Smart Phones For Visually Impaired (Blind) Individuals

Concept phone may be an excellent example of providing feature phone to the blind.

 
We do not think very often about how technology is very challenging for those you do not have the ability to see. That presents possible roadblocks to those who cannot see for reading and sending emails. The problem has always been the ability to provide a readable surface from which the braille characters can be variable and changeable. It would be that ability which would open the world of smart phones to the visually impaired. We now have a concept phone from Yanko Design which is an international company in creating new design concepts. They have now produced one which will open a whole new world to those who are blind.

The device is being called the DrawBraille and consists of two parts. The first one has 5 rows of buttons, specifically braille buttons. They are buttons which can be raised or lowered so that the person can determine what is being said. The second part of the phone is what we would consider to be a touchpad, but one which most would have a big problem in trying to read. This concept device looks very good and one which does not seem out of norm with current smart phone designs.

It is true that those who are visually impaired can use voice commands to perform various functions and Siri on the Apple does provide that. But there are times when everyone wants to do something and not let everyone around them know what they are saying. This is where this concept phone would be perfect. It even has 5 dots on the right hand edge of the case which is where the owner can check on the battery status of the phone. Battery levels is something which all smart phone owners are concerned about.

Since this is a concept phone, it is an unknown if it will ever make it to market so that the visually impaired can take advantage of it. At the moment, there is no information about plans to manufacture the device. We can hope that it is something which could be brought to market this year.

Here is a video from Yanko Design showing the concept phone.