As my sight loss has progressed, I have learnt to identify clothes when blind by adapting how I select and organise my wardrobe. I’ve opted to have all my socks the same, making pairing and finding socks easier. For t-shirts, I choose ones with patterns on the front that I can feel to know which way around to put them on. Overall, I’ve simplified my wardrobe to be less exciting but more practical, ensuring that everything goes together.
There are times when I need to know the colour of my shirt and I can use the Colour Detector in Seeing AI. My wonderful wife does all the laundry, but it got me wondering how I would cope if I was alone, so I started looking at options to help know the clothing items and their washing instructions. This article will focus on how to identify clothes and their washing instructions and stop short of how to use a washing machine (I haven’t had my training on that yet…)
Sighted Assistance
One route is to get sighted assistance, in person or via apps like Be My Eyes or Aira that can connect you with someone who can then read the clothes labels via your phone’s camera. This works well, but means you are dependent on others for every wash.
WayAround – NFC Tags
WayAround is an NFC (Near Field Communication) tag system with a wide range of NFC tags, from stickers to buttons that can be sewn into your clothes. I was particularly interested in the buttons that are designed for laundry. The app is easy to use and allows you to scan the tag and provide custom laundry instructions. Once done, the next time you scan the tag, the laundry instructions are read to you. The buttons are just smaller than a 10 pence piece and have two holes in them to allow them to be sewn into your clothes.
Get the WayAround App
The app is free with no subscription. Simply purchase the WayAround Tags from Computer Room Services to get started.
Generic NFC Tags
Being a geek, I wanted to see if I could get some generic NFC tags and use them for labelling. The short answer is that you can, but the question then becomes, what are the advantages and disadvantages. I managed to pick up some Laundry NFC button tags for around 70p each, which understandably, is cheaper than the WayAround ones. These generic NFC tags cannot be used with the WayAround app.
I purchased 10 NFC Buttons from Amazon (Affiliate Link) and installed Simply NFC App on my iPhone for writing and reading from NFC tegs. The app is accessible and allows you to write text to the NFC tag. Once written, you can switch to the read option and read the tag. The text can be anything you want. This is where a generic NFC tag differs from WayAround.
WayAround provides a range of options for the information you want to capture, providing drop down lists for many laundry options, such as temperature. This makes capturing information about your clothes easier and more consistent. On the generic tags, it is just a text field. The next difference is that WayAround stores that information in the cloud and refences it with the tag’s identifier. On generic tags, you are writing the data directly to the tag. This means that anyone with a phone can read the information.
Conclusion on How to Identify Clothes when Blind
While WayAround tags cost more, I personally think it is worth paying for and getting the benefits of the WayAround app, also knowing it is all designed for blind people specifically.
Tell me what you think in the comments below or on X @timdixon82
2 replies on “How to Identify Clothes when Blind”
I have used the way around app a bit, several years ago and it’s great. For socks, my Mother inlaw sewed snaps on them so each pair can be snapped together right after you wear them. That has been a huge time saver and I no longer have to deal with matching socks up after the laundry. Great ideas!!
Thank you for sharing the snap idea for socks, that sounds very useful.