Apple Does it Again: Announcing the First Fully Accessible Touch Screen Cell Phone

At yesterday's WWDC conference, Apple announced some very exciting news for the disabled community. They have designed the first fully accessible touch screen cell phone.

For all of you that are thinking that it would be impossible for a blind person to use a touch screen device, apparently it's not, or at least that's what APple is hoping. The new IPhone 3GS will have VoiceOver built in. Since there are no buttons on the phone, VoiceOver will use gesture recognition to help the user know where they are on the screen. A single tap will tell the user what's under their finger, a double tap selects the item, and flicking your fingers scrolls. But these are just some of the features. It also will allow screen readers for the first time to experience where things are visually. If a user touches the top left part of the screen, they'll hear what is actually at that part of the screen, and because Apple understands the disabled community, VoiceOver's speech rate can be adjusted, just like on my Mac. VoiceOVer will be accessible with all applications that come on the phone, and software developers will have access to the code to make their apps accessible.

Some other key accessible features of the new IPhone include Voice Control which allows you to voice dial and control your ITunes library, Zoom for low vision users, and White on Black for users that need higher contrast.

For all the new accessible features in the new IPhone 3GS visit Apple's Accessibility page.

I am really not sure how well this interface is going to work for blind users, but I'm am hopeful. I already use VoiceOver on my mac which has a pretty high learning curve, and if I can do that, maybe I can learn how to use a touch screen. If it does work, it will be one of the least expensive smart phones on the market that is accessible.

The new phones come out on June 19th, so I will be sure to report back on what my experience was like and if I ended up getting one for myself.

Here are some links to other blind blogger's sites that have talked about this exciting news:
Blind Access Journal
Tim O'brien Photos
The Ranger Station
Fred's Head from APH

What do you think about the IPhone being accessible? What do you think it will be like to use a screen reader on a touch screen?