Google's T.V. Raman: For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can’t

'The screen reader is calibrated to speak at roughly triple the speed of a normal voice. To the untrained ear, the output is incomprehensible, but it allows Mr. Raman to “read” at roughly the same speed as a sighted person.

...

Since he cannot precisely hit a button on a touch screen, Mr. Raman created a dialer that works based on relative positions. It interprets any place where he first touches the screen as a 5, the center of a regular telephone dial pad. To dial any other number, he simply slides his finger in its direction — up and to the left for 1, down and to the right for 9, and so on. If he makes a mistake, he can erase a digit simply by shaking the phone, which can detect motion.'