Jakarta, Kartunet.com - Many people (particularly those with visual impairments) have commented that BlackBerry devices are highly inaccessible, leading to the opinion that Research In Motion ® (the company that produces BlackBerry RIM ®) does not care about people with disabilities (especially the visually impaired), unlike their competitors such as Android, Apple, and Nokia, who work together to develop advanced gadgets while still being accessible to the visually impaired by developing their own screen readers.
But now, the belief that RIM is indifferent to the visually impaired appears to be fading, as RIM has just released a new BlackBerry application: BlackBerry ® Screen Reader! Although it can currently only operate on a few BlackBerry devices, such as the BlackBerry ® ™ Curve 9350, 9360, and 9370 smartphones, this marks an initial step for RIM to participate in developing accessible technology for the visually impaired.
Here are the features of BlackBerry ® Screen Reader:
• Supports core BlackBerry applications such as email, calendar, and phone calls.
• Speech settings, where users can configure text-to-speech functions including volume, pitch, speech rate, punctuation, and password security.
• Keyboard shortcuts, allowing users to quickly and easily adjust speech and audio preferences via physical keyboard shortcuts.
• Accessible documentation, user guides are available in HTML format, accessible via a desktop web browser.
What's great is that the BlackBerry ® Screen Reader can be downloaded for free by connecting your BlackBerry device to a desktop/laptop via USB, then navigating to www.BlackBerry.com/screenreader. It supports BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360, and 9370 smartphones and is available in US English, UK English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. For more information, please visit www.blackberry.com/accessibility
So, with the introduction of BlackBerry ® Screen Reader, we hope it will increase awareness among high-tech gadget developers to continue to uphold the right to equal access, including for the visually impaired.(Riqo)