Cryptocurrency does not offer equal opportunity to the visually impaired.

[Rruchi man]

We usually prioritize how keeping our keys safe and personal is crucial for the safety of our coins, but how can the visually impaired keep safe something that they cannot see. The entire thought of it is very disheartening that it may even be discouraging for any of such a person if after managing to agree to be a part of crypto, they now hear that they may never be able to secure their crypto. What can we suggest to these individuals (the visually impaired) who have an interest in bitcoins and crypto so that they don't loose interest?  Have you met any visually impaired individual in crypto, how do they manage to go about with it?

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[Oshosondy]

For people that are not visually impaired, noncustodial wallet should be used.

I do not know other way to go than the visually impaired person to use his bank to buy bitcoin, you can do that in some Western countries, but some countries do not allow bank to get involved in crypto.

I will not advice noncustodial wallet because the person still trust someone to help him keep the coins, noncustododial should be trustless and not suitable for visually impaired person.

I will not suggest exchanges, regardless of anything, exchanges should be avoided.

[jackg]

I'm confused as to why this is a topic the Internet and computers are extremely accessible and are built for that.

Some of the cryptospace will probably be inaccessible to people with different disabilities but most of it won't be - and for developers it might be as simple as seeing if they can download and use text to speech on their app.

Most exchanges are built of websites which are very easy to adapt and feed into other programs to be viewed more optimally for the user (there are on screen magnifiers on most devices and there are also usbc/USB braille readers that can be used for adapting information - I've no idea how blind people actually use these to navigate round computers but I've watched some do it with great proficiency and at very fast paces).

There are typewriter style machines that could also handle writing down mnemonics for producing paper backups (the bumps should stay if the paper is protected and even if they don't, they just become holes - they don't fade like ink does).

[pooya87]

I suppose you can say the same thing about computers and digital banking system since in terms of usage there is no difference between bitcoin and them.
It shouldn't be that difficult to add voice commands to a bitcoin wallet either. All it takes is to add some open source packages for that to a popular wallet like Electrum so that it can convert everything they need to do (setting amount, fee, etc.) to voice and also respond to voice commands.

[cryptoaddictchie]

It shouldn't be that difficult to add voice commands to a bitcoin wallet either. All it takes is to add some open source packages for that to a popular wallet like Electrum so that it can convert everything they need to do (setting amount, fee, etc.) to voice and also respond to voice commands.

Interesting idea. By the way is there any platform that have tried this out or has been in the alpha stage? I think OPs concern is really worth looking at if we think about it. There are some visually impaired whose interest on bitcoin are probably in demand but the lack of proper platform or tools are missing.

[mk4]

I suppose you can say the same thing about computers and digital banking system since in terms of usage there is no difference between bitcoin and them.

This, and like 99999 other internet services lol. It was described as if bitcoin/crypto is the only sort of "service" that the visually impaired can't easily use.

As for the solution: get a trusted family member to help you, just like how the visually impaired need a helping hand with a lot of other stuff.

[Maus0728]

Back in the year 2017, there is an individual who created a specialized open source bitcoin wallet that is designed for visually impaired bitcoin communities^[1]. And it uses some sort of braille display and an audio for the person to control the device. However, the project itself appears to be dead and its website is no longer accessible.

While the developer seems to abandoned the project, the developer nonetheless produced a braille version^[2] of the bitcoin whitepaper.  

[1] https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/icywallet-offers-cold-storage-bitcoin-wallet-visually-impaired
[2] https://github.com/neatnik/braille-bitcoin-whitepaper

I have absolutely no clue what was written here but I think you guys can get some useful information from their archived github
- https://web.archive.org/web/20201113132658/https://github.com/neatnik/icywallet

[libert19]

isn't life itself hard if one is visually impaired, what crypto got to do with anything?

[NotATether]

We usually prioritize how keeping our keys safe and personal is crucial for the safety of our coins, but how can the visually impaired keep safe something that they cannot see.

They can use the abundance of screen readers and other accessibility software that is available on all major operating systems. Generally, if these see any text, or input controls anywhere, the screen readers pronounce it out loud (with the exception of passwords, but I'd assume that people already invented a method to deal with that - at least for Windows passwords at first. Perhaps a braille keyboard for english letters). I don't see the problem here?

[Text]

It is sad to think OP that there are such situations. Here among us, there are visually impaired people who are helped by government agencies to get a job. They have their organization of massage therapists. I noticed someone when my mother once took me with her when she availed of their service, that one of them, despite his disability, is a fan of technology, and is the geek type. I saw that he was using a smartphone even though he was completely blind, I just didn't know what to call the software he was using, maybe a screen reader or text-to-speech tool and I admired him. But I just don't know if he also knows about cryptocurrency, it's been a long time, a few years ago.

So today, I searched the internet to see how there are people like this who are interested in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. I read this story of Michael Staffen, he also had a visual impairment and he was one of the supporters of Bitcoin in 2014, Bitcoin-QT was the wallet he used then and he said he couldn't do anything because he only used a screenreader, he couldn't even access like send/receive a coin, fortunately, he has a sister who is also a Bitcoin enthusiast who helps him. It was also mentioned that he was hired by Coindesk to be a beta tester who will make the wallet usable for those like him, the wallet referred to here is MultiBit, but as far as I know, it was deprecated in 2017. I also found nothing news about him.

Bitcoin 'Needs to be More Accessible for the Visually Impaired'

"Most people want to make it accessible, probably including the developers – they just haven't considered it. That's one of the problems around accessibility: It's not that people intentionally exclude others. It's also up to [people with disabilities] to make noise."

