"But you're blind! You can't use a touch screen phone!"

"But you're blind! You can't use a touch screen phone!", a photo by Cobra_11 on Flickr.

That was a comment I heard recently. Why do people always presume that you can't do things just because you can't see? Of course blind people can use touch-screen phones! There are special programs that enable you to control your mobile phone just with voice controls. This way, you can call people, write SMS (yes, blind people can write SMS, too) and do other things. Even the phone-camera can help you if you can't see, for example with identifying money: there are programs that can recognize the value of the money on the photo and then a voice tells you which money-bill you have in your hands. Phones can also be very useful with navigation in the city through GPS.

There's also another way to control your phone. Small, portable Braille refreshable screens can be connected to your phone and this way you can read and give commands to your phone in Braille. This is particularly good for noisy environments, where hearing the voice from your phone can be difficult and where dictating private stuff into your phone can be a bit tricky.

Never assume that a person can't do things just because he or she has a disability. Instead, ask them: "How do you do this?" This way, you won't offend anyone. On the one hand, I'm sure that anyone with a disability will be happy to explain how he or she does a particular task. On the other hand, you will learn something new and you won't behave like a complete idiot by uttering a stupid thing like the comment I used for my title.