Phil, can you use some sort of Blue Tooth 
keyboard with a phone so one can type as usual?

earlier, Phil Scovell, wrote:
>One thing wrong with the below article.  Talking 
>phones generally all are web phones that have 
>internet service.  This means, you pay a monthly 
>service fee for your phone to be connected to 
>the internet.  Plus, the speech packages cost 
>money.  What everyone is hoping, of course, is 
>that Apple's phones will have the speech and 
>screen reading software built into their phones 
>just like they've done with their 
>computers.  Additionally, using a web phone to 
>do all your email would be a royal pain in the 
>butt because the tiny keyboards make it 
>impossible to do anything more than hunt and 
>peck and that is mighty slow.  However, what I 
>am most thankful for, is that I can answer 
>anyone by recording a voice attachment.  Then 
>when you get it on your end, you simply open the 
>attachment and listen to me talk.  You can reply 
>the same way and this can be done from your 
>computer or by your web phone.  I'd like to see 
>a mailing list set up for such voice attachments 
>only.  If everyone kept their replies to one or 
>two or three minute recorded attachments on the 
>mailing list, and the list wasn't allowed to get 
>too large, it would be more than a little fun to do.
>
>Phil.
>
>
>
>>>Blind users see digital divide in new generation phones.
>>>
>>>By Jessica Portner on June 22.
>>>
>>>Smartphones can be pretty clueless when it comes to blind or visually
>>>impaired
>>>users.
>>>
>>>For millions of consumers with normal vision, smartphones offer almost
>>>effortless conference calling, e-mailing and Internet browsing. They make
>>>it
>>>easy to find a gas station, a rental car or a recipe. Vast music
>>>libraries
>>>and
>>>video games are expected features for a device with a $200 to $600 price
>>>tag.
>>>
>>>But for many in the blind and visually impaired community, the absence of
>>>physical buttons on most smartphones makes interactions with some devices
>>>virtually impossible.
>>>
>>>Nowhere is the digital divide in the smartphone market more pronounced
>>>than
>>>between Apple and Google products.
>>>
>>>Blind and visually impaired smartphone users offer near universal praise
>>>for
>>>the iPhone, whose 3GS has a built-in VoiceOver screen reader that enables
>>>all
>>>functions with a few taps, swipes or other gestures on the touch screen.
>>>On
>>>Google's Android phone, blind users can't e-mail or navigate the
>>>Internet.
>>>
>>>Many consumers with visual impairments say they are being held back from
>>>equal
>>>participation in the digital revolution, denied tools their colleagues
>>>and
>>>competitors enjoy. Smartphones, they argue, are public accommodations, no
>>>different from building ramps or Braille on elevators.
>>>
>>>"Our electronic, digital universe is changing so rapidly that these
>>>phones
>>>are
>>>as essential to our daily life as a curb cut would be," said Brian
>>>Bashin,
>>>the
>>>CEO of the Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco, an advocacy
>>>organization
>>>for the blind and visually impaired. "We shouldn't have to play catch up
>>>with
>>>expensive modifications when it all should have been there right out of
>>>the
>>>box."
>>>
>>>The Blackberry's Oratio screen reader, for example, costs blind users an
>>>extra
>>>$450 on top of the price of the Research in Motion phone.
>>>
>>>This month, a House subcommittee held a hearing on the Twenty-first
>>>Century
>>>Communications and Video Accessibility Act to direct the Federal
>>>Communications
>>>Commission to make Internet-enabled communications devices accessible to
>>>the
>>>more than 25 million adults in the United States with vision trouble.
>>>
>>>The FCC currently requires telecommunications manufacturers and service
>>>providers to make their products accessible to people with disabilities.
>>>One
>>>FCC
>>>official said Google would likely not be liable under the current law
>>>because it
>>>is not the phone's manufacturer.
>>>
>>>Jenifer Simpson, a former FCC official who is now the senior director of
>>>government affairs at the American Association of People with
>>>Disabilities,
>>>is
>>>frustrated that more companies are creating communications products that
>>>the
>>>FCC doesn't currently regulate.
