Hearing Impaired Can't Hear iPhone--Violating Disability Laws

By Reporter Wireless and Mobile News on September 25, 2007 10:32 AM

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.