While I am sure that there is a use as an aide, and I have known blind people who are both patient and very independent, I doubt they would stand on street corner waving a phone around hoping to catch some text.

That doesn't rule out that text to speech with translation wouldn't be beneficial - just not in this context imho.

Get a kindle.

//Actually -- I'm not sure how limited the text-to-speech stuff is in the kindle. (as-in -- how many books in the store allow it. But on the couple that I've tested - it works great)

Also -- audible/various other audiobook retailers are great.