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Apple has today been named as one of four recipients of the American Foundation For the Blind’s 2015 Helen Keller Achievement Award, according to a press release on the foundation’s website.

Specifically,…

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…

Welcome to the April 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.

New and Noteworthy App Entries

Accessible Letter Soup (US$0.…

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 (…

If you have visited an Apple Store during the past 2 weeks to check out the new Apple Watch, you may have come away disappointed that it had not been possible to fully explore the many accessibility features that it includes for blind and low vision users.

However, according to a report on…

13 reasons why I want an Apple Watch:

1. Conveniently being able to check notifications from Mail, Calendar, Messages, and Twitter.
2. As I already use FaceTime calling on my Mac from my iPhone, it seems a simple extension to have this same functionality on the Apple watch.
3. Being able to pick up calls on the Apple watch rather than on my Mac or iPhone is again going to be very handy. I.e. I don’t have to go back to the iPhone or Mac to answer a call, particularly…

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.

Some Initial Points

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 today released iOS 8.3, bringing with it a host of new features and improvements across the operating system.

For blind and low vision users, Apple has made significant progress towards addressing many of the accessibility bugs still present in iOS 8.2. In addition, Apple has introduced a few new features specific to the needs of VoiceOver users.

At this point, it is worth noting that our testing of iOS 8.3 has…

Today, Apple released OS X 10.10.3 to the public, marking the third major update to the OS X Yosemite operating system.

According to Apple's release notes via iMore, OS X 10.10.3 includes the following new features and changes:

The OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 update includes the new Photos app and improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.

With…

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.

New and Noteworthy App Entries

Blindfold Wildcard (Free with…

Since purchasing my first iPhone in 2010, I’ve self-identified as an Apple fanatic. I’m the type of person who goes out and buys the newest iPhone model each and every year, because I like to have the latest and greatest Cupertino has to offer. After hearing Apple’s ‘Spring Forward’ event on March 9, I was convinced that I wanted...no, needed...an Apple Watch. Now that the…

Spring Forward

Today, Apple unveiled four new things, a price change for the Apple TV, and minor updates to its existing line of MacBooks. We saw the Apple Watch, a 12-inch Retina Macbook, HBO Streaming, and Research Kit, a platform that will greatly enhance medical research and studies. We also got iOS8.2, which includes the Apple Watch app, and some small fixes and improvements.…

Spring Forward

Today, Apple unveiled four new things, a price change for the Apple TV, and minor updates to its existing line of MacBooks. We saw the Apple Watch, a 12-inch Retina Macbook, HBO Streaming, and Research Kit, a platform that will greatly enhance medical research and studies. We also got iOS8.2, which includes the Apple Watch app, and some small fixes and improvements.…

Update, 4/5/2015: Apple has recently updated its Apple Watch Technology page, indicating that the Apple Watch will have VoiceOver, Zoom, and Dynamic Type support built-in.

Update, 3/15/2015: Following the release of the Watch Companion app in iOS 8.2, 9to5Mac has published a series of…

Apple has today released iOS 8.2 to the public, bringing with it a series of performance and stability improvements and support for the forthcoming Apple Watch.

For blind and low vision users, Apple addressed an issue which caused VoiceOver to crash when exiting certain apps. This would result in the iOS device becoming unresponsive for anything up to 60 seconds.

While iOS 8.2 does not contain as many improvements for blind and low vision users as we have seen in some recent…

It’s nearly time for another Apple event, and this one will formally launch Apple’s entry into the wearable sector with the Apple Watch.

First revealed by Apple last September, we’re likely to get confirmation tomorrow that the Apple Watch will be available for purchase in April.

In addition to giving us details…

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.

New and Noteworthy App Entries

Blindfold Video Poker…

We are pleased and excited to be opening the doors today on a completely new area on AppleVis, one that we hope will help to keep you up-to-date on the current status of accessibility on iOS and OS X.

As AppleVis has grown and evolved over the past 5 years, we’re aware that it’s become increasingly more difficult to keep track of what accessibility-related problems have been reported and discussed on here.

So, to make this easier, we are pleased to announce the launch of…