Eye on the Cure

Video Included:
When Richard Faubion got the iPhone 4S – the first to include the intelligence software known as the female-voiced Siri – St. Patrick’s Day was coming up. “So I asked Siri to find me an Irish pub,” he recalls. “She told me of 17 locations and provided Yelp reviews, addresses, how far they were. All this came instantly. The things it can find and do – it’s amazing.”

Richard – who has retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and is the Foundation’s Director of Development, West Region – is among a growing legion of visually impaired people turning to the iPhone for assistive technology. To better understand what sets the device apart from others, I spoke with Richard and two other FFB associates affected by retinal diseases to get the skinny on the iPhone, both pros and cons.

John Corneille, affected with RP, Director of Gift Planning: I really like some apps I found on a website someone recommended. One’s called “money reader.” You point the phone at the currency, and it reads it quickly and accurately. There’s also a GPS system that helps me find places. When I’m riding in a car, it tells me the speed and how much farther we have to go. This helps pass the time if you’re not able to see what’s going on.

With the touch screen, I was used to a tactile keyboard before, so I wasn’t sure about navigation. But it’s really not a problem because VoiceOver [the audible navigation system; see video below] announces where you put your finger and won’t open anything until you double-tap. There is a learning curve; you have to figure out where to tap, slide, that kind of thing. But the more you do it, the better you get.

Richard: It did take me a while to get used to it, but once you learn, it’s pretty easy. And I use the iPhone for lots of things. Aside from email, I use text messages and a calendar feature that sends me invites through email. A double-beep tells me it’s there.

I use reminders a lot. I set the time, and it’ll give me an alert. It has 50 different sounds, to distinguish what’s coming in – crickets for voicemail, a train whistle for text, a tweet for email, my wife’s ring. I like to know who’s calling, what’s happening.

Dean Thompson, affected with Stargardt disease, Managing Partner, Beehive Communications, contractor with FFB: With the iPhone, it’s so much easier to organize email, using the search function I’ve used for a while, only with voice. That includes searching for emails from specific individuals. Once someone sends me something, I can find it easily with audible help, so I move much more quickly.

Siri can be a challenge. If, for instance, I say, “Let me change my phone call from today at 11 to tomorrow at noon,” she might hear it and repeat it back incorrectly – maybe say, “Let me change our phone call heaven.”

But keep in mind, Siri is not voice-activated technology; she’s artificial intelligence. Somewhere along the line, she began to call me by name, literally saying, “Dean, be patient.” She begins to learn you, and you begin to learn her. And since I downloaded iOS6 [the latest version of the Apple operating system], it’s a huge improvement; there are far fewer mistakes. I don’t get better, but she does.

John: I just downloaded iOS6, and I’m hoping that helps with Siri, because it’s been frustrating. Sometimes, she’d act like she was accepting verbal direction, but wouldn’t complete the task. I wasn’t the only one experiencing this. But nothing’s perfect. For me, Siri works 70 percent of the time.

Richard: I laugh sometimes – what Siri says versus what I’ve said. Some words are more difficult for her to understand. But, for me, it’s 85 to 90 percent accurate. The ease of sending a text is what’s great; it’s a matter of talking distinctly, slowly. I’m amazed at how often she gets it right.

The iPhone is revolutionary – having something like this technology. It’s helped me be much more independent and productive. And it wasn’t available even five years ago.

John: For me, it’s a cell phone that provides a lot more features than others. And like any piece of software, it offers stuff I don’t even know about. I need time to figure all of it out. But it is capable of doing just about all I need. It’s like a mini-computer.

Dean: I’ve been able to streamline my business life. But I’m still a lover of the telephone. I’d rather talk. But what blind person wouldn’t?

Photo and video courtesy of Apple, Inc.