Written by Mike Price, OT
 | BlindShell Classic 2 | Phone for the Visually Impaired View Product |
Although smartphones are widely popular and have helped many people living with disabilities to stay more connected, it can still be challenging for people with blindness and visual impairments to utilize a smartphone. With the BlindShell Classic 2 smartphone, these people can now enjoy communication with no limits! Specially designed with input from the blind and VI community, this innovative phone includes all the usual smartphone features, but adds upgraded hardware and software to deliver benefits like a tactile keypad, voice control, and a very loud speaker. With over 2.2 billion visually impaired people around the globe, it has never been a better time to find yourself or your loved one a Low Vision Telephone that will open up the connection to the world.
Because it was developed in cooperation with the blind and visually impaired community, every detail of the BlindShell Classic 2 smartphone is designed to be intuitive, user-friendly, and easy to operate. Enabling voice commands whether you’re connected to the internet or not, users can simply speak the phone number to make a call or say the text they want to send out loud. This innovative low-vision smartphone also boasts a louder speaker, ensuring that you’ll always be able to hear your phone with its adjustable volume control. It includes earbud headphones for private listening, as well.
The upgraded keypad makes this BlindShell phone much easier to use by people living with blindness or vision challenges, as it features tactile, jumbo numbers and other individually shaped and raised buttons for controlling the phone. Easy to see and/or feel, these buttons offer a range of functions, such as repeating out loud what is on the screen, menu navigation, and launching favorite apps. Its large, graphical home screen is brightly lit for clear viewing, with adjustable display information that can be made larger or smaller according to the individual user’s unique needs.
If you’re looking for a smartphone specifically designed for low vision or blind users that do not sacrifice the ability to use the most up-to-date technology, the BlindShell Classic 2 is definitely the right choice! Just like standard mobile phones, it comes with Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity, SMS, an internet browser, email, text messaging, a camera, and most other basic and advanced smartphone functionality. Its slim, sleek, and lightweight design fits in your hand just like a regular cell phone, with a choice of optional cases for optimal protection.
One of the best design highlights of this BlindShell phone is its inclusion of WhatsApp, enabling users to stay in touch with others online and send text and voice messages. It also includes access to the BlindShell application catalog which is constantly added to, allowing users to reap the benefits of the latest functionality upgrades for life. This smartphone for the blind and visually impaired also includes YouTube, Facebook Messenger, a screen reader, a magnifier, a book reader, a music player, FM/Internet radio, and a whole lot more beneficial functions and assistive technology that help vision-impaired users in their daily lives.
Recent advancements in the design technology of applications for smartphones that specifically address the challenges that people living with blindness or visual impairments face on a daily basis have led to positive enhancements in those people’s lives. Especially beneficial for people who do not have others around to assist them, the right smartphone can make all the difference in establishing the ability to safely live independently. The BlindShell Classic 2 smartphone includes GPS so you can know your location, a flashlight to light your way, and a programmable SOS button for emergency help.
BlindShell phone users can further simplify their life with this phone’s other many assistive technology tools, including a magnifier, a color indicator for those with color-blindness, and an NFC object tagger that lets users audio-label any item for quick and easy identification. An optional BlindShell Beep can be attached to keys, a wallet, a purse, and other personal items so that if they are lost, you simply press a button on the phone that will activate a melody that plays from the Beep device to easily locate them again.
With its built-in media, productivity tools, multiple features, vision aids, and advanced functionality, the BlindShell Classic 2 phone delivers unrivaled support, convenience, and connection for blind and visually impaired users. Simple to use, it offers a much longer battery life between charges than most other mobile phones, using a large capacity 3000 mAh battery for up to 96 hours. It’s also easy to charge with the included USB-C cable with a reversible connector so it goes into the phone both ways, or you can choose the optional charging cradle.
Offering dual SIM card slots, this BlindShell smartphone also comes with a free 3-month subscription to Aira. This visual interpreting service provides live, on-demand access to visual information, connecting users to actual humans to describe this information in detail. BlindShell phones are compatible with the T-Mobile network in the USA.
“I got this amazing phone for my mother who is legally blind and also just started developing dementia, and it has helped tremendously with her staying connected! She is in her 80s but has been able to understand how to use it, as opposed to other smartphones we had tried. Thank you, BlindShell!”
- Daughter of elderly BlindShell Classic 2 user
“I love my BlindShell 2 phone! It is so simple and very user-intuitive - I can speak the commands for everything I want to do and don’t have to strain to read the words on the screen.”
- BlindShell Classic 2 user living with low vision
“The battery lasts so much longer than other smartphones, which my husband really appreciates because he has to use it pretty constantly for work. Really clear sound quality, too.”
- Wife of BlindShell Classic 2 user
Perfect for people of all ages living with vision impairment, blindness, learning disabilities, and challenges with smartphone navigation, the BlindShell Classic 2 smartphone is designed to be easy to operate and super user-friendly. Often recommended for low vision rehabilitation, the features included, such as voice commands/control, a tactile/jumbo number keypad, a very loud speaker, and access to the latest apps make this innovative next-generation smartphone the ideal choice for anyone struggling to view their phones.
Thanks for learning more about how the BlindShell Classic 2 can help blind and visually-impaired people to connect better and communicate! Be sure to check out our comprehensive Vision-Impaired Tools & Devices catalog to find more daily living aids that can help, along with searching our educational Caregiver University blog for more informative articles about how to better live with low vision, vision impairment, and blindness.
Co-Founder of Rehabmart and an Occupational Therapist since 1993. Mike has spent his professional career working in multiple areas of Occupational Therapy, including pediatrics, geriatrics, hand therapy, ergonomics and inpatient / outpatient rehabilitation. Mike enjoys writing articles that help people solve complex therapeutic problems and make better product choices.
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