2.3 Symbian
Symbian is a mobile operating system maintained by Accenture on behalf of Nokia, and used mainly on Nokia handsets.
Though it has no inbuilt accessibility features, the fact that Symbian runs on simpler, button-operated phones means it remains popular with people who feel more comfortable using a simpler, old-style phone that just makes calls and texts.
Most Nokia users with impaired vision use TALKS&ZOOMS, a software application from Nuance that converts displayed text into speech or large print, costing around £150. It is easy to change the volume and pitch with TALKS, and it reads everything on screen, though in some phones TALKS does not access all areas, unlike deeper accessibility built into the iPhone and newer Android phones.
Code Factory (see Android section, above) also makes a version of its Mobile Speak for Symbian, and recently Nokia launched a free screen reader based on Mobile Speak for some of its devices running the newest Symbian Belle version of its operating system: the C5 5MP, 700 and 701 handsets. For low cost, pared down products, many low vision users swear by the C5.
2.4 BlackBerry OS and QNX
 The BlackBerry OS operating system is in use on BlackBerry smartphones, and the operating system QNX is used on the BlackBerry Playbook tablet computers.
These operating systems do not have the same text-to-speech functionality as Apple iOS or the newest version of Android. However users of BlackBerry phones can download a low-vision “theme” called Clarity which adds large fonts and different colour and contrast settings.
A screen reader called Oratio for Blackberry was released in the US and Canada in 2010, but it currently only works with some older model phones that have physical keyboards and up to now has not reached the UK.
Some deaf and hard of hearing users like BlackBerry phones for BlackBerry Messenger, a built-in text-based instant messaging system that allows powerful instant communication with other people using BlackBerry handsets, and is soon to be available across other platforms such as Android.
There is more information about Clarity, and links to other accessibility information including a developer guide on RIM's BlackBerry accessibility page (see resources section).
2.5 Windows Mobile/ Windows Phone
 Despite Microsoft Windows for PCs and laptops offering a range of built-in accessibility features, the current version of its smartphone operating system – Windows Phone 7 (formerly called Windows Mobile), a cut-down version of the familiar Windows for PCs – is not considered to be very accessible. It does not have a built-in screen-reader, and it is not constructed to allow others to write apps accessing the screen elements.
However Microsoft is working with disability charities worldwide to develop a broad range of accessibility features for Windows Phone 8, which is set to mark a major new direction when it appears later this year.
With the new version, Microsoft is set to merge its new desktop and laptop operating system Windows 8 with its smartphone and tablet system to create a more unified experience across all Windows devices. A new general design style known as “Metro” is intended to be simpler and more intuitive, with a system of large “tiles” presenting features and services. Greater accessibility “out of the box” is expected to feature.
2.6 Access apps
There is a whole family of smartphone apps that can add accessibility features to basic everyday tasks, and while these are not built-in or supplied with phones, many are free to install.
One example is Handcent http://www.handcent.com/,
a free texting app for Android that is highly customisable, allowing users to set their own font styles, colours, ringtones and vibration patterns for different aspects of use, for fine-tuning to individual accessibility preferences. Running apps like this can then make the basic mobile task of texting more accessible, even if the basic phone operating system does not allow the right level of customisation.
 Apps like this can be experimented with by anyone with special access needs to create more accessible interfaces: exploring accessible app websites or marketplaces will produce a range of ideas (Appendix 2: Selected resources).
Another example of this approach is BIG Launcher, an alternative customisable Android home screen for elderly or visually impaired users who often struggle to use the small keyboards on most devices, developed in the Czech Republic.
The app was a prize winner in the first Smart Accessibility Awards, presented in December 2011 by the Vodafone Foundation with AGE Platform Europe and the European Disability Forum
BIG Launcher uses big buttons and large fonts to represent all the basic functions of a phone such as voice calls, text messages and cameras.
Here in the UK, developments in this field include the experimental “Safe and Sound” app designed by accessibility pioneers Screenreader.net and available for £5 from the Android marketplace. A version for iOS is also planned.
The app is based around a guide to help disabled people when they are out using a smartphone’s built-in geo-location system, but at the heart of the concept is a new interface which its developers say is potentially translatable to almost any purpose.
The interface is based around simple screens with five big clear buttons in a choice of colours, which talk when you touch them, and with similar functions always set out in similar places to build familiarity and ease of use to anyone with restricted access.
Roger Wilson-Hinds, director of Screenreader.net, says the interface could potentially be licensed to other developers and used to sit on top of all sorts of other apps, from podcasts to local information, so users could become familiar with the way it works and then access a range of other services in the same way.
Of course, running apps whose features are accessible does not absolve the manufacturers of mobile devices from the need to make their basic handsets and operating systems as flexible and accessible as possible. If the user cannot access the handset and the operating system, they will not be able to run the apps they need in the first place.
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