Image credit: Yutaka Tsutano's

Robin Christopherson, AbilityNet
Just in case you haven’t yet felt the love radiating from the vision-impaired community about iOS and how accessible and empowering it is for those of us who have, before now, been limited to pricey specialist devices – prepare to be hit with a force 10.
Not only can people who are completely blind (like myself) use a touch-only device, they can take full advantage of almost every app it comes with (the only exception I can think of is the Google Maps app – but even that also provides a list of text directions which can be very useful) and many thousands of apps from the app store whose developers have taken the time to follow Apple’s accessibility guidelines.

How do we use a touch-screen device? Well, if you have some vision you can change the text to white on black and increase its size. You can also use ‘Zoom’ which is a magnification package that comes on all iOS devices and makes the text super-huge. And if you have no vision at all then just switch on ‘VoiceOver’ and everything is spoken – tap on an item to hear it, and double-tap to activate it. These features are free and found on every single device running iOS version 4 and above.

Having full accessibility to a mainstream device (and what devices!) is a rare and beautiful thing. No longer will I have to pay hundreds of pounds for a self-voicing MP3 player or GPS solution. Gone are the days of accepting functionality so limited that a mainstream audience wouldn’t touch it with a very long pointed stick.

Now with an iPhone (or iPod Touch if you don’t want to mess with contracts) I can have all those specialist devices at a fraction of the cost and twice the functionality – and if one app doesn’t do everything I need then I’ll buy two, or three – they’re only 59p, or often free. Here are some examples:
• Ariadne GPS – tells me where I am as I walk, and provides a speaking map I can trace with my finger on the screen to get the layout of nearby streets.
• VizWiz – take a picture, ask a question and get an answer with this app that crowdsources help whenever you need a pair of eyes and don’t have any handy.
• OMoby – recognises barcodes, QR codes and also does image recognition to tell you which tin or packet you are about to open.
• Colour Reader – snap a photo of your clothing and it will tell you its colour so you can always be sure you are coordinated.
• Light Detector – emits a rising tone the more light it detects so you know if you are leaving lights on, or if your oven has reached temperature (when that little red light goes out).
• Skype – video conferencing over wifi or 3G so that you can virtually attend those meetings and avoid the pain and expense of public transport (which, as a blind person, can often be compared to the pain and expense of having a grand piano dropped from a great height onto ones foot!).

I could go on and on there are so many. Each of the above apps are so valuable, so life-transforming, and yet combined would give you change from the price of a skinny laté.

If you would like to see me demonstrating the iPhone and a few of these apps check out the video below:

You can also watch the launch of the T4G Awards (both at BT Tower as it happens), and also teaching Martha Lane Fox how to dictate a tweet.

Of course other smartphones are out there – but none offer anything like the same level of accessibility and choice. Thank you Apple – thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Robin Christopherson is Head of Digital Inclusion at AbilityNet, the UK’s leading technology and disability charity. AbilityNet are passionate about the empowering nature of technology – and Robin, himself blind, is an authoritative global voice on the awesome power of tech.