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Tag: VoiceOver

September 20, 2021
Shelly
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Updating iOS Access for All

Posted in Access and Disability, and Announcements

It’s fall tech season again. Even before the calendar confirms the season’s change, Apple has given us one of the traditional markers – new hardware and a date on which we’ll all be downloading the new versions of its software.  And I’m working on the update to my book, iOS Access for All, like I do each autumn. Anyone who buys the current (iOS 14 edition) from now until the update is released will receive the brand-new iOS 15 edition when it’s ready. Such a deal!

June 19, 2019
Shelly
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I Made A Thing! “36 Seconds that Changed Everything: How the iPhone Learned to Talk”

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

I’m thrilled to announce the release of my audio documentary, “36 Seconds that Changed Everything: How the iPhone Learned to Talk.” It’s the story of how accessibility features came to the iPhone in 2009, how that event rocked some people’s world, and how most didn’t even notice. You can listen to the documentary or read a transcript at the web site I made (it looks remarkably like this one, I know, but an accessible theme is an accessible theme), so I thought that here, I’d write a bit about why I produced it. Oh, you can also hear the documentary…

Read moreI Made A Thing! “36 Seconds that Changed Everything: How the iPhone Learned to Talk”
November 15, 2016
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My Podcast Smorgasbord

Posted in Pods and Presos

In the course of promoting my book, iOS Access for All, I’ve been invited onto several podcasts. For the most part, these are new opportunities for me, though a few invites came from old friends. I’ll link you to all the shows, but I want to give you reasons to listen to specific ones, since they’re so different. Also, if you just can’t get enough of my yammering, subscribe to the All Shelly, All The Time podcast feed, to hear shows I make, co-host, or visit. Here’s what I did last week: Mac OS Ken: You should know first off…

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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.…

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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…

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July 15, 2014
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Mainstream Cheerleaders Defend Apple Accessibility

Posted in Access and Disability, and General Store

Last week’s kerfuffle about the National Federation of the Blind’s (NFB) resolution asking Apple to make a more vigorous effort to ensure the accessibility of third-party apps accomplished several things: it got lots of mainstream attention for the NFB, and united the Apple-centric press in righteous indignation over perceived defamation of the Cupertino company. What it didn’t do, in mainstream journalism, at least, was facilitate a discussion of what the NFB resolution seeks, or whether it’s reasonable. The controversy has also not demonstrated that the Apple defenders in the press actually know much about the relationship between accessibility support in…

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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…

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June 9, 2009
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iPhone 3G S Accessibility: What To Expect

Posted in Access and Disability, and New Media and Tech

I’ll get right to the point: the iPhone 3G S includes several features that should make Apple’s smartphone accessible to many blind and visually impaired people for the first time. And rejoicing was heard in the land? We’ll see what we’ll see. The new phone, debuted at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, and due for release on June 19, includes a version of Apple’s VoiceOver, the screen reader built into Mac OS X. Since we learned at its launch two years ago that the iPhone is an OS X-adjacent device, lots of accessibility advocates, including me, have suggested that lighting…

Read moreiPhone 3G S Accessibility: What To Expect