Mission Moment: It’s Never Too Late to Learn to Use Apps on a Phone

Jo Anne Cash is a senior living with neurotrophic keratitis and severe glaucoma. Her vision is near blindness. After a low vision evaluation from an optometrist and an occupational therapist at Alphapointe who both specialize in vision rehabilitation, goals were established to prepare for in-home training provided by an occupational therapy assistant. Jo Anne’s main concern was being able to set up Uber rides on her iPhone.

The bulk of Jo Anne’s training was focused on learning a screen reader on her iPhone called “Voiceover,” which is a gesture-based program that can be used on an iPhone requiring no vision. Learning Voiceover requires a lot of dedication and hard work to be successful. Jo Anne was given homework to work on between each visit. Her success greatly depended on how much time she was willing to put in. Weekly home visits were scheduled and completed.

Some apps Jo Anne learned to navigate while receiving services include a weather app, the Bard app, a calendar app and the Uber app. Learning how to navigate within these apps lays a good foundation to learn to navigate in other apps. Voiceover enabled Jo Anne to complete everyday tasks most people take for granted, including checking the weather, reading books, adding appointments to a calendar and setting up an Uber ride.

Jo Anne says the most helpful part of training was learning how to use her iPhone within a reasonable amount of time just as a sighted person would.