It is wonderful to see how Apple’s technologies have continued to enrich the lives of those with a range of disabilities. The article is a great read for anyone interested in accessibility in general, and how iPads can be used to improve election participation for disabled citizens in particular.

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Steve Jobs has been named Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Tim Cook has already been elected CEO of Apple Inc.

On behalf of all of us here at Mac-cessibility, I’d like to offer Mr. Jobs our heartfelt thanks for his years of service to Apple and its customers, and wish him the very best.

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 of Mac-cessibility
• The release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard with VoiceOver enhancements
• iTunes introduces Closed Captioning in movie downloads
• NFB publishes their first flawed review of VoiceOver in Leopard
• Apple presents at CSUN
• Apple’s access efforts gains mainstream attention on MacWorld
• Apple extends its educational discount to students of Hadley School for the Blind
• AFB erroneously claims users can’t sync music with iTunes and VoiceOver
• OpenOffice gains Mac accessibility
• Full VoiceOver support is announced for iTunes
• iPod nanos gain speaking menus for accessibility
• Apple teams up with GW Micro to improve accessibility of iTunes in Windows
• Apple launches official accessibility site
• Apple and NFB reach agreement on iTunes access
• AccessWorld publishes a more accurate review of VoiceOver
• iWork becomes accessible
• The Mac-cessibility Round Table podcast is launched
• Apple announces and releases the iPhone 3GS with VoiceOver
• The VIPhone community is born
• NFB publishes a highly inaccurate review of VoiceOver, prompting community responses
• The Mac-cessibility Network is launched
• Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is released with huge improvements to VOiceOver
• iPhone OS 3.1 is released with enhanced access
• Assistiveware releases Proloquo2Go for the iPhone
• Digidesign demonstrates upcoming access to ProTools
• The NFB publishes a more accurate look at VoiceOver
• Apple unveils the iPad, which includes the same access features as the iPhone
• iBooks to include VoiceOver accessibility
• iPad is released with spectacular accessibility

Earlier this week, Facebook announced it would be shutting down Facebook Lite without explanation or warning. Visiting Lite.Facebook.com now redirects users to the main Facebook site.

Facebook’s statement merely stated:

Thanks to everyone who tried out Facebook Lite. We’re no longer supporting it, but learned a lot from the test of a slimmed-down site. If you used Lite, you’ll now be taken to the main Facebook.com site.

Visually impaired users looking for a better experience than the full site are limited to the mobile version of Facebook now, although it provides far fewer features than the Lite version did.

This is an unfortunate development for the growing number of visually impaired Facebook users.

Adobe understands how important it is for computer users with disabilities to be able to access the entire Internet. In recognition of the needs of computer users with disabilities, as well as the demands on developers who need to easily create applications and content which comply with global accessibility standards, Adobe is planning major upgrades to the accessibility support in Adobe Flash Player.

The upgrades expand on Flash Player’s existing support for accessibility via the Microsoft Active Accessibility interface (MSAA) and will enable accessibility across all three major operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux). The Flash Player will employ IAccessible2 from the Linux Foundation and the WAI-ARIA specification from the W3C to address user and developer needs and to ease interoperability with assistive technology vendors.

Additionally, enhancement are planned to the free and open-source Flex software developer’s kit (SDK) including improvements to complex components such as Flex datagrids and adding support for WAI-ARIA to simplify development of custom user interface components. These improvements are expected to start with the next major release of Adobe Flash Player (following Flash Player 10.1), and the first successive release of the Flex SDK.

We are cautiously optimistic that Adobe will hold to this commitment, despite the lack of accessibility in native iPhone applications built using the Flash platform, which we strongly encourage Adobe to rectify.

The real question, ultimately, will be whether or not the accessibility of Flash and Flex will be adequate, as well as whether Adobe will be as successful in encouraging developers to support accessibility as Apple has been.

We applaud this announcement. This is the first step in the right direction, but Adobe has a long road ahead of them to convince Mac and iPhone users with disabilities of their commitment to accessibility. Here’s hoping that Adobe has turned a new page in accessibility of their products.

One shareholder and former Apple employee, asked why Apple will not be attending this year’s national accessibility conference. Jobs responded to the question himself, noting Apple doesn’t participate in conferences, as it would mean "we wouldn’t be here working." He went on to point out that Apple’s customers have been doing a great job keeping the company informed of outstanding issues and pointing out when it’s falling short.

He concluded his comments with something that anyone who has followed the accessibility of Apple products over the last five years already knows: Apple leads the computing industry in accessibility.

Specifically, she proposed the official adoption of The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a set of guidelines designed to ensure access to web content to individuals with disabilities or who may be using assistive technology, authored by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This would result in improved accessibility to screen reader users, among others, including those utilizing VoiceOver on the Macintosh platform.

For more information, read the full article here.

