Smartphone apps are a game changer for patients
Smartphone accessibility options, now a standard, have also been a real game changer for people who are blind or visually impaired. One of the first questions I ask a low vision patient is, “Are You Using A Smart Phone?” If not my follow-up question is, “Why Not?” Siri voice recognition alone makes it easy to make phone calls and obtain information by just asking.
Screen reader functions like VoiceOver on the iPhone and TalkBack on the Android have made the smartphone a must-have device. Paired with the smartphone camera some app developers have created some amazing apps that are now used daily by people with low vision. App functions include reading printed text from a page, providing navigation/directions and object, product, money and color recognition.
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Great article! Going to print this out to give to the families of my low vision patients. Thank you!
Yeah, really great job. Very valuable resource for many practices.
Great article. You should add Seeing AI by Microsoft. It’s going to be massive! https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/seeing-ai/
Thanks Matt. I wrote the article a few weeks ago before Microsofts “Seeing AI” App came out. It just came out last week, and I have recently downloaded it to try. I am also waiting on reviews from some of my low vision patients who are trying it before giving all my comments on it. There are some other Apps that do object and other recognition, but do work very well, so I did not mention them in this article. Hopefully this one is better. I will be sure to post on the Seeing AI App once I get more feedback from low vision or blind users. But for now here is a link to an online review I found: http://mashable.com/2017/07/19/goat-yoga-newest-trend-us/
Another Edit, Wrong link, here is correct link for online review on Seeing AI
http://mashable.com/2017/07/12/microsoft-seeing-ai-app-for-blind/#JjN7yRIJisq3
Needed to edit my reply “There are some other Apps that do object and other recognition, but do NOT work very well, so I did not mention them in this article. Hopefully this one is better.
Great stuff Bryan! There is a free version of the KNFB reader, fyi.