Put Emergency Information On Your iPhone Wallpaper

Now that so many people with disabilities have an iPod Touch or iPhone, putting your emergency contact information on the phone’s wallpaper can be a smart idea. This information is available to anybody who turns on your device, even when the device is locked.

I think this idea has most application for those using their device for AAC purposes, for example with Proloquo2Go, but it could also be used to indicate severe allergies, neurological problems, or anything else that should be known if somebody’s searching for important information. Here’s one shot from my iTouch where I used Polka’s free Close Call app to put my phone number and information with a photo of me:

The biggest drawback of Close Call is that only 35 characters are allowed for your information, which is a very small amount of text – it took me quite a lot of thinking to get the terse “Can’t talk. Open Proloquo2Go for me” text in there. The company who makes Close Call, Polka, also produces another similar product called If Found+ which allows more customisation and costs only US$0.99 in the iTunes Store.

Of course, if you have a copy of Photoshop or a similar drawing program, you can make your own wallpaper containing important information. The only caveat really is that the wallpaper needs to be 320×480 pixels in size, and you’ll need to remember that some of it will be covered up by the other things on the locked device’s screen. Several people have produced Photoshop PSD templates and Layered PNG templates for Fireworks which show the location of the clock and slide-to-unlock widget so you can easily fit the words and pictures you want around these.

Have you put informational wallpaper on your mobile device, or do you know anybody else who has? Would you consider doing so?

- Ricky Buchanan

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