It’s time for this month’s edition of the Mac-cessibility Round Table Podcast. This month’s episode is #2, entitled "Sedated". Josh de Lioncourt’s sound quality is not quite on par this time, for which we apologize. He was travelling and away from his usual equipment.

Topics covered:

• Introduce this month’s panelists, including Holly Anderson, Darcy Burnard, Cara Quinn, Eric Troup, and Josh de Lioncourt.
• Accessibility of third-party products, and the response from developers to Apple’s approach to access.
• Front Row and what it offers the visually impaired in comparison to other home entertainment products.
• DRM-free music and variable pricing has come to iTunes.
• The new "Get a Mac" ads.

Other resources and show notes:

• Holly’s pick – Apple Airport Express
• Darcy’s pick – Understudy for Front Row
• Josh’s pick – Zoom for Mac
• Cara’s pick – Audacity
• Eric’s pick – VMWare Fusion

Yesterday, in a brief post on Amazon’s Kindle Blog, the Kindle development team notes that they’ve received a great deal of feedback from visually impaired readers, and that they are working to make the Kindle more accessible in the future. Specifically, the post mentions adding speech feedback to the navigation system of the device.

While hopeful news, it comes on the heels of continuing efforts by the Author’s Guild to eliminate text-to-speech capabilities in portable book readers, and by extension eliminate access to such devices for blind and low vision users.

Ultimately, improved access to the device will make little difference, if the guild and publishers succeed in their efforts to eliminate the use of access technology with their content. Such a victory for them could eventually have far-reaching and adverse consequences to mainstream devices with accessibility features, like those produced by Apple and other companies with a commitment to accessibility.

We encourage any and all who feel strongly about this to contact the Author’s Guild via email, or use the below contact information.

The Authors Guild
31 East 32nd Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10016

Phone: (212) 563-5904
Fax: (212) 564-5363

The above contact information is publicly available on the Author’s Guild’s Contact page.

While not strictly Mac related, we feel that this situation is a serious problem, and could potentially effect access to printed materials and mobile devices for the blind and visually impaired at large.

The Author’s Guild has taken issue with the new text-to-speech capabilities of the Kindle device from Amazon.com<. We first learned of this from this MacWorld.com story.

Essentially, the guild is equating text-to-speech output by devices like the Kindle 2 to audio book recordings. Anyone who has tried to read a book using TTS will know that they are not comparable experiences. They claim Amazon.com is violating copyright by providing text-to-speech with their product.

By taking this stance, the guild is effectively excluding visually impaired persons from enjoying the same printed materials as their sighted counterparts.  Most books are not available in audio.  Most books are not available in Braille.  E-Texts and the technologies, like text-to-speech, which give the blind access to them, has been making it possible for the first time in history, for them to have access to books, newspapers, magazines, and more, at the same time and of the same quality as the sighted world.

Some publishers have already taken steps that exclude the blind from many versions of electronic publications by using forms of DRM, (Digital Rights Management), that prevent assistive technology from reading them.  Now, the Author’s Guild is working toward eliminating our technology from mainstream devices entirely, further setting the visually impaired back.

It is unreasonable to equate text-to-speech technology with the performances of audio book narrators, something many blind and visually impaired individuals enjoy and purchase when available.

If you feel strongly about this issue, we encourage you to contact the Author’s Guild at the information provided here. Telephone, post, and email contact information is available.

The BBC is reporting on a new technology being developed by a team of Japanese researchers which uses focused ultrasonic waves to produce the illusion of solid objects in mid-air to the sense of touch.

While still in its infancy, the researchers believe the technique could be used in video games to provide a more immersive experience. Audio and visual sensory input has been a major part of gaming for years, but the sense of touch has been hard to fully tap into. This technology could provide a way to more fully realized virtual experience.

However, to the blind, this technology could mean more. As the technology matures, it is easy to envision ways in which it may be used to provide tactile cues on touch screen devices like the iPhone or iPod Touch, or provide a less expensive and more easily maintained alternative to current Braille display technologies.

Last week, the National Federation of the Blind settled out of court with Target Stores Inc. regarding access for the blind and visually impaired to its website and online store for an amount in excess of $6M.

In an insightful entry to their blog, Disability Nation points out the shortfalls of this settlement, particularly where the NFB stands to gain. Most notable to VoiceOver users on the Macintosh platform is that this settlement only pertains to access to the Target.com site with Jaws for Windows from Freedom Scientific. This fails to take into account the millions of visually impaired users of alternative access solutions such as VoiceOver, GW Micro’s Window-Eyes, or any number of other commercial or open source screen access products.

Check out the entry by clicking here. Let us know what you think.

The most recent issue, (#4), of the Assistiveware Newsletter focuses on persons with visual impairments and their solutions to access issues on the Macintosh platform.

The newsletter is comprised of contributions by users of Assistiveware products, and includes no advertising.

