Nobody Saw This Coming

How the Blind Are Reinventing the iPhone

For the visually impaired community, the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 seemed at first like a disaster — the standard-bearer of a new generation of smartphones was based on touch screens that had no physical differentiation. It was a flat piece of glass. But soon enough, word started to spread: The iPhone came with a built-in accessibility feature. Still, members of the community were hesitant.

But no more. For its fans and advocates in the visually-impaired community, the iPhone has turned out to be one of the most revolutionary developments since the invention of Braille. That the iPhone and its world of apps have transformed the lives of its visually impaired users may seem counter-intuitive — but their impact is striking.

2 thoughts on “Nobody Saw This Coming

  1. Wow! Impressive.

    Also very important the warning in the last two paragraphs of the article, a warning to us all, not only for the visually impaired. We depend too much on technology and, even worse, we know fewer and fewer things about the technology we use. Which leads, sooner or later, to frustration, distrust and anti-science. We already have enough proof this may happen (antivax, AGW “controversy”).

  2. Ha. I got what you did there with the title of the post.

    (I read it 4 times, and just got it now.)

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