Alvin Ng may be blind but that has not stopped him from being an avid iPhone user. He loves playing around with the device and trying out apps from the app store. He even provides iPhone tech support to his wife, a private tutor who has normal sight.
"I am helping her to use her iPhone and to set it up,” he said. “She is too scared to touch the keyboard.”
Alvin, 43, lost his sight 12 years ago because of a complication from an auto-immune disease. Today, he can only perceive light. Despite the cruel hand that Fate has dealt him, the former IT consultant considers himself lucky. “Four of out five people who develop the complication die from it,” he said.
Until the global recession last year, Alvin was an active stock trader. Today, however, he spends a lot of his time reading the news, or rather, because he’s blind, he has the news read to him by the computer or the iPhone.
To the blind, the iPhone is a tremendous step forward. This is because even though the iPhone is largely a slab of glass, Apple has added technology to the iPhone 3GS to make it eminently usable for the blind. There are three things that the 3GS offers — VoiceOver, which allows the device to read the text on the screen, Zoom, which enlarges text and White on Black, which reverses the text so that it is a white text on a black background.
Prior to the iPhone, options for the blind were limited and expensive. Two years ago, Alvin bought a Nokia E65 smartphone. However, to make it accessible, he had to buy a screen reading program which costs $360 per licence.
“With the iPhone, I pay less than both (the E65 and screen reader) combined. Out of the box, the iPhone is accessible.” He now uses his iPhone much more than his old Nokia.
Some apps not accessible to blind
It’s not all smooth sailing though. Even though Apple has the technology in the iPhone to help the blind, developers still need to ensure that their apps take advantage of these technologies. According to Alvin, a bunch of local apps such as SG Buses, tranSGuide, SG 4D and SG Malls are pretty accessible. Some, like Singtel Data Usage are usable even though they have unlabelled buttons. However, it is apps like the Straits Times that frustrates Alvin the most because the app is completely inaccessible to the blind.
Not only does VoiceOver not work in the app, even basic gestures don’t work either (when the accessibility option is turned on, gestures are modified to help the blind. For example, to make a selection, the user has to double-tap. However, in the Straits Times app, double-tapping evokes no response.
Alvin has deleted the app and written an email to SPH explaining why. “I am quite skeptical that they will improve on it. I hope I am wrong. However, I have done my part,” he said.
It is because of apps like the Straits Times that Alvin has taken it upon himself to raise the issue among local developers. A few weeks ago, he wrote to iMerlion asking for developers to keep accessibility in mind. At least one developer subsequently contacted him, which he was encouraged by.
Alvin hopes that more developers will think of the blind when they create their apps. "An accessible app gives the blind some sense of independence in acquiring information/knowledge which will help us in our daily leisure/working life," he said.
Currently, his chief hope is to get an accessible GPS app. “That way, I don’t have to ask people where I am. If I can tell which bus stop I’m at, I don’t have to ask people when to alight.”
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