>>>
>>>The question she wants companies to ask is, "Can Grandma give you a phone
>>>call
>>>on the smartphone you want to buy her for Christmas?"
>>>
>>>Joshua Miele, an associate scientist at the San Francisco-based
>>>Smith-Kettlewell
>>>Eye Research Institute who designs educational tools for blind people
>>>like
>>>himself, says the iPhone is a new paradigm for the more than 1.3 million
>>>legally
>>>blind people in the United States.
>>>
>>>"The most amazing thing about the iPhone is you go into the settings and
>>>you
>>>turn on the screen reader and you can use every part of your phone, every
>>>text-based application and you don't have to pay anything extra,'' he
>>>said.
>>>
>>>VoiceOver, the iPhone's built-in screen reader, is controlled though
>>>gestures
>>>instead of arrow keys or keyboard commands. It can be customized so that
>>>a
>>>visually impaired person can easily magnify a web page or flip to a
>>>white-on-black background.
>>>
>>>The iPhone 4, unveiled this month, expands the roster of accessibility
>>>tools,
>>>including the ability to wirelessly connect to a device that displays
>>>Braille.
>>>
>>>Youtube clip at URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQKtSR5Li1A
>>>
>>>In contrast, Google's TalkBack screen reader on its Android mobile
>>>operating
>>>system doesn't do enough talking, many advocates for the blind say.
>>>Android
>>>works impressively for calling, listening to music, using global
>>>positioning
>>>system data and applications like Facebook, but it won't help blind users
>>>dispatch an e-mail to their boss or scan a website while waiting at the
>>>airport.
>>>
>>>When Android was released more than a year ago, the disability community
>>>was
>>>primed for more innovations. When a totally accessible smartphone failed
>>>to
>>>materialize this year, advocates for the blind castigated Google as a
>>>peddler of
>>>expectations. The Android 2.2, released a few weeks ago, didn't
>>>substantially
>>>enhance the phone's accessibility to blind and deaf users.
>>>
>>>Disability groups have been encouraged by some recent victories. The
>>>National
>>>Federation of the Blind last year reached a settlement with Motorola
>>>after
>>>pressuring the leading manufacturer of cell phones to comply with Section
>>>255 of
>>>the federal Telecommunications Act. The act requires telecommunications
>>>equipment manufacturers and service providers to make their products and
>>>services accessible to people with disabilities. The agreement commits
>>>the
>>>company to make the phone-related functions on its BREW line of phones
>>>useable
>>>for non-visual customers.
>>>
>>>Advocates for the blind say Google has done extraordinary work in other
>>>areas,
>>>pointing to the Google Books Library Project.
>>>
>>>Steve Jacobs, president of the IDEAL Group, Inc., which develops
>>>applications
>>>for the blind, said his customers are hopeful that Google's Project
>>>Eyes-Free ,
>>>which invites software developers to create accessible applications for
>>>the
>>>Android, will serve up exciting inventions soon.
>>>
>>>"I believe Google will rise to that occasion," Jacobs said.
>>>
>>>T.V. Raman, a computer scientist and engineer at Google, agrees.
>>>
>>>Raman, who lost his eyesight at age 14 from glaucoma, is revered by many
>>>people
>>>with disabilities for his pioneering work on Google's search service that
>>>helped
>>>people with visual impairments navigate the web. But the gifted
>>>innovator,
>>>who
>>>solves Rubik's Cubes in Braille for fun, has also been faulted by some
>>>for
>>>developing products only he could figure out how to use.
>>>
>>>Raman defended Android in a recent interview as "still a young platform"
>>>and
>>>said that the accessibility problems in the browser and e-mail will be
>>>fixed.
>>>
>>>"There are rough edges,'' he said. "The best way to silence that
>>>criticism
>>>is to
>>>go and build it. I wanted this yesterday as well."
>>>
>>>Source URL:
>>>http://www.baycitizen.org/technology/story/smartphones-fail-visually-impaired/
>>
>>John
>>Currently in Ocala, Florida Partly Cloudy, 91°F Wind:E-090° at 6mph
>>If the human brain was simple enough for us to 
>>understand we'd be so simple we couldn't understand.
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