Switching on to accessible technology

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People think that just because we're blind, we can't use most technology. Well how wrong they are!

I am a 12 year old boy, born blind. I have an iPhone, my own laptop, I can play on the Nintendo wii, I have downloaded games for the blind, and yes, I can use all these perfectly fine with no help.

My iPhone is my life. Not only can I do all the normal things, texting, calling all that kind of thing, I can play the games on it, download apps, put all my own music on to it, I can use Facebook on it. I could go on, but all this is from one built-in speech package.

The phone wasn't designed for the blind, it is just a built-in speech package that you turn on in settings and it is just as accessible to a blind person as it is to a sighted person. This screen reader is called Voice Over and comes pre-installed on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPod touch 3rd and 4th generation.

I can use my laptop just as well. I bought a standard laptop and Downloaded JAWS screen-reader on to it, and I can use almost everything with no help.

Games, emails, use the internet, use Facebook, MSN, just about everything.

There are audio games designed for the blind. My favourite is Top Speed, which is an audio-only racing game. I also have a casino game. If you know of any others or want to know where to get these games, please leave a comment for me and I'll reply to you.

I can play on game consoles such as the Nintendo Wii by listening to the sounds. For example if I was playing tennis, I would listen for the ball bouncing and I know when to swing the remote.

I would love to know about other things blind people can do, but I would also like to help people. If you need help with anything on the iPhone, computers or other things, please leave a comment.


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Comments (2)

Tag: Gadgets and ICT

Posted at: 24/02/2012 3:45 PM by blind tech user

Wii Games

Hello, do you know of any accessible wii games please? I find it really hard when everybody is having a good time on the wii but i can not join in. so would be amazing if there was a game out there that was accessible and i could play. Many thanks

Posted at: 7/5/2012 12:43 PM by Kizzy

Wii games

Hi Kizzy
As you could probably guess accessible wii games are very limited but there are some I know of.
All the games on the wii sports games are accessible. Another game I know that is accessible is tiger woods golf game. You may just need sighted assistance when first getting started. Also if you have a wii motion plus you might have wii sports plus I think it's called. All the games on that are accessible as well.
Sorry I don't know many but as I said, it is hard for them to make them accessible because you have to swing the remote. Hope this has been some help though.

Posted at: 17/5/2012 4:02 PM by Blind tech user

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