Club Vibes logo of dragonfly

How Does a Blind Person Use a Computer or Smartphone?

David Goldfield

Although I have written on the topic of how someone who is blind uses a computer, I’m reprinting a blog from David Goldfield, a professional blind software tester, that appeared in September 2018 because, to be perfectly honest, he just does a better job explaining the topic.

Throughout my day, both at work as well as going to and from work, a lot of people ask me about the type of work that I do. When I tell them that I test software, many of them are understandably curious and ask questions about how a blind person could use a computer, smartphone or tablet. Some people are curious but are a bit nervous about asking the question. If you’re curious about this topic, this page was written for you. I’d like to answer some general questions I often receive from people who want to know how such a thing is possible. If your question isn’t answered, feel free to email me and I’ll add it to this page.

Q. OK, so how does a blind person use a computer, anyway?

A. There are several ways in which this is done.
First, you need a program on your computer known as a screen reader. A screen reader does just what its name implies: it reads what is on the screen using artificial speech and the voice is heard from the computer’s speakers.

Q. Does the voice sound like a robot, like the one from “Lost in Space?”

A. No danger of that, Will Robinson. Actually, most of the synthetic voices used today are very pleasant and some of them sound remarkably human. I think we’re closer to voices sounding more like Hal from “2001: A Space Odyssey” rather than the robots from science fiction shows from the 1960s.

Q. OK, so these screen readers read what appears on the screen? Is that all they do?

A. No. They can also speak what you type on the keyboard so you’ll know if you’ve made any mistakes. These programs can read each character you type, read just one word at a time as you type or they can be totally silent.

Q. Can these programs help you to review what’s already on the screen?

A. Absolutely. By using the arrow keys on your keyboard, you can review anything on the screen character by character, word by word, line by line, sentence by sentence and even paragraph by paragraph. This allows a blind person to not only hear what’s on the screen but it also allows for editing as well.

Q. What about reading material from the Internet?

A. Easily done. Screen readers can access email programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird and others to compose and read email. We can also access Web browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Google chrome to read Web pages.

Q. What about making text and pictures larger or easier to see?

A. There are programs to facilitate this as well, such as Magic from Freedom Scientific or Zoomtext, also from Freedom Scientific.

Q. What about Braille? Can you use Braille to read what’s on a computer screen?

A. Yes. You would need a device known as a Braille display, which is a separate device that produces Braille. The Braille is not printed on paper but is produced electronically with tiny little pegs or pins which pop up on a grid, which you then touch. These dots feel remarkably like Braille on paper, just as a Kindle attempts to produce the look of print on a page.
These devices can be costly, depending on how much Braille they actually present to the user. Examples are the Focus Braille displays from Freedom Scientific and the Brilliant displays from Humanware.

Q. OK, so how do you do all of this without using a mouse?

A. People with little or no vision can perform all mouse functions by using keyboard shortcuts. Many of these shortcut commands are not really part of the screen reader but are built into Windows itself. As an example, if a sighted person wants to open the start menu he or she would click on the start button, usually located on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen (unless they’re using Windows 8, of course.) However, pressing the Windows key (located next to the control key) performs the same function. In Word, pressing ctrl-S saves a document, ctrl-O opens a document, ctrl-P prints a document, etc.

Q. OK, you make references to Windows. What about Apple? Are Apple products accessible?

A. Actually, Apple products contains built-in accessibility right out of the box. Whether we’re talking about a Mac, iPad, iPhone or an iPod Touch, Apple includes a built-in screen reader called VoiceOver which allows a blind person to use these products independently.

Q. Are you serious?

A. Not all of the time but I am when it comes to this stuff. If you own a Mac, press command-f5, which is a toggle for turning VoiceOver either on or off. On an iOS device, such as an iPhone, go to Settings, General, Accessibility and then tap VoiceOver to enable or disable VoiceOver. You can also just ask Siri to “turn on VoiceOver” or “turn VoiceOver off.” Just know that VoiceOver changes the way some gestures are used. As a big example, when VoiceOver is enabled you need to double-tap on an item to choose it, rather than just a single tap.

Q. Wait a minute! iOS devices use a flat touchscreen. Don’t you need a keyboard to use them if you can’t see?

A. You can use a Bluetooth keyboard for an iOS device but I don’t regularly use one for my iPhone. Apple has designed things in such a brilliant way so that using the touchscreen with VoiceOver is extremely efficient and intuitive. No keyboard is really required, unless you’re typing a novel or a very long article such as this blog post.

Q. Does any of this apply to Android devices?

A. Yes. Android devices come with a built-in screen reader called TalkBack. You can download the latest version at
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.marvin.talkback&hl=en.

Q. OK, what about Windows? Do Windows computers have built-in accessibility?

A. They have some built-in accessibility and later versions of windows offer more of it than earlier ones, but the built-in features are frankly not as robust as what you get with apple, at least as far as screen reading is concerned. To help compensate for this, there are third-party screen readers that you can get for your Windows computer to make it even more accessible for a blind person. However, the built-in screen reader known as Narrator will provide you with speech access to many programs from Microsoft, such as Mail, Outlook, Edge and Word. This is particularly true when we’re talking about Windows 10 and the more recent your version of Windows 10 is the better your accessibility experience will be.

Q. Where can I get a Windows screen reader?

A. Several are available. First, there is a free screen reader called Nonvisual Desktop Access or NVDA which is available at https://www.nvaccess.org/.
The voice that initially comes with it may actually sound like one of those robots from a campy 1950s sci-fi movie but there are extra voices which you can purchase for NVDA at https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/wiki/ExtraVoices
which are more human-sounding.

Another well-known screen reader in the blindness community is JAWS from Freedom Scientific, available at https://www.freedomscientific.com/Products/Blindness/JAWS.

Q. So, how does someone actually learn how to use this stuff?

A. Some people can figure it out on their own by reading the accompanying user manuals and by experimenting. There are also online forums and email-based discussion groups where blind computer users can ask questions to other users for quick help or advice. There are also technology trainers who are able to provide training, either in person or by phone. I am one such trainer and you can feel free to read more about the training that I am able to offer at https://davidgoldfield.wordpress.com/training/.

Note: There are several people who offer high-quality training, but VIBES can not endorse any particular individual.

Leave a Reply

© 2016 Club VIBES, a 501(c)3 registered in the state of Tennessee Twitter Facebook Youtube Email