elderly women who is partially blind looking for an app to read bills

Hi cassidhe,

What app is your friend currently using to open bills?

Does that app have a zoom feature?

Have a look at Menu > Apple > System Preferences > Accessibility

Try the Display and Zoom features of the Accessibility preferences.

Call back with questions.

Regards,

Ian.

Hi cassidhe,

cassidhe wrote:

she currently has somebody read the bills to her but is looking to get something she can do herself and was told an ipad would do it

How is your friend receiving bills?

Are they by email (or another form of electronic delivery)?

If so, what app opens the bills? Possibly there is a 'Zoom in' command to enlarge the size.

If the bills arrive by post (printed on paper) I am not sure what to suggest.

More information will lead to a solution 🙂.

Regards,

Ian.

For very low or no vision, thereʻs an app called TapTapSee; itʻs an iPhone app.

Itʻs a free app - and it should be much easier to find her an old (or new, depending on budget) iPhone or an iPod Touch or something small that still uses iOS and VoiceOver.

VoiceOver is quite easy to configure on iPhone (and iPad too).

There are also some other software options for this need. Iʻm currently testing BeSpecular which is i beta; it will allow sighted helpers to identify what is in the picture for the blind community.

Also Siri might work for her - "how much is this bill worth?" "is this a $5 bill?" "is this a dollar or twenty dollars?" --- use all the methods you can think of, and over the time sheʻll find the ones that will work best for her. I love TapTapSee, but Iʻd also love to see an older lady use her iPhone and use Siri (or the camera app with VoiceOver help, or anything similarly fun) to find out what kind of money is it 🙂

Both VoiceOver and Siri will be able to learn easily about the user over time. Siri might be more user-friendly if sheʻs more into talking than typing or fiddling with the camera in a "blind mode".

cassidhe, and others who have visual limitations, pay attention here: GET THE "KNFB READER" APP.

If you are looking for an app that can read to you, and it's not something that's digital (so like, paper bills or prescription medication bottles or a can of beans or what have you): get the app KNFB Reader.

The KNFB Reader app has a huge history helping totally blind and partially sighted people. It started about ten years ago as a camera strapped to a PDA device, later it became a phone, and now the software has been put into an app. Those other products used to cost over a thousand dollars, this app is $99. You get what you pay for: I've used it to read everything from canned ingredient lists to menus in restaurants. It's the real thing.

I do not represent KNFB Reading technologies (but they make VERY helpful software for the blind, like Blio, the eBook store packed with blind navigable eBooks). What is different about KNFB Reader is that it has gone through far more testing than any "app" you will ever find. It can read things like the label on a bottle of medication because it's designed to read curved items (where letters are different sizes when you take the picture). It's also nearly instant, and has a button that will tell you how much of a page it currently sees (called field report I think). It will tell you things like "the top and bottom edges are visible" (of the page). The other button takes the picture and viola! It's done.

The K in KNFB Reader stands for Kurzweil, as in Ray Kurzweil, the man who made the first reading machine in the 1970s. It's his project. The NFB of KNFB stands for the National Federation of the Blind, which doesn't have anything to do with the current company, but it's an organization made up of blind people that help start these kinds of companies.

So go and get the KNFB READER and start taking some snapshots of the paper bills or ATM screens or whatever and it will read everything.

-- Mike

I had some other things to say in that post above but when I edited it, I think I took too long. So I'm just going to repost my edits here, and you can get my words twice! This one here has things like the link to a webpage describing the app, knfbreader.com.

============= EDITED TEXT FOLLOWS! ==============

Cassidhe, and others who have visual limitations, pay attention here: GET THE "KNFB READER" APP!

If you are looking for an app that can read to you or someone you know, and it's not something that's digital (so like, paper bills or prescription medication bottles or a can of food or what have you): get the app KNFB Reader. It will run on an iPad, and it will ALSO run on an iPod, which is SMALL and something someone can CARRY with them very easily. (When in public, bring a little set of headphones for privacy and so you don't bother others!)

The KNFB Reader app has a great history helping totally blind and partially sighted people. It started about ten years ago as a camera strapped to a PDA device, later it became a phone, and now the software has been put into an app for both Apple and Android devices. Those other products used to cost over a thousand dollars, this app is $99. I realize $99 may seem a lot for an app but we are talking independence and freedom here, I cannot stress how this is for a person, they can view these things privately and is way better than that other garbage that's out there and pretends to read stuff and then doesn't. You might not understand if you're not a blind person. You need the thing to work as much as possible. KNFB Reader isn't perfect, nothing is, but I don't think anything can beat it. And for $99? You get what you pay for: I've used it to read everything from canned ingredient lists to menus in restaurants. It's the real thing.

I do not represent KNFB Reading technologies (but they make VERY helpful software for the blind, like Blio, the eBook app and store packed with blind navigable eBooks, get that thing after getting the KNFB Reader). What is different about KNFB Reader is that it has gone through far more testing than any reading app you will find, ever. It's got a huge customer base for reading apps. And unlike the others it can read things like the label on a bottle of medication because it's designed to read curved items (where letters are different sizes when you take the picture). It's also nearly instant, and has a button that will tell you how much of a page it currently sees (called field report I think). It will tell you things like "the top and bottom edges are visible" (of the page), so you know to reposition your device to try taking the picture again. The other button takes the picture and viola! It's done and it starts speaking right away.

The K in KNFB Reader stands for Kurzweil, as in Ray Kurzweil, the man who made the first reading machine in the 1970s. It's his project. The NFB of KNFB stands for the National Federation of the Blind, which doesn't have anything to do with the current company, but it's an organization made up of blind people that do all kinds of things for blind people, in this case, helped get this company off the ground.

So go and get the KNFB READER and start taking some snapshots of the paper bills or ATM screens or whatever and it will read all kinds of things! Some things it won't with or might have trouble with but keep at it -- and you never know what you could have it read: television screens, street signs, all kinds of crazy things!

Here's a web page that tells you all about it!

http://knfbreader.com/

-- Mike

I have an app called "magnifier" that i think was either free or $2 that i use for looking at hard copy things like price tags on clothes when I'm shopping, and instructions on frozen pizzas. i have an iPhone 4 and since that phone's camera didn't come with a zoom function, this app just adds that to the phone's existing camera so i can use it to magnify small print items. hope that helps!

Jenny