Android or iOS? Let's face facts—most technically savvy people with visual impairments have already made their choice, and for the most part they're going to stick with it. There are still some new smartphone users, both Android and iOS, but they tend to fall into a few categories: children who are blind and aging into accessible devices, the people who are newly blind and who wish to continue to use the technologies to which they are already accustomed, and seniors who are losing vision and who often lack technological knowhow.
There's one more very large category: friends and family members of the newly blind who wish to help and encourage someone with vision loss. This is why there is still a market for smartphone learning resources and accessibility guides. The most recent of these is Getting Started with the iPhone and iOS 11: Step-by-Step Instructions for Blind Users, by Anna Dresner, available for $24 in Braille, DAISY, ePub, and Word files (add $2.50 for USB stick delivery) from National Braille Press. This is the seventh edition of this guide, which has been greatly expanded to cover the myriad new features in both the latest iOS version and the latest hardware.
If Dresner's book has a mission statement, it's found in the Introduction, where she shares two personal anecdotes designed to demonstrate the benefits of owning and using an accessible iPhone. In the first, she uses iPhone-enabled remote assistance to help with a non-speaking Windows PC screen, and in the second, she is able to quickly locate her husband in an airport arrival area thanks to iMessage. Dresner is, in effect, inviting people with visual impairments who are not currently using iPhones to "come on in—the water's fine! And if you don't know how to swim, read on—I'll teach you."
Overall Approach
Though the book's subtitle describes a step-by-step approach, there are very few bulleted "to accomplish this, do this," lists. The style is far more conversational. Overall, however, Dresner has organized her book into three giant steps:
- Buying, Configuring, and Loading Up Your iPhone
- Starting to Use Your iPhone
- Entering Text and Working with Apps
You can browse the book's entire Table of Contents on the book's website. Below, we'll discuss each of these three major sections by turn.
Buying, Configuring, and Loading Up Your iPhone
Dresner's book assumes that you have chosen to begin your smartphone experience with an iPhone. But with the growing catalog of models, the decision does not stop there. Do you want the latest and greatest iPhone X or iPhone 8? Or do you want to save a few dollars and purchase an older model—several are still available. You may also have received your new phone as a hand me down from a friend or family member, who is encouraging you to give it a try.
Dresner describes all of the models, outlining a bit about cameras, processor speeds, screen size and other basic information, including the three varieties of Home buttons: physical, virtual, and, for iPhone X, non-existent. Her pre-purchase section is among the most comprehensive I have encountered. She even finds room to discuss the benefits of various case styles, screen protectors, and battery power packs.
If this is your very first touchscreen device, Dresner wisely suggests you seek help to perform the initial setup. But even then you should read this section beforehand. It will be helpful to follow along and be able to tell whoever is doing the setup how to turn on VoiceOver. For those more adventurous users, she walks you through the setup process and describes how to transfer the contents of your old phone to your new model.
Starting to Use Your iPhone
After offering a touch tour of the various recent iPhone models, Dresner offers some sage advice to brand new touch based screen reader users. At first it's going to be difficult. Myself, I found touchscreen typing almost impossible for the first week I owned my iPhone. Dresner advises patience. I wholeheartedly concur.
Veteran iPhone users often joke, "What? Do you mean this thing makes phone calls, too?" For many new users, however, making and receiving phone calls is their first, must-have feature. So Dresner's uses phone functions—making and receiving calls, retrieving voice mails, and creating and maintaining a contacts list—the focus of her primary tutorial on how to use VoiceOver and the phone's low vision features. She introduces VoiceOver gestures and features as they are needed, slow and steady.
In this section Dresner also delves into the Settings menu, both the standard settings and the Accessibility settings. Here we begin to configure VoiceOver to the user's own preferences, adding voices, changing the rotor settings, and the like. Again, very well explained and built one step at a time.
Entering Text and Working with Apps
As mentioned above, it took me some time to get used to typing on a touchscreen, and I think I can safely say this is one of the most difficult aspects of learning to use an accessible touch device for most others, as well. Here is where Getting Started with the iPhone excels. It not only offers great instructions on how to enter and edit text using VoiceOver with Notes, Mail, and Safari, it also provides an exceptionally comprehensive guide to alternate methods of text entry: Bluetooth keyboards, braille touch, handwriting, predictive text, and using an external braille display. In all the iOS books I have read and reviewed, this book certainly offers the most complete braille display guide and instructions. So much so, I do wish Dresner had also included the list of braille display commands in a separate appendix for quick reference along with the various VoiceOver gestures and troubleshooting FAQ.
Dresner also introduces the reader to iOS dictation, which is where she more fully describes how to set up and use the Siri voice assistant.
In this section, Dresner covers setting up a password, Touch ID, or Face ID, depending on the model. She ends the book with some pointers on customizing the Home screen and closing, rearranging, and deleting apps.
Here we find the one and only place where I feel this book falls short of its goal. As you recall, Dresner began the book with a pair of personal anecdotes describing how the iPhone had proven invaluable. Unfortunately, she never returns to why, exactly, a person with a visual impairment might want to have an iPhone. If you're like me, you've had any number of friends asking why they should take the time to learn something so complicated. I tell them about everything from being able to navigate their city to using the built-in camera to identify currency and read the daily mail. Dresner does describe a remote help session—I suspect she was using the BeMyEyes app—but nowhere does she so much as mention this app again.
Conclusion
Getting Started with the iPhone is an excellent guide to using iOS accessibility. I would recommend it to any new iOS user, or to more experienced users who wish to begin pairing their device with a braille display. I would recommend one more chapter: "Why Do I Want an iPhone?" The introduction suggests she is going to answer this question. Unfortunately, I fear the novice touchscreen reader might finish the book asking themselves: "If I already have a talking feature phone and a screen reader equipped computer, why would I need an iPhone?"
Product Information
Getting Started with the iPhone and iOS 11, by Anna Dresner
Available from the National Braille Press
Related articles:
- Book Review: iOS 11 Without the Eye by Jonathan Mosen by Jamie Pauls
- Ten Thousand Steps, Cane Not Included: A Guide to Fitness Tech for Blind Users, by Anna Dresner by Deborah Kendrick
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