Blog – Page 9 – Shelly's Web of Wonder

March 7, 2014

I Can’t Use this POS!

Posted in Access and Disability, and General Store

Forgive the sensational headline. I did it on purpose. There! I feel better. Confession is good for the soul. It seems someone has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple on behalf of visually impaired customers who are unable to use the company’s touch-screen point of sale (POS) devices to enter a debit card PIN number. What I’ve seen of the commentary on this subject today leads me to offer some clarifications for those of you who are neither visually impaired, or familiar with the accessibility options in Apple’s iOS devices. I check both of these boxes. If you make…

February 25, 2014

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This Year’s Free SXSW Music Samplers

Posted in General Store

For the past few years, I’ve been posting links to music samplers associated with the extravaganza that is the SXSW Music festival, here in Austin. These samplers come from record companies plugging their showcasing bands, NPR stations, and most awesomely, from the nice folks at The (Unofficial) SXSW Torrents site, who scoop up the tracks made available by SXSW itself, and package them in several juicy torrent files. In fact, downloading these torrents has been my late February ritual since 2005. They’re great fun, especially if you’re planning to attend SXSW Music, and wish to know what Moto Passion Pit…

September 21, 2013

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Books, iOS 7, and Podcasting

Posted in Announcements, General Store, and Pods and Presos

I have been busy working on my book, iOS Access for All: Your Comprehensive Guide to Accessibility for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Apple has decided to make my life interesting by releasing a new version of iOS. You may have heard about this. I have spent this week committing my thoughts about the new release into words, both written and spoken. You can read my reaction to the new OS, and its implications for accessibility, and you can listen to the Maccessibility Roundtable #44, where I join in a discussion of similar topics.

July 9, 2013

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LA Radio Appearance

Posted in Access and Disability, and Announcements

It sounds extra fancy to say, but I was on the radio in LA last week. I had the great pleasure of talking to the folks at KPFK’s Access Unlimited about my book, iOS Access for All. It was a lot of fun, and I want to thank Jolie and the crew for their interest. My interview will be archived here for the next 90 days. From this page, you can play it, download it, or subscribe to the Access Unlimited podcast. Look for the July 3rd entry.

July 8, 2013

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Inaccessibility by Example

Posted in Access and Disability, and General Store

What does it mean that an app is “partially” or “mostly” inaccessible? It usually means that VoiceOver reads some of the buttons, menus, or contents of the app, but not all. And not enough so that the a VoiceOver user can work with the app. I downloaded a recipe app that features some guy’s mug all over it (Strike 1 for the presence of a “celebrity” chef) and discovered that VoiceOver only reads the _amounts_ of ingredients. Not the instructions, not the ingredients themselves, and not even the titles of the individual recipes (strike 2.) The menu buttons, however, are…

May 18, 2013

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Social Links and Crowd-Sourcing in iOS Access for All

Posted in Access and Disability, and Announcements

I continue to work feverishly on my book, iOS Access for All. The writing is going well, but there is always more to say than I had thought. All of my initial page counts were low. As I work toward finishing the VoiceOver chapter, I’m looking ahead to the chapters about iOS apps. One will feature all of the Apple-supplied apps, and address their accessibility features and limitations. The second app chapter covers the best tools in all major categories, with an eye on accessibility. So, I will be writing about both the best reading app that happens to have…

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…

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