‘Apple Inc.’ Archives

In the seventh episode of the Mac-cessibility Round Table Podcast, knights Cara Quinn, Eric Troup, Darcy Burnard, Holly Anderson, Steve Sawczyn, and Josh de Lioncourt discuss Apple’s big event to introduce the iPad slate computing device, its accessibility, speculation on how VoiceOver may differ from the iPhone, and what we think it means for the [...]

After years of rumors, speculation, and legend, Apple has finally lifted the veil over its slate, (or tablet in you prefer), computing device. It’s called iPad, and it’s quite impressive.
The iPad runs an expanded version of the iPhone OS, and therefore includes the VoiceOver screen reader, according to its product page. It looks similar to [...]

Did you know…
…you can copy an SMS message to the clipboard with VoiceOver. Simply touch the message in the list, whether it is a message you sent or received in a conversation, then use the VoiceOver rotor to choose "Edit". You will have one option if you flick up or down, which is "Copy". [...]

Skype, the popular VOIP client used by a vast number of visually impaired computer users, has been available on the iPhone and iPod touch for quite some time, but contained an inaccessible contacts list, rendering the app virtually useless. Skype has recently addressed this problem, and the application is now very accessible for both [...]

After the usual year-end lull in news, things are revving up again in the Mac-cessibility world. Earlier today, Apple sent out official invitations to an event Apple is presenting at 10 a.m. PST on 27/January/2010 in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco.
The invitations offer an opportunity to see Apple’s "latest [...]

Have you ever wished you could pause an app download on your iPhone or iPod Touch? Well guess what! You can!…
Simply locate the app that is being downloaded (whether it is waiting or loading) and double tap it. The message ‘paused’ will then be spoken after the app name, and the download will be paused.
To [...]

Today, MacSpeech, Inc. announced the release of MacSpeech Dictate version 1.5.6, an update to their popular speech recognition solution for Mac OS X.
The update introduces a new "Dictation Preferences" pane which allows users to enable or disable the Auto Cache Document feature for TextEdit and Microsoft Word, in addition to fixing reported issues.
MacSpeech Dictate v1.5.6 [...]

In this special edition episode of the Mac-cessibility Podcast, we interview Slau Halatyn who spearheaded the ProTools Petition, which requested that Digidesign implement Apple’s accessibility standards into its ProTools product, an application for professional-level audio production.
Slau had a chance to visit Digidesign in San Francisco, and got to experience first hand the tremendous progress being [...]

Yesterday, the Web Accessibility in Mind organization, (WebAIM), a group focusing on improving accessibility of web content for persons with disabilities, published the results of their Screen Reader User Survey, a follow up to a similar survey conducted earlier this year.
VoiceOver was shown in the survey to have a fifty percent increase in users reporting [...]

Hot on the heels of the AppleTV update, Apple has released iTunes 9.0.2. The release notes state that this version includes support for AppleTV software version 3.0, adds the option of a dark background for Grid View, and improves support for accessibility.
The accessibility enhancements, aside from the darker background for the grid view, are not [...]

Today, Apple Inc. announced the release of the AppleTV software version 3.0.
The new features include a totally redesigned and simplified interface, support for iTunes LP and iTunes Extras, and more.
Of interest to VoiceOver users is the note that the AppleTV can be controlled via the free Remote app for iPhone and iPod touch, which is [...]

When the iPhone 3GS began offering VoiceOver support in June, visually impaired users were impressed by the number of applications which were already accessible on the platform.
Unfortunately, a few apps have received substantial updates in the interim which have made them inaccessible. Some developers have begun addressing accessibility issues, like FaceBook, while others such as [...]