I find the whole thread somewhat disturbing actually. The very thought that a touchscreen-based device could be turned into anything useful for blind people is unrealistic. (Yes, I know about the iPhone 'solutions' here... and I find them unconvincing.)

Blind and visually impaired people can live with information being read to them, yes. But it's a lot easier and faster to use any kind of tactile information you can get. Of all the current smartphone OSs, good old Symbian S60v3 with its softkeys (and without a touchscreen) is the only one I would build a UI for blind/visually impaired users on.