’t 100% flat. You can feel “indents” where your fingers slide which is really ideal for typing.
And if you want to be REALLY clever, you could reverse this: with the voltage actually making portions of the screen RISE. You can feel them but only when you apply a calibrated level of pressure do you actually get a response, followed by a crisp click much like the iPod.
Of course, this all depends on the unlikelyhood that Steve Job’s glass fetish is going out of the window and with him, very little ever goes out of the window (perhaps with the exception of the new look in 10.5. What were they thinking?)
It was probably a decision that Apple made, because all of their products are branded on the ‘cool’ factor. So it would not do well for the image if disabled people were using it.
First of all I’d think ALL phones (including cells) should be accessible to anyone who can HEAR whether they have one hand, poor eyesight, are blind, or just wear thick glasses! The purpose of the phone primarily is to transmit sound and once you can hear it should be accessible. If not it shouldn’t be called a phone (e.g. PMP, PIM, PSP lol).
Now whether that becomes a law or something that can be brought up in court may be a different matter, but I do think the iPhone locks out these few who can’t see well enough to do all the swishing and multitouch gestures by not just the software but the design (one button). It may be against the Jobsian grain but it wouldn’t hurt to at least have an answer/hangup button beside the home one in future models (or make that button dual functiond somehow via software or as suggested voice activated)…
OTOH of course then it wouldn’t be an iphone would it if the person can’t SEE it! Becuase the iphone is hafl about what you see (maybe more so than what you hear if you count all the apps on it). So why does a blind person want that kind of a phone you ask? Maybe they want it because when THEY aren’t using it their perfectly-fine-eyes child or spouse can use it for the other functions (and yes there are ppl who can’t aford more than one cell phone + billin this world)!
So in essence it doesn’t have to be accessible I suspect by law, but i can see where a lawsuit would come from and have a good chance of winning.
Well, I echo with my fellow commenters on the accessibility issue but jus wait till voice recognition is embedded into one of the updates… that will be fun and easy to use – much more accessible!!
The iPhone is a droolworthy work of art, but its accessibility problems are a serious flaw that could only have arisen from a design process blind to the reality that human beings vary in their abilities, just as they vary in their preferences. Accomodating human variability is not a hindrance to providing innovative control methods since there’s nothing stopping devices from providing multiple channels of interaction. For example, an iPhone-like device could be controlled from bluetooth keypad device worn on your wrist [1]. For blind but hearing users, output could be provided to the bluetooth headset [2] via a mobile/PDA screen reader [3], and for deafblind users output could be directed to a portable braille notetaker [4]. Apple already provide a TTY adapter for use by the deaf [5], though what would be really great for Deaf users who can use sign-language would be an onboard webcam so that the iPhone could be used as a videophone.
In fact, human variability is actually an /opportunity/ for innovation. Or as Apple themselves put it in the marketing blurb intended to sell them as a company that cares: “Apple is also changing the ways people interact with technology through innovative products like the iPhone, which bring new possibilities for making user interfaces accessible to users with disabilities” [6]. Many critics of the iPhone have proposed highly innovative solutions for making the touch interface itself directly usable by the blind (such as the tactile feedback mechanisms proposed in this thread).
In addition to the general principle that devices should be accessible as a matter of course and the observation that the iPhone is a trend-setter, it also needs to be noted that the iPhone is part of a wider brand experience in a way that most mobile devices aren’t. A lot of “Mac-heads” are keen to buy everything Apple comes out with (iMac, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, whatever) to get a seamless, well-designed technological experience. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for people with visual impairments, who have been courted by Apple with VoiceOver and zoom functions in Mac OS X, to expect to be able to participate in that experience when the barriers to their participation are ultimately the product of apathy or uncreativity, not innovation.
Apple have a level of control over the iPhone environment that is incomparable to the average web developer’s influence over the web ecosystem. If it’s reasonable to expect web developers to incorporate disabled persona into their design process (and I believe it is), then it is logical to expect the same of device manufacturers like Apple.
[1] Example of a wrist watch communicating with a phone over bluetooth:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/seiko-cpc-tr-006-bluetooth-watch-puts-your-phone-on-your-wrist/
[2] Apple iPhone Bluetooth Headset:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wo/StoreReentry.wo?productLearnMore=MA817LL/A
[3] Some example mobile screen readers:
http://www.nuance.com/talks/
http://www.codefactory.es/mobile_speak/mspeak.htm
http://www.yourdolphin.com/productdetail.asp?id=7
http://www.handytech.de/en/normal/service/talks-demo/index.html
[4] Braillino portable braille display: http://onlineshop.rnib.org.uk/display_item.asp?n=11&c=8&sc=44&id=2856&it=1&l=3&d=0
[5] Apple iPhone TTY adapter:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wo/StoreReentry.wo?productLearnMore=MA854LL/A
[6] Apple Accessibility site:
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/
I am reminded of universal design and how that can change buildings to be accessible to everyone. I feel that universal design limits innovation like the I-Phone. If use by blind patrons had been a prerequisite, we never would have made this leap into such a streamlined interface that is remarkably intuitive for most. Instead of demanding that every product be able to meet every user’s needs, I think that we should make sure that enough products are out there that are each innovative for their particular users. That way everyone gets a device that is the best for them. I only offer this as contrarty to the other extreme of all people being able to use everything. In reality there will of course be a mix. I think that innovation above all should be embraced and rewarded.
