Author: Brian Mackey

I am a legally blind individual with an eye condition called Bardet Biedl Syndrome and have difficulty reading printed materials. Typically, I read using electronic magnifiers such as a Close Circuit TV or Freedom Scientific’s Ruby magnifier. But, these have downsides. A CCTV, especially a desktop version, is not portable, and the Ruby, though it’s portable, is generally for quick reading and it is just one more item for the user to carry with them.

Now, thanks to the advances of mobile technology, there is another way! The National Federation of the Blind has made the dream of reading print for blind, low vision, and print-disabled individuals into a reality with the OneStep Reader (formerly known as the KNFB Reader), a fast, accurate, and easy to use app for an iOS or Android smartdevice. The OneStep Reader mobile app reads print aloud and can be used to read just about any printed material accurately and almost instantly.

It’s so easy. You simply take a photo of the words with your mobile device, and the app reads these aloud with high quality text-to-speech through optical character recognition (OCR). The OneStep Reader has tilt guidance and a field of view report to tell you if you are getting the right photo. It doesn’t matter if you can see that you have the whole page in range or even if it happens to be upside-down. Talk about the miracles of technology!

The OneStep Reader app is really a great tool. I have used it to read my pay stubs and the printed mailing addresses on envelopes. OneStep Reader reads the text flawlessly. I first use the field of view report to make sure I have as much of the document captured as possible, then take a picture. You can also use the tilt guidance feature to make sure the camera is level with the document. If you are scanning a lot of documents, I recommend purchasing a stand to rest the phone or tablet on. The National Federation of the Blind’s Independence Market sells one for $12. We all have smartdevices with us all the time these days, so this app gives you the ability to independently read printed material wherever you are, which is very convenient!

The OneStep Reader can be used to read bills, class handouts, PowerPoint presentations, business cards, song listings on CD cases, books, and so much more. The original device, which was invented in the 1970s by Ray Kurzweil, was the size of a kitchen freezer and it was not portable! Now it is portable and can be downloaded onto any device.

The OneStep Reader is available for Apple and Android devices for varying prices. You can visit the Apple AppStore or the Google PlayStore to find current pricing. The manual is available within the app itself. Step-by-step instruction videos can be viewed at www.perkins.org/resource/knfb-instructional-videos.

You can live the life you want with OneStep Reader!

Please download the KNFB Reader from:

• Apple AppStore
• Google PlayStore

When Apple first introduced the voice assistant Siri with the iPhone 4S in 2011, I can tell you that many people I know were thrilled to say the least. Siri with its ability to translate voice commands has the potential to make life so much easier for blind and low vision individuals. Using voice commands to look up phone numbers and make phone calls is just the tip of the iceberg. In surveying my colleagues in the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey’s Technology Division (now the NFBNJ Technology Committee), I heard countless other use cases, including creating appointments with reminders, setting wake-up alarms, sending text messages, getting directions, checking the weather, getting word spellings and definitions and even performing basic math.

In short, Siri assists those of us who can’t see by allowing us to use our voices to get things done just by asking. The wonders of modern technology never cease to amaze me.

Many individuals use Siri on their iDevices, but only know a handful of commands. I discovered a complete listing of Siri commands compiled by applevis.com, a website for blind and low-vision users of Apple products, including Mac computers, the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV and Apple Watch. You will find Siri commands for all kinds of inquiries. Here are some of the categories:

• Making phone calls (including calling 911 and the fire department)
• Managing phone conversations and voicemails
• Using Apple’s FaceTime
• Finding contacts
• Reading, sending and replying to messages
• Scheduling meetings and conference calls
• Checking calendars
• Receiving reminders
• Making notes
• Posting to Facebook and Twitter
• Using maps and getting directions
• Finding local businesses and restaurants
• Playing music
• Listening to podcasts
• Making mathematical calculations
• Searching the Web
• Looking up photos and videos
• Managing iDevice settings
• Taking dictation
• Getting the latest news, sports, weather, entertainment and stock market information
• And the list goes on.

Despite the wonder of this amazing technology, there are definitely areas for improvement from my perspective. For example, those of us with speech impairments get frustrated with Siri. You know you said a word clearly enough, but Siri doesn’t interpret it correctly. Sometimes my “g” sounds like a “d” so Siri might have trouble that way even when I am speaking clearly. After several repetitions, I usually give up and enter my inquiry manually. I have read that researchers are working on technology that better recognizes unusual voices or speech patterns, so hopefully one day Siri will be able to learn how a particular individual speaks. This would make a big difference to those with speech impairments or people who speak with a hard-to-understand accent and allow us to use Siri more.

No doubt, the next iteration of Siri will bring even more improvements that address some of the existing deficiencies. In the meantime, perhaps Apple developers would like to talk to some of us “real users” with disabilities? We see and hear things from a different perspective and can definitely offer some opinions and useful feedback. Call me Apple!