back to iOS after two years

By Pavel Ondra, 31 October, 2014

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi everyone,
On thursday i will get iPhone 5s. After two years using android i am little bit disoriented and may be i vould like to catch up little. So, i have few questions for all of you, using iOS every day now.
- What is the most accessible app for facebook reading and content sharing?
- what is the best twitter app, is the official TW app still accessible?
- what is the best solution to read doc, epub, pdf and mobi books?
- what do you use for OCR, except KNFB reader?
- are there any new interesting apps specially developed for blind
Thanks ?a lot for you answers.
Pavel Ondra

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Comments

By Tree on Monday, November 24, 2014 - 16:26

There are a lot of really cool apps out there. The two apps that are specific to blind people that I keep coming back to as far as their awesomeness, usefulness, and the commitment that the developers continue to show are blind square and mbraille. Since IOS eight has native on screen braille input now mbraille might be a little less relevant. I am still running IOS seven, but I have heard there are some issues with the apple Braille input. Which ever way you choose, if you know Braille I believe it is the best input for text on a touch screen. Plus mbraille is always being improved with new features added, which is more then Apple's alternative can say. blind square is just sweet. Every time I use it its a great experience.

By Michael Hansen on Monday, November 24, 2014 - 16:26

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hello Pavel,

Below are my responses to your questions:

- What is the most accessible app for facebook reading and content sharing?

The native Facebook app is quite accessible now, and I wouldn't think of using anything else.

- what is the best twitter app, is the official TW app still accessible?

I think Twitterrific 5 for Twitter is the easiest to use for a VoiceOver user. Twitter's accessibility team has made great improvements to the native app, and it is quite accessible. That said, Twitterrific is much simpler and does not display promoted or recommended tweets.

- what is the best solution to read doc, epub, pdf and mobi books?

I'm not sure if this app supports all the formats you're looking for, but a lot of people really like Voice Dream Reader for reading books/documents.

- what do you use for OCR, except KNFB reader?

I don't use anything else, because KNFBReader really is in a league of its own. I've heard good things about Prizmo - Scanning, OCR, and Speech, though.

- are there any new interesting apps specially developed for blind

AppleVis has a list of iOS apps developed specifically for the blind or people with low vision, but others I'm sure will have more specific recommendations from this category.

By alex wallis on Monday, November 24, 2014 - 16:26

Hi Pavel, I am interested, how come you were happy with android for two years and now your suddenly coming back to ios? as clearly you were OK with android for a while, I am just curious why the change back.

I switched because i had opportunity to ask czech social services ofor another phone after five years. So i took this opportunity mainly because apple has better support for accesibility for blind in general. Talkback on android can be used but it is not as comfortable and fast as iOs device.
I am actually very annoyed about browsing web on android, and my phone is mainly getting old and slow.

By Lielle ben simon on Monday, November 24, 2014 - 16:26

Hello pavel!
I usis iphone already for a few years.
I am totally blind, and i think that braille support is grate.
You can to read and write braille as your braille display, write on the screen .
I work on the iphone in a few languages like hebrew, and english.
On ios8 there are tts in hebrew roshen and many languages.
There are braille table in the same languages that i am tulk them.
Good lak!