‘iPods and iTunes’ Archives

We’ve recently been made aware of an assistive technology software company named Smarty-Ears LLC., which develops a range of iOS apps to assist children with language or communication difficulties. Smarty-Ears’ apps are designed to improve communication skills in fluency, articulation, language, and more. Smarty-Ears was founded by Barbara Fernandes, a practicing Speech and Language Pathologist. [...]

A new iPhone app, DanKam, is an experimental new way of filtering input from the iPhone’s camera or from previously taken photographs to make the colors more discernible to users who are color blind. The app provides a variety of experimental solutions to assist color blind individuals, including converting colors to different regions in the [...]

In celebration of the season, Digital Miracles, L.L.C. is offering a 33% holiday price reduction on its popular Digit-Eyes application, making it $19.99. The Digit-Eyes iPhone app is a tool for blind and low-vision users to identify and label products and other physical items. You can find Digit-Eyes on the iOS AppStore.

iOS developer Matt Gemmell recently wrote a piece which makes the case for third-party developers to ensure accessibility of their iOS applications, as well as the ways in which they can easily do so. It is a must-read for developers considering application accessibility, and will be of interest to users of iOS in general. It [...]

In this episode of the Round Table, our knights discuss iOS 4.2, the exciting addition of VoiceOver to the AppleTV, and get side tracked once or twice. Blog from OutOfTheDarkness on activating VOiceOver on the AppleTV without sighted assistance, among other things.

Today, Apple updated the software for its second generation AppleTV device to version 4.1, which brings AirPlay functionality as well as VOiceOver support. VoiceOver allows visually impaired users to navigate the device and use its many features, and is a tremendous breakthrough for blind home theater enthusiasts. We will be reporting on this further as [...]

Today, Apple released iOS 4.2.1 for its iPhone, iPod, and iPad devices. In addition to bringing all of the 4.X functionality to the iPad, the update introduces some new features to VOiceOver. Among these are improved web navigation options, such as enhanced table navigation. The ability to add a speech rate setting option to the [...]

In this episode of the Round Table, our knights discuss FaceTime for the Mac, iLife 11 accessibility enhancements, (including GarageBand), and more. Notes: Holly’s picks – NewsRack for iOS and The AppStore Pundit podcast Darcy’s picks – Hazel for Mac and RememberTheMilk.com (service) M.J.’s picks – oMoby for iOS and StoryMill for Mac Josh’s pick [...]

The New York Times has posted a wonderful article on the use of the iPad by the disabled. The story focuses mainly on a young boy who found far more success using the iPad to enrich his life than with any assistive technology products. It’s another great example of how Apple’s efforts, both in usability [...]

Assistiveware has released an update to its Proloquo2Go product for iOS devices, including the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Proloquo2Go assists persons with disabilities which impact their ability to communicate by offering an easy-to-use symbol-based interface to enter concepts and output speech. Improvements in version 1.4 include: Added vocabulary backup with iTunes’ File Sharing using [...]

  ?Thanks to the diligence and willingness to share, on the part of some amazing VIPhoners, (you know who you are) we now have a complete list of Voiceover key commands for iOS 4.1   NOTE: The abbreviation VO below, refers to the Voiceover (or VO) keys. These are the control and option keys (held [...]

In this special edition episode of the Mac-cessibility Round Table podcast, we discuss today’s release of iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod touch, which includes a number of enhancements for VoiceOver users, including bug fixes, enhanced web browsing, and extensive BlueTooth keyboard support.