It's September, and that means my annual reminder that I’m growing older has arrived. It also means Apple is doing their annual “coming out with more new stuff,” or in my case, birthday presents. The good news is that if you have been running iOS 8, your device is going to be able to run iOS 9. As a general rule, iOS 9 seems to run about as well as iOS 8 has on other devices, so if you find the features worth upgrading to, go for it.
Just like each year…
As first reported by Blind Bargains, a member of Apple's Accessibility Team will be presenting a session at this year's American Council of the Blind (ACB) Conference and Convention.
The session, entitled "Accessibility and Apple," will take place on July 7, 2015, from 4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. According to a statement provided to AppleVis, the session will focus on how the accessibility…
Recently, Clara Van Gerven published an article on the National Federation of the Blind website entitled, “The Sighted Guide to VoiceOver”. In the article, the author, a sighted assistive technology specialist, undertook an experiment to use only VoiceOver on her iPhone for forty days. That any sighted person, even an assistive technology professional, would undertake using only VoiceOver for forty days is to be commended,…
Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), and we are asking everybody to use this as an opportunity to reach out to iOS and OS X developers - to either encourage them to make their applications accessible and usable by the vision-impaired; or to show your appreciation for applications which already are.
GAAD was created as a mechanism to reach out to the people who “build, shape, fund and influence technology and…
It is time for the AppleVis community to choose the next inductee into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame.
The iOS App Hall of Fame first opened in 2011, and is the AppleVis community’s way to recognize and reward the hard work and dedication that developers put in to making great and accessible iOS apps. These apps can be liberating; empowering; life-changing; provide access to information that sighted users take for granted; or…
On April 29, 2005, Apple Inc. introduced Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Included in Mac OS X Tiger's list of features was the VoiceOver screen reader. VoiceOver was not Apple's first foray into assistive technology: Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar introduced Universal Access which provided customizations to the operating system for those with visual, hearing, and physical disabilities. In fact, Mac OS X Universal Access was influenced by similar technologies which were bundled with the classic Mac OS (…
When I spent a few hours with the Apple watch on April 8th 2015, I jotted down notes about the Apple watch’s physical description, general overall points, low vision and speech features, hearing, and Siri.
In a recent podcast of mine looking at the click wheel on the iPod nano 4/5th generations, and the touch screen access on the iPod nano 6/7th generations, VoiceOver access on the Apple watch has far exceeded my expectations.
It is important to…
Apple has today made available a wealth of specific information regarding the implementation of accessibility features on Apple Watch. While it was recently announced that the watch would contain support for VoiceOver, Zoom, and Dynamic Type, there have—up until this point—still been many questions about how these features would be implemented. It is our hope…
Apple has recently updated its Apple Watch Technology page, indicating that the Apple Watch will have VoiceOver, Zoom, and Dynamic Type support built-in.
Under the heading "A more personal experience. For every person," Apple states the following:
Apple Watch comes with some powerful accessibility features. Like Zoom, a built-in magnifier. VoiceOver, so you can hear what’s on your screen. And Larger Dynamic…
Welcome to the March 2015 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which aims to highlight what’s new and noteworthy in the accessible app landscape. Below, you’ll find a recap of the best content posted to AppleVis - from new app entries, to app updates, to podcasts and blogs. For easier navigation, the major sections of this post are at heading level 3, and each individual item is at heading level 4.
Welcome to the February 2015 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our new monthly series which aims to highlight what’s new and noteworthy in the accessible app landscape. Below, you’ll find a recap of the best content posted to AppleVis - from new app entries, to app updates, to podcasts and blogs. For easier navigation, the major sections of this post are at heading level 3, and each individual item is at heading level 4.
Welcome to AppleVis Unlimited, our new monthly series which aims to highlight what’s new and noteworthy in the accessible app landscape. Below, you’ll find a recap of the best content posted to AppleVis during the previous month - from new app entries, to app updates, to podcasts and blogs. For easier navigation, the major sections of this post are at heading level 3, and each individual item is at heading level 4.
Over the last couple years, I’ve come to a conclusion about life as a blind person: it isn’t the physical lack of sight that’s the biggest difficulty I face; but rather, it is attempting to overcome peoples’ negative stereotypes and misconceptions about what I can—and cannot—do that is the real problem.
When I think of situations where negative stereotypes about blind people come into play, the use of technology isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. I tend to think about…
Here in the UK we have a saying that goes roughly like this - you can wait ages for a bus, to then find that 2 come along at the same time.
Replace ‘a bus’ with ‘an app to help the blind identify objects and situations that they encounter in their daily lives’, and you have what is about to happen in the iTunes App Store.
In the past few days, the respective teams behind Specular and…
Be My Eyes - helping blind see, an iPhone app which aims to connect blind users in need of assistance with sighted volunteers via video-conferencing, will be launching worldwide on January 15, 2015.
According to the Be My Eyes website, the app works as follows:
We are pleased to announce the results of the third annual AppleVis Golden Apple Awards.
The AppleVis Golden Apple Awards were launched in 2012 as a way for the community to recognize the best apps, products, and developers of a given year.
To be shortlisted for the Golden Apple Awards, apps must be completely accessible to blind and low vision users; they must be exceptionally good at their intended purpose; and they must have a developer who has continually demonstrated a…
In her latest song, "Shake it Off," the country/pop artist Taylor Swift wrote, "...the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." While I am sure that Ms. Swift was not referring to some peoples’ recent comments about Apple's commitment to accessibility when she wrote the song, the basic idea behind that particular phrase still applies.
When Apple’s iOS 8 operating system was released in September, it included…
At the end of each month, members of the AppleVis Editorial Team take a look at all the apps that have been posted to the site during that month--either for the first time, or where there has been a significant update--and decide which of these they think is the most noteworthy.
The AppleVis Editorial Team app picks of the month for October 2014 are as follows:
Updated to version 1.…
After much anticipation, the KNFBReader app for iOS finally landed in the iTunes App Store today.
Having been the subject of much speculation, blind users will now finally have the opportunity to see if is has been worth both the wait and its $99 asking price.
From looking at the feature list, it is already quite clear that …
It's fall, which means it's time for another iOS update to fall on to your iDevices. That is, if you are using an iPhone 4S or later, iPad 2 or later, or iPod Touch fifth generation or later. This year, Apple introduces a lot of new mainstream features such as the ability to share purchased items with family members on joint accounts with the iTunes and App Store, the further harmonization of iOS and OS X, interactive notifications, wifi calling - just to name a few.…