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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,…

I told myself that I didn’t want an Apple Watch.

I told my family and friends that I didn’t want an Apple Watch.

I wrote and tweeted about how I didn’t want an Apple Watch.

And yet, after learning that Apple Watch would include a comprehensive…

When I first saw mention of the Apple Watch having a ‘Speak On Wrist Raise’ option for VoiceOver users, my immediate reaction was that this would be one of those ‘set it and forget it’ settings. However, this is not turning out to be the case.

For those of you who don’t have an Apple Watch and are unfamiliar with this option and what it does, it simply has VoiceOver automatically speak the Watch screen when you lift your wrist (which most commonly results in the time being announced…

If you have read any of my previous posts on the Apple Watch, you might be excused for wondering at this point what else I have left to say on the topic … or, at least anything left to say that’s based upon personal experience. Before its release, I gave my reasons for not buying one. However, I was back within a few weeks to report that my inner-geek and it’s curiosity had ultimately won out, and that…

Welcome to the May 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 Spades (Free with In-…

How Will Apple Finish Out 2015?

With Apple's annual Worldwide Developer's Conference now just days away, a lot of people are wondering what new shinies we'll see. Will there be a new Apple TV? Yet another update to some Mac or other? A better iPad Mini? What will iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 bring to the table? Will Apple continue its headlong rush into dazzling new features at the expense of quality, or will it slow down and start refining what it has already done? what shots did…

In late April, Apple began offering the opportunity for users to explore and experience Apple Watch's accessibility features at try-on appointments. After confirming that my local Apple Store had a Watch set up and ready (all stores should now have Watch units available for accessibility demonstrations, but my appointment was at the beginning of the rollout), I…

Last month David Woodbridge shared with us 13 reasons why he wanted an Apple Watch. In response, I gave some reasons why I would not be buying one.

However, the voice giving me what seemed like good reasons for not buying an Apple Watch was ultimately outshouted by another which kept insisting that I really, really wanted…

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 (…

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…

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…

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…

Update 2 February: Although not specifically mentioned in the release notes, it’s great to see that version 3.0.1 addresses many of the issues mentioned in the original post below. For example, the Share button is now accessible and you can add topics of interest to your custom feed (although you currently need to use a combination of the 3-finger swipe up/down and exploring by touch to access all available topics, as swiping is not reliable). So, although the…

A One-Port Mac?

Yes, the latest rumor to come out of the mill is that Apple is going to introduce a radically re-designed, one-port Macbook Air sometime this year. It will have a 12-inch screen, a keyboard, a trackpad… and a single USB C port, along with the usual 3.5mm headphone jack. That's just one lonely little port for power, printers, external drives or card readers, USB audio peripherals, connecting…

Intro

As most of you know by now, iOS8 brought with it a huge feature: the ability to type in braille anywhere you can type on an on-screen keyboard. From your passcode, to passwords, to emails, to Spotlight searches, and everywhere else, a single twist of the rotor is all it takes to start typing braille. You can even use it on your Home Screen, to locate and open any app…

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…

I got my iPhone 5 in December of 2012, almost two years ago as of the time of this writing. Last year, the iPhone 5S came out, and it was really cool, but not worth paying an early upgrade fee on top of the price of the phone. Now, the iPhone 6/6 Plus is out, and way cooler than the 5S, and my upgrade is coming due… But I'm not making the switch. Why, you ask? Good question!

The iPhone 6 (and 6 Plus, but you know what I mean) offers a lot over the 5, from a larger screen, to the…