iPhone as AT
Having been entertained during the day by the “Waaah! How dare they release a product which isn’t accessible to the totally blind! Sue the heretics!” on a certain blindness-related mailing list, it occured to me that with a decent screen and a camera on the back of the thing a simple portable electronic magnifier ought to be possible.
I know this is nothing new. There are dedicated devices (ka-ching!) that already do it, as well as software+hardware-addon combo for one of the higher-end Nokia N-series phones (also insanely expensive). But iPhone has the advantage of being a platform with a huge pile of developers wanting on, so perhaps there’s more chance of an inexpensive simple magnifier app?
I don’t see anything in the app store yet, but if it’s possible then that’s really only a matter of time…
UPDATE: Well, it looks like there’s something that might do the trick, Makayama Camera Pro. It’s not meant to be AT (you can tell that from the price, US$19.95), it’s really just supposed to add some basic missing functions to the iPhone camera, but I reckon it’d work well enough as a basic magnifier.
This and eReader are making me think my next phone — in eighteen months or so — may well wind up being an iPhone after all.
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