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Before going through all this trouble designing a product for the blind, doesn’t anyone ever actually do research into how FEW blind people learn and use Braille? It’s less than 10% (in the US. Likely less elsewhere in the world).
The world needs more products to help people learn and practice Braille before we start coming up with fancy gadgets for such a small minority to play with. I’m not saying they don’t need them, but these braille phones are simply a case of ‘designing for a problem that isn’t there’ when you see how few Braille users there are.

Well, I think this is very nice. Although, of course, I can’t speak for blind people.

I’m not knocking the design or the designer. But I’m saying from experience, and researching tackling the problem of designing for the blind, Braille is simply not an effective solution for MOST blind people. Many blind people don’t learn Braille in the first place because they don’t want to look blind.
The blind and visually impaired have other senses, which are heightened by their lack of sight. Why not design for those instead?

There are about 40 milion blind people worldwide, let’s say 5% of those know braille, that is 2 million peole. that’s still a nice target group that can benefit from this phone. Additionally, with this phone you could make apps that allow you to learn braille. Initially, you could use sound from the phone and speech recognition for instructions on using the phone/app

its a cool concept… but the funniest part is it is for the blind and it comes in two colors… blind person’s friend- ” hey what color braille phone do you want?”
blind person- “um….. im blind.”

It comes in two colors because not all blind people were that way from birth. Depending on what you wear (which blind people ARE aware of), you might want a different color to be discrete, or show off your gadget.

So excited about this phone. My granddaughter is blind and will love this! Thank you!

dante, For your clarification, a very small percentage of visually impaired people are completely blind. Visual impairment has different categories. Some are partially sighted, some have low vision, some are termed legally blind and finally there are those who are completely blind. People with low vision can differentiate between bright colours apart from texture. Try to read up a bit and sensitize yourself if nothing else. Be thankful that you are in a position to read this. Not everybody is.

This is a great idea, I wish that print users would realize that using a Braille keyboard is way easier than using a qwerty one. Texting would be so much faster if you could totally text by touch, and not even have to look down at the screen.
BTW, even though in the US, most Blind people are blind from age related issues and don’t learn Braille, most Blind from a young age people across the entire world do learn Braille in their language.For many of them, the devices that are used in the US simply aren’t available to them.

WHY IS THERE NO AUDIO DESCRIPTION WITH THE VIDEO? IDIOTS!

Hi,

Thank you four your nice writing on The Ultimate Braille Phone

Thanks.

@Ian Mayhew: You make good points, although I’m not sure how many people just “decide” not to look blind.

@Jimmy C: That’s not what I meant.
I was talking more specifically about learning Braille, and how some people will avoid learning it altogether because they don’t want to be seen feeling around to read. Parents can be sensitive about their blind children and not want them to look blind to others by reading with their fingers. Which is sad because it’s no, it’s not their decision.

Some blind people choose to wear glasses over their eyes. They don’t have as many easy options as those with sight when it comes to their appearance, but wouldn’t you want to make those choices for yourself if you could?

Well, I think this is very nice. Many thanks

Very nice phone. this is a blessing in disguise for visually impaired.

Life is difficult enough for totally blind people, with others shutting them out and putting them down. It is incredibly frustrating for a blind person not to be able to send and receive texts like the rest of us. So three cheers for designers of this phone and let’s hope to see it on the market soon. In the UK blind people do use Braille. I don’t know the numbers but I do know blind people who use it. Technology is coming on apace with technology that helps blind people to function with computers at college and at work instead of being unemployed. Just because you don’t personally have a problem, doesn’t mean that the problem doesn’t exist for others.

Currently, the iPhone is very accessible to the visually impaired, thanks to its audio options. I’m noticing a lot of implications that there currently isn’t an option for the visually impaired. There is.

wow… this is amazing. the technology has probably been around for a while, but it’s definitely a leap forward. for the blind, and the people who created the phone.

good argument. i agree, but would like to add one more thing: some blind people (like any other people) are just not going to be tech savvy enough for this phone. which is a shame, because they could benefit from this. maybe my comment is completely pointless, but i just wanted to say that

My child is legally blind and can really use this. This type of product helps out enormously with daily living tasks. He knows braille and uses talking devices. Products cannot teach braille by the way…it takes years of one on one instruction and can be the difference between independence with gadgets like these and braille or being dependent on others. The designers got it right and I would love to see this technology applied to a tablet computer as well.