New Media and Tech – Page 3 – Shelly's Web of Wonder

July 29, 2015

The Face We Show the World

Posted in Access and Disability, and New Media and Tech

This morning, I retweeted a USA Today column by James Alan Fox, a legally blind professor. Because low-vision! Mainstream media outlet! Yay! He writes about the experience of using airports as a visually impaired person. As I read, I ticked off each point he made, recognizing them as my own travel frustrations. I felt much more connected to this guy’s experience than I do to the usual gripes about flight delays and TSA policies. The article is mildly funny, so that didn’t hurt. I especially liked the bit about not trusting a bored teenaged kid to interpret a fast food…

July 17, 2015

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The One iPod Touch Fangirl

Posted in New Media and Tech, and Random Personal Nonsense

This week’s announcement of faster, more colorful versions of the iPod Touch was met with: a) rapture b) sophisticated market analysis c) indifference Actually, the answer is d) scorn. You see, the lowly (that one always hurts) iPod Touch is not perceived as an aperitif for those wishing to sample the iOS menu. Nor is it the logical landing place for someone who prizes small, elegant things. It is also not a cost-effective way to get onto the Internet without all the carpel tunnel. No, dear readers, the iPod Touch kind of makes people crazy. Crazy the way reality TV makes…

April 16, 2015

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Apple Watch Demos, and the Irony of Low-Vision

Posted in Access and Disability, and New Media and Tech

I wrote last week about Apple Watch accessibility, mostly pointing to the first hands-on articles written by VoiceOver users. Many of our questions have now been addressed. VO is part of the watch, and so are some low-vision features, including zoom and grayscale. But during the long few weeks between watch pre-orders and watch unboxings, uncertainty obviously remains. In the larger context, that’s the point of the in-store try-on program, right? You use some combination of wrist, fingers, ears, and eyes to assure yourself that this new gadget is a thing you want, and will actually be able to use.…

April 10, 2015

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Watching the Accessible Watch Coverage

Posted in Access and Disability, and New Media and Tech

I snarked on Wednesday about the number of Apple Watch reviews, and the seemingly larger number of Apple Watch review roundups. A day or so after the big-picture coverage, we got a couple of write-ups that focused on Apple Watch accessibility. Which was terrific, and answered questions many potential watch buyers had been asking since September, and which Apple had only begun to address on its site within the past few days. (By the way, the Apple page continues to gain info and good screen shots, so keep an eye on it.) AppleVis contributor David Woodbridge, and Steven Aquino, writing for iMore, each…

May 2, 2013

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Kindle Accessibility: So What?

Posted in Access and Disability, General Store, and New Media and Tech

Amazon announced yesterday that its Kindle app for iOS had been updated to provide “more accessibility.” In fact, the update (with the inauspicious version number, 3.7) turns a largely inaccessible app into one that VoiceOver screen reader users can rely upon to read, navigate, and manage the contents of a Kindle library. And they did a great job, not merely making the app usable, but opening all Kindle iOS features up to VO. The fact that blind people have Kindle libraries, given the limited native accessibility of Amazon’s hardware and mobile apps, is testament to the company’s dominant place in…

May 1, 2013

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Accessible Kindling

Posted in Access and Disability, General Store, and New Media and Tech

It’s an exciting day in accessible publishing. Amazon has finally released an accessible version of its Kindle app for iOS. Frankly, Kindle’s inaccessibility has made that platform easy to ignore, in the community of VoiceOver users. iBooks, Nook, and plenty of other ebook readers offer access via text-to-speech, but neither the Kindle devices, nor Amazon’s apps have done so. Where to buy books then? Anywhere but Amazon. And where to publish books about accessibility? Anywhere but Amazon. Now, though, the playing field is different. I continue to work on my book about accessibility in Apple’s mobile devices; iOS Access for…

March 20, 2013

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Me on the Tech Doctor Podcast

Posted in Access and Disability, Announcements, New Media and Tech, Pods and Presos, and Random Personal Nonsense

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of being a guest on Robert Carter’s Tech Doctor Podcast. It’s a weekly show focused on technology and blindness. I’ve corresponded with Robert before. Turns out he is a listener to Shelly’s Podcast, and a fellow Texan. It was nice to finally meet him. Along with his co-host, Allison Hartley, Robert and I had a wide-ranging discussion of my career, low vision, the Macintosh/iOS, and the book I’m writing. I was surprised how much ground we covered. And on reflection, I realize that I’ve never discussed many of these topics before on a…

March 15, 2013

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The Three Cs of Reading the News

Posted in General Store, New Media and Tech, and Politics and Public Affairs

When Google announced this week that it would be shutting down Reader, I took it as another indignity to be borne. I’ve seen services I like shut down, sold, and screwed up beyond recognition. And that’s just the Google stuff! Reader occupies a default tab in my Web browser. I check it first thing in the morning, and return to it all day. I have created something over 20 folders to sort my reading matter, which includes mainstream news sites, friends’ blogs, niche tech content, and long-tail feeds about things you do not care about at all. In short, RSS…

February 26, 2013

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Apple Versus Samsung, My Take

Posted in Access and Disability, Announcements, and New Media and Tech

Here is a story I wrote for Stabley Times about the latest Samsung lawsuit against Apple. This one is all about a subject that’s near and dear to my heart, the accessibility of iOS.

Category: New Media and Tech