Recording voice with a smart cellphone seems to be impossible for people who lost their vision or are visually impaired. Is there any voice recorder that can provide a great user experience even for the blind? Yes, we’ve rounded up some best digital voice recorders that can be easily controlled by blind people.
In this article, you will see how to pick the right voice recorder for the blind among all the voice recorders on the market. And we will be showing you our favorite voice recorders that can help people who have vision impairment to meet their recording needs.
How to Pick a Voice Recorder for The Blind?
Big Buttons
We know that it is kind of hard for the blind to control a recorder with a touch-screen or small buttons and knobs, that’s why it is important for voice recorders for the visually impaired
to have big physical buttons, which makes starting recording and stop recordings more convenient for people who are blind.
Long-Last Battery
Replacing or recharging batteries is a challenge for low-vision people, so a voice recorder with a long battery life can upgrade the user experience significantly, especially for blind or visually impaired people. I highly recommend you choose a recorder that can work at least 24 hours non-stop. For people who would like to record frequently, recorders powered by AAA batteries are more of a good fit.
Voice Guidance
To assist Blind, low-vision, and visually impaired users, some recorders will come with a speech mode that helps people read and navigate better. Digital voice recorders with this function can let blind people easily know what the recorder is doing currently without mistouch by making sounds or auto reading.
Top Picks of Voice Recorders for The Blind and Visually Impaired
OM Digital Solutions Voice Recorder DM-720 – Friendly to The Visually Impaired
Olympus builds its DM-720 voice recorder as a great device for people with low or no vision. The voice recorder comes with a simple design on the front, and the buttons are compact and easy to operate, even for blind people.
The OM DM-720 voice recorder is equipped with voice guidance, making people with low-vision can operate the record effortlessly. And it is powered by a AAA rechargeable battery, which you can charge directly through the built-in USB port.
When it comes to recording quality, the recorder features 3-microphone “TRESMIC” system, and the record can automatically adapt to different environments and adjust the microphone sensitivity.
For people who need a voice recorder for transcription or dictation, the voice playback function allows users to play vocal content only, which can save you much time and reduce much work during playback.
Olympus Digital Voice Recorder DM-420
The DM-420 digital voice recorder is also one of the best voice recorders for low vision produced by Olympus. Designed to help people with low vision or blind conditions, the DM-420 voice recorder has voice guidance that provides seamless, user-friendly operation when blind people are selecting functions in the menu.
The recorder offers superb high-quality recordings with its built-in zoom microphone and you can choose the sound options in so many different acoustic settings to achieve a perfect recording experience.
The voice recorder is AAA battery operated, and it has excellent battery life. According to Olympus, the DM-420 can work up to 51 hours. Besides, its 2gb built-in memory can save more than 533 hours of recordings. To save the memory, the DM-420 recorder features voice activation to skip silent snippets, and the recorder will automatically start and stop recording without manual operation, which gives you the best hand-free recording experience.
Olympus DS-50 Digital Voice Recorder
“All functions have speech mode making it perfect for low vision or blind users” – This is one of the reviews that you can see on the product page of this Olympus DS-50 digital voice recorder.
On top of that, the Olympus DS-50 is a high-performance digital voice recorder if you take a look at its features and specs.
The recorder is packed with a high-sensitivity detachable stereo microphone, which makes the recorder very portable but good at capturing clear sounds at the same time. Although it does not come with a very big memory (275 hours recording time), it has fairly long battery life. And it has a battery-saving mode to extend the working time.
And we love the remote control that it includes in the package, which allows people to achieve remote recording easily. Last but not least, the voice recorder features a “repeat” button, you can playback and loop the audio recordings efficiently.
To be useful to visually impaired they must be a way to retrieve voice files by speaking the name of the file.
These are far too small and complicated for my mother. Someone needs to make a large voice recorder, with big buttons, very simple, and good quality. There are a few out there but they are junk.