According to PC World.: A group representing people with a hearing loss filed complaints with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last month, accusing Apple Inc. of not making its iPhone compatible with hearing aids.
Comment from Wireless and Mobile News:
The
iPhone is also not operable by physically disabled people. I have
been writing about technology for people with disabilities for some
time and recently wrote about new issues with touch technology on
Mobile Content Writers.
From the Blog at Mobile Content Writers:by Lynn Walford
I ran into Dr. David Rogers, a clinical geneticist whom I
wrote about in the Los Angeles Times
several years ago. Dr. Rogers was having trouble operating Mac
products with touchpads because he is a quadriplegic who uses a mouth stick.
Although
he can operate a Palm device such as a Treo that uses a stylus with a
mouth stick, he can not operate an iPod or the touchpad on the iMac.
The touchpads on the iPod, Mac and iPhone are capacitive and require a
change in electrical charge. A mouth stick does not have an
electrical charge like human fingers do.
I thought touch screen specialist, Geoff Walker could help him but
unfortunately since Dr. Rogers does not have the ability to move his
fingers, the type of touch technology used on the aforementioned devices and
iPone, can not be operated by him. Geoff Walker wrote Dr. Rogers an
excellent e-mail explaining why an device other than a human finger could
not operate the touch technology which he cc:ed to me.
I hope that Geoff Walker brings up this issue to the touchscreen developers
and publishes the information. It is interesting to note that a very high
number of people with disabilities use cell phones and very likely would
want the high-end functionality of the iPone.