‘Community’ Archives

Today, Apple will be taking the wraps off of new products and services at its annual World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco, California, if history is any indication. Also historically, Apple’s advancements in accessibility tend to be announced during WWDC, though not always necessarily during Steve Jobs’s keynote presentation. For example, last year brought [...]

The Lighthouse of San Francisco is hosting a technology seminar entitled "Apple Products and Accessibility" on 11/June/2010 from 1:00PM – 3:00PM PDT. From the announcement: Join us to hear Apple discuss the latest universal access features on its iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and OS X VoiceOver! Apple’s inclusion of assistive technology as an out-of-the-box feature [...]

In the May 2010 issue of AccessWorld, a publication of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), readers are presented with a first look at the Apple iPad. In an article entitled "24 Hours with the iPad", Bradley Hodges discusses his impressions of the iPad in his initial 24 hours with the device. It is [...]

On 29/April/2005, Apple Inc. released Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, the first commercial operating system with a built-in screen reader: VoiceOver. A lot has changed since the introduction of VoiceOver. Here are some highlights: The creation of the Mac Visionaries community of visually impaired Mac users The birth of the Screenless Switchers podcast The introduction [...]

According to the National Federation of the Blind (NFB)’s Access Technology Blog, a session focussing on Apple products will be taking place during their National Convention this summer in Dallas Texas. This appears to be part of a continuing about face by the NFB where regards Apple products. Here’s the session scheduling and registration information, [...]

Many visually impaired users of Facebook.com had begun using Facebook Lite, a slimmed down version of the popular social networking site which offered most of the features of the full site, but a cleaner interface and better accessibility, regardless of the platform or screen reader being used to access the service. Earlier this week, Facebook [...]

After our recent editorial where M.J. Phoenix voiced her concerns about the Royal National Institute for the Blind‘s recent review of the Apple iPad and some apparent misconceptions, Shaun Leamon, the author of the original review, took the time to write up a response in the hopes of clarifying the RNIB’s stance on the latest [...]

In our latest editorial, Apple in the "Blind" World, Mac-cessibility contributor M.J. Phoenix voices her frustration with an article from the RNIB regarding the iPad, which includes some blatant mis-statements.

Apple has posted the iPad manual in PDF format for download. The device’s accessibility features are covered in chapter sixteen, which also sheds some light on a optional feature which will allow VoiceOver users to switch text-to-speech languages on the fly via a rotor setting. Unfortunately, several VoiceOver users are reporting that these settings are [...]

The American Foundation of the Blind (AFB) recently offered a

Last June, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) published a highly flawed and controversial review of VoiceOver and the accessibility of the Mac OS X platform. Shortly thereafter, we published an editorial discussing the article and the NFB’s "response" to criticism of the review. Steve Sawczyn of ATMaine.com and our very own Mac-cessibility Round [...]

Today, Serotek Corporation, who develop accessibility-related software, announced the availability of I Blink Radio for iPhone and iPod touch. This free application provides easy access to streaming radio, reading services, and podcast produced by, for, and about the visually impaired and accessibility. You can read the full press release here. We are pleased to see [...]