[Pmalek]

I suppose you can say the same thing about computers and digital banking system since in terms of usage there is no difference between bitcoin and them.

One difference is that with traditional financial systems, there is a centralized entity that could invalidate a wrongly sent transaction by a visually impaired person, for example. If they lose their card, their online banking account, forget their logins, etc., there are ways to help them. If they make the same mistake when sending Bitcoin or storing their private information, there is no one to turn to due to the nature of the system.   

[passwordnow]

I've thought of having that "trust" to the closest person of that visually impaired person. But it's not the solution on this matter, is it possible that Braille system would be integrated to wallets for them to trust no one and they're the only one that can access their private keys?

While the developer seems to abandoned the project, the developer nonetheless produced a braille version^[2] of the bitcoin whitepaper.   

Hopefully in the near future, there will be developers that would have develop something like this but has direct access to the wallet and funds/private key of the visually impaired investors.

[Davidvictorson]

I have a friend who is visually impaired and I know a couple of others. One thing I can say is that they do not want to be reliant on the sighted to do everything for them. 

Back in the year 2017, there is an individual who created a specialized open source bitcoin wallet that is designed for visually impaired bitcoin communities.

I agree with the OP that Cryptocurrency does not offer equal opportunity to the visually impaired. Since the Multibit and Icy Wallet for the Blind was created in 2014 and 2017, I haven't seen any article on the internet where the visually impaired described their experience with it.

[pooya87]

It shouldn't be that difficult to add voice commands to a bitcoin wallet either. All it takes is to add some open source packages for that to a popular wallet like Electrum so that it can convert everything they need to do (setting amount, fee, etc.) to voice and also respond to voice commands.

Interesting idea. By the way is there any platform that have tried this out or has been in the alpha stage? I think OPs concern is really worth looking at if we think about it. There are some visually impaired whose interest on bitcoin are probably in demand but the lack of proper platform or tools are missing.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be that much work done in general for visually impaired people. There are small and abandoned works such as the bitcoin paper in Braille, some small work done by Multibit wallet which was forgotten after the wallet itself died. There also appears to have been a hardware wallet called IcyWallet that was supposed to use voice commands and Braille to help the visually impaired after the developer saw a reddit post but its website doesn't open anymore: https://icywallet.com/
Others are generally using screen readers which sometimes don't work on bitcoin wallets like Electrum and cause some problems.

[cryptoaddictchie]

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be that much work done in general for visually impaired people.

I see some tried out but in the end died out. This is probably due to lower number of user base of impaired people whom actually wanted to do or try out bitcoin. Those company must be interested but due to lack of funding and interest its not work out.

Im thinking if Government would found this useful and funded it but since some disagree on crypto might be not possible. Surely some deep pocketed people would see this also as not profitable if ever they tried out to support. Well I knew Elon is a self enthusiast when it comes to innovation maybe somehow or someday he could see this situation for some out visually impaired people abd extend some help or support.

[pooya87]

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be that much work done in general for visually impaired people.

I see some tried out but in the end died out. This is probably due to lower number of user base of impaired people whom actually wanted to do or try out bitcoin. Those company must be interested but due to lack of funding and interest its not work out.

Im thinking if Government would found this useful and funded it but since some disagree on crypto might be not possible. Surely some deep pocketed people would see this also as not profitable if ever they tried out to support. Well I knew Elon is a self enthusiast when it comes to innovation maybe somehow or someday he could see this situation for some out visually impaired people abd extend some help or support.

Well in my experience when open source software lacks a certain functionality it is either because the developers are very busy with other things that means they don't have enough time for said features or in most cases there is little to no demand for that feature. For example we have to see issues being opened in each of these project's repositories and then receive some support for the dev to implement it. So far there has been a handful of requests that mostly went unnoticed which shows very low demand hence low priority.

[cryptoaddictchie]

Well in my experience when open source software lacks a certain functionality it is either because the developers are very busy with other things that means they don't have enough time for said features or in most cases there is little to no demand for that feature.

Actually you are right but if they have some offered to develop or in an agreement to create and improve something for that particular feature then they will have time for that no matter what regardless of the demand or little to none since probably those guys are the one who will make some marketing or introduce that for attracting users and those who are need the platform.

[OcTradism]

If there are solutions for visually impaired to use computer, Internet, there are ways for them to use Bitcoin wallet, make transactions and so on. They have disadvantage and I can not imagine how they can verify wallet before they feel safe to use it. They will have to rely and supporting software and it brings more risk than normal people.

If you can see how Stephen Hawking with serious ALS can use computer, write books and discuss with others, visually impaired can use Bitcoin with some advanced support. At this moment, I don't see we have that support for them but in future, I think they will have it.

[lovesmayfamilis]

isn't life itself hard if one is visually impaired, what crypto got to do with anything?

Exactly. How many restrictions exist in the world for blind people. But they still agree with it. There are areas where the blind will not feel disadvantaged in any way, and there is nothing to worry about if they cannot use bitcoin. The land will not stop there for them. It's much safer than controlling your voice while someone else can hear and even having an assistant. If bitcoin wallet is called its own bank, then it should remain its own.

[Husires]

Is there any wallet or service that offers the ability to write wallet seeds in Braille or one of the languages for people with special needs? I don't think things are difficult, and when there is an increase in adoption, the technology is ready and there is a lot of open source code just waiting for someone to compile it together or use several programs at the same time.

I made a smile google and found bitcoin white paper in Braille  https://bitcoin.org/files/bitcoin-paper/bitcoin-braille.pdf