The iPhone Has Really Changed My Life

My life had to start pre iphone or it would have been immensely boring. Iphone is my swiss army knife for life!!! But baby, once I had the opportunity to own an iphone, wow what a game changer it has been. I sometimes have to remind myself that I can do this or that on my own now. Mostly I just revel in the freedom and options now available to me!!!

I always had bad eyesight, but when i was younger i had enough to read large print or a computer screen with large text. So i got through my childhood in a reasonable way. Then my sight got worse. I bought myself an ipod touch but thats just because i wanted to facetime my friends. Then i discovered the accessibility and im glad i did because that is what is helping me through this journey of going blind. After the ipod came an ipad. Then later an iphone and finally a mac. Im discovering that i can use voiceover to carry out fun things like keeping in touch on social media, or sending an email to my occupational therapist. Ive discovered ways of continuing my hobby of video editing. I thought i would lose that when i lose my sight. But no. Im glad apple is around to allow me to lean all these things. Without this i would be an even more afraid person. Afraid for a boring, dark and lonely future. But thanks to the possibilities apple products offer, it wont be so bad.

I think the experience may vary on generation and individual person. I'm congenitally blind, and came to the US from Thailand in 1987. After I got here, I was given access to many things from books in Braille to computers with screen reading technology. At that time, it was the early nineties, and the computer was a bulky old Apple computer with the green screen, and the screen reader sounded very mechanical. JAWS would appear a few years later, but I wouldn't use that until high school. So, I've pretty much was taught how to do a lot of things and how to get around when I was younger. I never saw my life as limited by anything, and now that new, advanced technology is out like that found in Apple products and other things, opportunities and other thingsx just keep getting more various for me. Nowadays, I don't have to stick with doing things in English. I can do things in languages as Thai. It does sound like a natural Thai person speaking with all of the tones and other nuances of the language. My native language is not Thai though, and am still waiting for the production of the TTS of my native language to reach completion. Mine is Khmer. Last time I checked, Khmer text to speech is still being worked on. A few versons of Khmer TTS have been put out for WINDOWS and Linux, but those ones aren't stable.

The biggest change--and probably a bad change--that the iPhone has brought into my life is that it has opened me up to playing accessible games. Now I play games on my iPhone and my Windows computer. I would have never tried to do this before. But it is amazing how I can have my gaming device, my podcast device, GPS device and book-reading device in my pocket at the same time.

I also do love my Apple devices but I do believe that our true independence has to come from within ourselves if our lives have to revolve around a device that will break down and not work then we are all selling ourselves short I believe it is great that we do have access to more in the way of media and access to social media but we have to take the responsibility to be independent and not let her reside in mechanical devices

At least it opened a door to new games and got me new friends and foes through social media.

Having lost my vision 7 years ago, I initially got an ipod touch 4th generation as I was frustrated at pot luck in which cd I put on. This introduced me to voyceover and I took to it like a duck to water. I then upgraded to the iPhone and its the sheer versatility of having calls, messaging, Facetime, GPS, ocr to name but a few things in my pocket that has become an extremely powerful tool. But it was when I bought my Macbook pro, went back to college, learned sound engineering on pro tools and now I have graduated and am with my local radio station making jingles etc that has changed my life and my perception of what I believe I can do. So not just the iPhone as the title of this thread suggests but I think more specifically voyceover in general has opened doors for so many people and I take my hat off to apple for their time and hard work developing it

Yes IOS is a great benefit to my blind life. There is nothing like having all the latest technology available in your pocket any time, any place. I can read a book, listen to music, or play a game any time. Also I can identify money, scan text, and read bar codes anywhere, not to mention a host of other useful other things. I am an old man living two thirds of my life sighted, and the last one third blind. I have been fortunate enough to always have had the latest tecnology for blind help, but nothing can compare to having it all in your pocket at one time.

I feel it has positively changed my life too. I have blind squared on my phone and now the stresss level about getting lost in strange new places is gone. I walk alone a lot in a city of nearly half a million people where most of it is not walk friendly. Omaha is a town that is car driven because everything is so far from each other.
Now, no matter where I am I can find my way to some place familiar without asking one question to a stranger.
It is the best life ever!

I cannot even list the ways apple has improved my quality of life. I think we are more in touch with the world now days than we have ever been and it's only getting better every year. I run my business with all apple products, I have employees and subcontractors working for me. I am able to take care of every aspect of my life because of these devices which really have only existed for the last 9 years or so. Incredible to think how things have changed in such a small amount of time.
So my idea is that maybe when everyone has had their say on this thread that a copy be emailed to apple or something. I think a lot of people are quick to send feature requests or complaints to companies but very seldom we send positive feedback and i think it can have more impact than any of us can imagine.
Just a thought :)

Gratitude is a powerful force in the world. If someone wanted to send this thread it would give the right energetic wave.

When I thank a chef for a great meal they always thank me back for sayng it because so many people just complain. So all though we can say it here and send out that vibe, putting it in their lap would be a huge blast of good magic.
A

At first, one should open up to the world of sighted people and then benefit from Apple products. For me, Apple means the third but reasonably good eye used to read texts, scan bar codes on products, tell me where I am etc. I wonder how my studies would look like when Apple products were accessible. Now I know that I would be more independent than I used to be.

I love the iPhone so much because it is so accessible and easy to use. The iPhone is the most accessible phone on the market.

What virtual braille keyboard?
I didn't know there was one.

Sorry for the OT question,
Liz