Smartphones: 21st Century Braille For The Blind

It may seem utterly counter-intuitive but the smooth, seemingly featureless touch screen of a smartphone can be a portal to the digital - and physical - world for the visually impaired. Thanks to the development of assistive technologies in the form of apps like Apple's VoiceOver, users can read email, scan web content and transact using paper currency. Features even allow a virtually blind person to work as a professional photographer. Advocates for the blind compare these tools to the advent of Braille in the 1820's. While developer's altruistic motives are clear and undeniable, these applications open up a new cohort of 10 million visually impaired customers to mobile direct marketing. Their "disability" can now be replaced by a robust ability to participate in the direct marketing economy as fully as any sighted consumer.