Tech talk – Apple watch

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Peter Tarrant talks in Auslan about his Apple watch. Below is the video and a translation:

Peter: I’m Peter. I’m Deafblind.

Interviewer: What kind of watch do you have?

Peter: It’s an Apple watch. I think Series 7. This one is GPS-only, it’s not the Cellular one. I don’t need that, because I use it with my mobile phone, so the data comes from my phone plan. It doesn’t have $5 data included. So I need to use the watch with the phone and my braille display. I use all three devices together.

Interviewer: Do you think Apple watches are good for Deafblind people?

Peter: I don’t know. It has a vibrating clock. I can also read SMS messages from the watch on my braille display, but if I walk away from the braille display when wearing the watch, they disconnect from each other. I have to remember to take the braille display with me. They must be physically close. I don’t know about the clock, but for SMS, it has to be close.

Messages are easy to find: select “message”, then go down to “open message”, and there’s “new” and “start SMS”; all the messages are listed there with the [sender’s] name. It’s a quick process.

Interviewer: What about vibration? How does that work?

Peter: I can try [to show you]. I might have to Google it. Oh, the phone display is not on right now. Hang on. We have to stop talking for minute. If we talk, it can disconnect from the braille display. Let me get it back… I think I’ve got it, but I’ll just turn the braille display off, then on again [to reconnect]. Come on watch, wake up. There it is. It says “Maps”, good! Now I can go back in the menu. I’ll turn off the braille display, to see [if we can show the vibration].

Peter covers the watch with his hand and taps a button.

Peter: The watch is asleep. When it goes to sleep, it doesn’t tell the time. I also have to face it towards me. It needs to see my face to work. Now, here it goes.

Peter feels a sequence of vibrations

Peter: I’m getting 1, then 1, 2, then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. So the time is 12:07.

Interviewer: There are vibrating pulses?

Peter: Yes. It doesn’t work if my arm is turned outwards. The watch has a sensor that detects my face. It’s set up to remember me.

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