Programming Symbian Smartphones for the Blind and Visually Impaired

A set of software procedures for the Symbian OS mobile smartphone making the device more easily usable for a blind user is described in the paper. The application was written in the Carbide C++ environment, tested both on the S60 series phone emulator and the phone platform itself The main task was to create a dedicated speech enabled menu, rather than a simple screen reader. Along with ordinary phone functions (calls, SMSs) the programmed phone can be used as a speech recorder, a web browser (RSS feeds are used), and a colour recognizer in images captured by the phone's camera. Added functionality makes the smartphone a very useful personal assistance tool for the blind who tested the developed application.