There is a new answer to the recurring question about accessible feature phones that is worthy of a blog post. I’ve reviewed talking feature phones on this blog before, including, as part of the CSUN presentation I posted here, the Verizon Samsung Gusto 2. The Gusto 2 was not a particularly accessible phone, and I’m delighted to report that the new version is a significant improvement all around. The Gusto 3, a flip phone that looks almost identical to its predecessor, is available from Verizon for $0.99 with a two-year contract, and $149.99 without a contract.

The improvement in the Gusto is not immediately obvious when you open the box–there is no mention of accessibility in the Get to Know Your Phone booklet–but it is well-documented in the manual and not hard to find in the menus; if you’re sighted, that is. The PDF manual is pretty workable with screen access software, if not ideal, but for the less-than-tech-savvy user, about two minutes of sighted assistance will take care of the setup.

The buttons on the Gusto are not particularly tactile, and pretty typical of this type of phone. The 5 is slightly marked, but the gaps between buttons and rise at the center of the buttons are slight. Above the number keys there are Send on the left (above the 1), Clear in the middle (above the 2), and End/Start on the right (above the 3). Above the Clear key sits the four-directional ring that serves to navigate up, down, left, and right. At the center of that ring is the OK button. Above Send there is a programmable ICE (In Case of Emergency) button, while above the End key there is a (text) Message key. Across the top of the main keypad, from left to right directly below the screen, are the left soft key, the Voicemail key, and the right soft key. Along the left side of the phone, there are Volume up/down keys and, toward the bottom, a micro USB connection. On the right side of the phone, at the top, is an audio jack for corded headphones, with below it a camera button and then a speaker button.

The phone has a startup sound, as most do, but the rest of the setup is mute. You can OK the language, and then hit Send to call Verizon to activate, which walks you through the process. With Full Readout off, the menus still have tones, with a different tone to mark the end of a menu. To turn on Full Readout, the most complete speech option, hit the left soft key to get into menus. Settings is the ninth option if you’re navigating down with the four-way key. Hit OK. Accessibility is the fourth option down with the four-way key. OK that. The first option there is Easy Setup, but as that does not talk, it is simplest to navigate down to the second option and hit OK on Full Readout. Then navigate up once to set Full Readout to On, and press OK. This triggers a tutorial which describes the keys and how Full Readout works, which is a nice addition. The other audio options are Menu Readout, Digit Dial Readout, Alert Readout, Flip Open & Talk, Text Message Readout, and Browser Readout. All of these do pretty much exactly what the name indicates, and while personally I am not convinced that all of these separate options are necessary, it shows a sensitivity to individual customer needs that the phone is so customizable. The options are combinable for further customization, with the exception of Full Readout, which enables all of the other speech options, including Flip Open & Talk. That last one is actually a little annoying if you don’t want to use voice commands, but overall the setup is straightforward and the speech functions are quite complete.

Voice Commands, as triggered when you open the phone with Full Readout or Flip Open & Talk on, works, but strangely does not read the list of available commands, making it harder for a blind person to use. Between that odd oversight and the fact that you can’t use Full Readout without using Voice Commands, it is a hindrance as well as a boon.

The last option in the Accessibility submenu is Speech Rate, which offers five settings, slow to fast. The speech is pretty clear and the fast readout is faster than what is typically on feature phones. Regardless of chosen speech, however, the speech does lag a fair bit behind button presses, and that will slow the user down.

The Contacts, Messages, and Recent Calls submenus are accessible, but the real surprise of this little phone is that the browser works with speech. What’s more, it has a little tutorial on the topic that auto-starts when you open the browser with Full Readout for the first time. Like other tutorials, it is "skippable" for those who wish to, but it’s a useful tool, and lets the user know how they can navigate. A nifty feature is that you can use the Camera button to silence speech and the Speaker button to trigger reading the page. A feature phone is not going to be the best vehicle for using the internet, but it’s great to see that such an effort has been made to make much of its functionality available to the blind.

Media Center, Tools, My Pictures, and Settings all work fine with Full Readout. The odd one out in this line-up is email, which when you open it does not read the setup message, leaving the user without the option of turning on email. A notable submenu item that does work here is Bluetooth, in which everything but the “searching” message is read. There is a readout when all available devices have been found and you can navigate that list as you would any other on this phone.

The Samsung Gusto 3 is a vast improvement over the Gusto 2; what’s more, it is easily the best offering from Verizon that has come to our attention in talking feature phones. It’s easy to use; and while better control over Voice Commands, talking setup, and access to email would be very helpful, it’s nonetheless hard to deny that this is great leap forwards, and one I will gladly recommend for those users who want an inexpensive, simple phone to call, text, and maybe connect to a Bluetooth earpiece.