O2 Guru - Brenden's Story

Before starting with Talk Direct and becoming an O2 Guru I had little to no knowledge of accessibility availability on smart devices. Nor did I know that a large portion of the visually impaired population were still using basic devices with limited functionality just because it had buttons, I guess it's easy to assume that a visually impaired person can’t use a touchscreen device because they may not be able to see what they are pressing. So naturally a buttoned phone makes sense right?

Well before working with Mark Skelton and project iCare the only experience I had with accessibility was trying to turn it off for customers that mistakenly turned on voiceover ,that features that makes your phone speak everything you touch and makes it very hard to navigate, while it's extraordinarily hard to use for those with full sigh, for those with a visual impairment voiceover is a godsend, by allowing you to navigate a device without needing to see the screen, using gestures and swiping around the screen voiceover is one of the few amazing features and options for the visually impaired to ditch the nokia 3310 and join the amazing world of smart devices.

My first real “eye opener” was with Mark Skelton’s training session, turns out a smartphone can do so much more than talk back to you, the accessibility options on an Apple iPhone offer options like; magnification gestures that make even the smallest text fill the screen, large text, bold text, button shape, increased contrast and much more, all features you can tweak and customise to suit your every needs. It's not just Apple all these features are also available on Android Phone like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Sony Xperia XZ this got me thinking what else is out there?

In 2016 Mark took a handful of Gurus, including myself, to Sight Village an event held at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, which was aimed at showing visually impaired people from all over the north of England the technology that is available to help them. The event is only put on every 2 years and we have been waiting for the chance to exhibit, after attending the last event only as guests. There were over 40 exhibitors on the day showing the public such things as HD magnifiers, computer software to name a few, we were there to showcase smartphone features. During the event I took some time to explore and see what other stales had to offer. Some truly amazing tech exists out there on of my favourite pieces of tech was a pair of glasses with a camera attached to the side all you had to do was hold your hand up to something and the attached camera and earpiece would read aloud what you're pointing at, it was a truly inspiring bit of kit. But and it could be considered a big but, the price tag! Everything I looked at was in the thousands.

On the other hand, I found that a lot of these visually impaired tools and gadgets can be replicated using Apps on smart devices. While not as advanced and precise, at merely a fraction of the price and the ability to do more than just one function it's a pretty cost effective and simple tool to have.

Currently available on the android play store and apple App store is an app called TapTapSee. A free app that does the same as those snazzy glasses I spoke about, you point your phone at an object and press the screen, the app scans the picture and tells you what it sees. Take a picture of a packet of crisps and it will tell you the brand the colour of the packet and any information it can see. And it's free to download, ok so it's not a high tech pair of glasses that you just point with your finger, but it's an excellent alternative.

Whenever I get the chance to sit down and look though the vast options and apps available on today's smartphones I always find something new and exciting that could potentially make life easier for those with visual impairments. And we at Talk Direct share every new discovery on our website. With all of our Gurus Looking at new options and uploading blogs and videos showing these options you will be spoilt for choice. You could also pop into any of our stores to speak with a Guru or any member of staff about what options are available. So maybe it's time to retire the 3310 and pick up a smartphone?