“My first though was to dismiss it as not an important issue due to the number of alternatives devices available.”
Thats a strange approach from someone talking about accessibility and Flash. Why are you concerned with accessibility in Flash when there are decent alternatives available?
Apple include accessibility features in their desktop OS – so it’s reasonable to presume they see this as something which either sells Macs, or staves off potentially damaging accusations that they discriminate against a segment of the population.
I think we could presume the same logic applies when it comes to mobile; in fact given the *far broader* reach of mobile (look, for instance, at the current focus of the mobile industry on the “next billion” customers, who’ll mainly come from the third world), I’d bet that the case is even stronger. But then I would, wouldn’t I
How far you take this is a different matter; I don’t know anything about accessibility, but I suspect that one man’s accessible is another man’s impossible-to-use and accommodating all the variability out there in a single device is likely to be unrealistic.
Jan Chipchase did a fantastic presentation at LIFT last year on the problems of designing mobile UI for illiterate users. Video at http://www.liftconference.com/videos/view/single/7 and presentations at http://www.janchipchase.com/blog/archives/design_research/illiterate_communication_practices/ ; two take-aways from this: using icons instead of text and controlling everything with voice aren’t necessarily the solution.
But if you can conceive of designing for users who are illiterate, I’d argue it’s more than reasonable to design for a broad spectrum of folks. Now we just have to agree on a definition of broad
Another option for improving accessibility on the iPhone…
http://jtlog.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/iphone-accessibility/
I don’t know how open t0 3rd party updates the iPhone is but it might be possible to do this on existing models. Would be fun to try, except I don’t have an iPhone! Keep meaning to get in touch with iPhone-clone makers to see if they’d be interested in trying out the idea as well.
Hello,
Well with the release of the SDK, I was wondering if there was going to be a centeral place where we could band about some ideas as to how we want to access the IPhone, which, may I add on a personal note I want because its cool. Yes, I am blind and exceedingly vain, perish the thought. I could simply pose with it, lay it next to my coffee in starmucks, accidentally drop it when the sweet scent of perfume passes me by, but I’d look like a bit of a fool not being able to take the ladies number now wouldn’t I? If we get together, bang on about it for long enough, something will happen. The power of the loudmouth is in all of us, “I want does not get” is a very coyned phrase, nay, I say, “I want does get” if enough people want it.
So, my suggestion is, set up a centeral exchange for developers to look to see what is wanted by the fassion contious face feelers, lets think our way out of the problem rather than moan.
O
[...] Although pointing or selecting may be impossible, performing a gesture is not. We present an approach similar to NavTap (NavTouch) that uses the user’s capacity to perform a directional gesture and through it navigate in the alphabet (similarly to the keypad based approach). Once again, the user is not forced to memorize or guess any location in the screen as the interaction is limited to directional strokes.
Special actions are linked to the screen corners as those are easily identified. After performing a gesture, if the user keeps pressing the screen, the navigation will continue automatically in last direction. The bottom right corner of the screen erases the last character entered and the bottom left corner of the screen enters a space or other special characters. In contrast to keypad, where the user has to find the right key to press, with these gestures that extra cognitive load does not exist. [...]
[...] flaw of the iPhone is its inaccessibility for visually impaired users, despite some built-in accessibility features for other [...]
Having not yet read through all the comments here I may be repeating others! However, I would think that the extensibility of the iPhone platform is probably the key to it’s accessibility.
There are, I believe, various possibilities:
1. The possibility to write apps which present highly visible interfaces for the visually-impaired. There are already one or two apps which help with text entry (EasyWriter is a good start with a (landscape format) keyboard for people with bigger fingers – or for on buses and trains. This could be taken further.
2. Maybe the combination of sound input together with motion-sensing (using the in-built accelerometer) could also help in some way… shake the iPhone a certain way to make an emergency call?
3. If the iPhone programming API allows it, a screen-reader of sorts could be created, using the speaker to read back content
4. Just about every phone on the market, including the iPhone, has a vibration alarm as a minimum level of accessibility for visually-impaired, hard-of-hearing or blind users. An option of having a much larger (full-screen) call accept button would be good here.
Just a few thoughts and I could probably go on. I do think there are options there and the ingenuity of the developer community is called upon to make a difference, if a need for improved accessibility on the iPhone is perceived.
I certainly agree with you – it’ll be interesting to see how this develops!