Tactile Screen Protectors
Contributed by Joel Zimba, Technology Outreach Specialist, MDTAP
Two years ago, MDTAP ordered a set of Tactile Screen Protectors for our iPhones and iPads. These screen protectors not only protect the glass of an iDevice from dirt and damage, but they provide raised dots for orientation on an otherwise landmark free plane of glass.
The larger area of the iPad allows the Braille characters to be placed in proper layout on the virtual keyboard, while on the iPhone, single dots mark the locations of characters. The new form factor of the iPhone 5 means the old Tactile Screen Protectors won’t work with the new hardware. Further, the iPad Mini has recently appeared on the market, meaning a refresh of the screen protectors from SpeedDots was overdue.
Recently, AT Guys (www.atguys.com) began selling the new and improved line of Tactile Screen Protectors from SpeedDots. In addition to the standard and advanced models of screen protectors, there is also a version sporting just the markers for the telephone keyboard. I personally find using the telephone keypad to be the most frustrating part of the iPhone interface, so I may go for this one. Now all of Apple’s iDevices are supported, from iPhone 3GS onward. This includes the iPad Mini and several incarnations of the iPod Touch.
If you would like, a value added reseller like AT Guys will also sell you an Otterbox/Tactile Screen Protector combo with the screen protector installed in the case. The $49 price tag seems like a pretty good deal.
We are pleased to see SpeedDots keeping up with changing technology so quickly.