In the 119th episode of the MacWorld Podcast, host Christopher Breen is joined by Josh de Lioncourt to discuss VoiceOver and Apple’s progress in accessibility for the blind and visually impaired. The show also discusses the recent news of Mac clones.

We’d like to thank Mr. Breen and MacWorld.com for taking the time to explore VoiceOver and Apple’s accessibility efforts.

In a lengthy article, ComputerWorld.com discusses access to computers for the blind and visually impaired. Though the article is extensive, covering topics from general computer access to web accessibility issues, there’s no acknowledgement of VoiceOver’s existence or Apple’s work to provide universal access to the visually impaired and other disabled groups. In fact, the article, in its description of free screen readers, seems to imply that "Narrator" the sub-standard offering included in Microsoft Windows, was typical of access solutions that come bundled with operating systems, or were otherwise free of additional cost to the end user.

VoiceOver was not alone, however. Orca, the popular open source screen reading solution for Gnome Linux was also omitted from the article’s coverage.

As more and more usersmove away from Windows, blindness organizations like the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), who were quoted in this article, will be forced to acknowledge the value of noncommercial, and non-WIndows, solutions. Gone are the days when GW Micro and Freedom Scientific enjoyed near total control of access technology for the blind and visually impaired. These days, like our sighted colleagues, we have choices.

We’d like to ask you to join us in lifting a glass of cider…or whatever beverage is your fancy…and toast Apple Inc. on its thirty-second birthday. It was April 1st, 1976, when the company was first founded. A lot has happened in those thirty-two years, and through them Apple has frequently been at the forefront of accessibility, both directly and otherwise. From the Apple II with the Echo Plus and Textalker, to the Mac LC with outSpoken for Mac, to the current generation of MacBooks with VoiceOver, visually impaired computer users have experienced the joys of using Apple products for more than two dozen years. We look forward to many more in the future. Happy birthday!

Apple made its presence felt at the CSUN Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference 2008. On Wednesday, Apple gave two presentations to a full room equipped with dozens of 20- and 24-inch iMacs at the Los Angeles International Airport Marriott Hotel.

The sessions, presented by Mike Shebanek, Apple’s Senior Product Manager for Worldwide Product Marketing, in charge of Mac OS X and VoiceOver, focussed on general use of VoiceOver with the Macintosh operating system, and use of VoiceOver with the iTunes media management and playback software. Mary-Beth James, whose name will be familiar to many Voiceover users, was also present to assist during the sessions.

Both sessions were geared toward users who were unfamiliar with VoiceOver, and were very informative for many of those in attendance. Mr. Shebanek stressed Apple’s ongoing commitment to accessibility, noting particularly the extensive tools available to third-party developers to make their applications accessible with VoiceOver, and the positive results of their efforts.

During the afternoon session on iTunes, Mr. Shebanek also mentioned that Apple is aware of and working on the features of the iTunes store that are still inaccessible. These include the ability to purchase albums in their entirety, view one’s account, etc. He mentioned that accessibility for Apple’s line of iPod music players is also being worked out, and asked those in attendance whether APple should continue to release accessibility improvements as they become available, or waiting until they are fully realized in products. Overwhelmingly, it seemed, the attendees were in favor of Apple releasing incremental updates that improve accessibility over time.

We here at Lioncourt.com would like to point out that Apple has received criticism from some when they’ve taken the approach of incremental accessibility enhancements, and would like to encourage those of you who would like to see the improvements as they become available to contact Apple Accessibility and let them know. Specifically, Mr. Shebanek asked if partial access to iPod menus would be something users would like while problems with deeper menu levels were being ironed out.

Overall, the number of Mac users seems to have increased at the annual conference, and Apple’s presence was felt beyond the presentations put on by the company. For example, MacSpeech Dictate was being demonstrated, and developers for OpenOffice.org also discussed their efforts to provide accessibility in their open source office suite with VoiceOver on the Mac platform.

Apple has once again demonstrated a commitment to accessibility that extends far beyond that of rival companies, and we thank them for their efforts.

iPods, QuickTime, and iTunes include support for Closed Captioning for the deaf and hearing impaired. Apple has expanded that to include AppleTV, and now offers movies from the iTunes Store which include Closed Captioning in the video file. Not all movies area available this way yet, but Apple is working with movie studios to add more as quickly as possible. So far, the list of movies is as follows:

• Abandon
• Bratz: Genie Magic
• Charlotte’s Web
• Clock Stoppers
• Domestic Disturbance
• Down to Earth
• Dragon Slayer
• Hey Arnold! The Movie
• I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
• Marci X
• Orange County
• Pootie Tang
• The Four Feathers
• The Ghost and the Darkness
• The Italian Job
• The Little Prince
• The Parallax View
• The Presidio
• The Shootist
• The Singing Detective

Check iTunes for more titles. Titles that include Closed Captioning are labeled with "CC".