Braille Smartphone

Nowadays, most people could not imagine living without their smartphones. People rely on their handheld devices to keep up with their email, surf the internet, and more. However, for one subset of the population, smartphones are still relatively difficult to use.

People who have visual impairments have to rely on different features of smartphones. The iPhone’s accessibility menu offers VoiceOver and other audio assistance. Despite these added functionalities, navigating touchscreen smartphones remains a challenge for those who do not have the luxury of seeing all the buttons and text on the screen. During our very first PPAT class, we all tried using the VoiceOver functions on our smartphones, and even when I allowed myself to look at the screen, it was incredibly difficult to navigate through all the pages.

In 2013, Sumit Dagar introduced a braille phone with a screen composed of a grid of pins. A technology called “Shape Memory Alloy” uses the pins to form shapes and characters when the user receives a message and to contract the pins back to their original shape. Dagar and his team of designers at the National Institute of Design (NID) were prototyping and testing the device at the LV Prasad Eye Institute.

I think the idea of a braille smartphone is great, and the Shape Memory Alloy technology seems promising. However, even though Dagar’s team hoped to release the phones by the end of 2013, I was unable to find any more information about the product’s actual release to the public. It makes me wonder where in the design process this assistive technology currently is and if the team is still working on it. I would also be interested in learning how big the market is for braille smartphones and if that has any impact on the team’s decision to continue developing the braille smartphone.

One Response to “Braille Smartphone”

  1. Jeff Dusek says:

    I think you hit on one of the biggest issues in your last paragraph, and that is the very limited market size for AT devices. When you cut that market even more (blind users), it becomes incredibly difficult to bring a product to market. One reason the iPhone has had so much success as an AT device is that the overall market is huge, and developing apps for specific applications is relatively simple. Maybe the future for a braille smartphone is an overlay that would fit over an existing phone in a similar fashion to a case. Utilize the highly developed hardware and operating system of the existing phone while using the Shape Memory Alloy to make a tactile display.

    Overall nice post- maybe include some links next time so that readers can more easily find the devices you are referring to.

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