A couple weeks ago I had the chance to meet a blind person on a conference, where he was supposed to show the him using the internet and his mobile phone. It was very exciting to see him handle his computer and the internet browser on it, but suddenly he flipped a Nokia E90 out, and started using his mobile phone.

The phone started talking to him in a syntetical voice, which was hardly understandeable, but you easily get used to this. He showed us the usage of this application, how he sends messages, looks for contacts, and much more! Then it hit probably everyone, when an SMS arrived to his mobile phone, and it read it out loud, and he mentioned: “Oh it’s just my blind friend writing me that he was trying another Symbian application, and that it works well for us.”.

A couple years ago, when Symbian wasn’t here, there was very little opportunities and very expensive opportunities for blind people to use their mobile phones. Today, they have a full chance of using it with either Windows Mobile or Symbian phones.

I installed the application a couple days later, when I exchanged a few e-mails with the blindp person (Tomas). I tested the application (how else then really not watching). It was very tough in the beginning, but doable - I was able to send messages, view contacts, browse my mobile phone. The biggest difficulty was probably the menu and orientation in it. This voice in the appliction works is generated by the application MobileSpeak from CodeFactory. These guys deserve our hands and a big cheer. So CodeFactory - thank you for this, great stuff!

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