A visually impaired person can use mobile phones quite easily, and there are many enhancements available to make the use even easier. But how do you read your text messages if you can't see them? One way is for the phone to read them for you out loud. This is already implemented in many phones, for example I have my N97 read my emails to me when I'm driving to work in the morning. But blind people have a need to privacy just like everyone else, and sometimes you just need to read that juicy sms right in the middle of a meeting or a family dinner.

Alas, Nokia has developed a Braille SMS. It is available from Beta Labs, with the following introduction:

Nokia Braille Reader application gives SMS for the blind and visually impaired. It captures received SMS messages and brings them to the foreground for reading using Braille and tactile feedback. The application was concepted together with actual users and researchers focusing on the topic, and we are now happy to show the first experimental version of the concept. We hope to get your comments and feedback so this application could be truly optimized to your use. We also want to share our enthusiasm in creating innovations for you and with you.

Available for S60 5th Edition, including Nokia N97, 5800 XpressMusic and the newly released N97 mini, 5530, 5230 and X6.