Orange make makes phones accessible for blind with Talks

Orange France offers blind and visually impaired callers a software application to enable their mobile phone to talk. Full menus, incoming calls and text messages are translated to verbal speech with ScanSoft SpeechPAK TALKS software on Symbian ready mobile phones.

For now, Orange offers services for the visually impaired only in France. SpeechPAK TALKS converts the display text of a cellular handset into speech, making the device completely accessible for blind and visually impaired users. SpeechPAK TALKS runs on Symbian-powered mobile phones to speech-enable contact names, caller ID, text messages, help files and other screen content.

Specially trained Orange staff will help users at a selection of shops to help visually impaired customers install it on their phones, said François-René Germain, group vice president of France Télécom’s elderly and disabled people directorate.

France Télécom, the parent company of Orange, will also offer a package of services for visually impaired customers. “Dixit” includes limited free calls to directory enquiries and text message dictation services, and free large-print or Braille bills. It already offers hard-of-hearing users a reduced price on text messaging, through a service called “Mot-a-mot.”

Vodafone started almost one year earlier and offers similar services to its customers in the UK.